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70 of 73 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Essential and Influential, September 8, 2001
This is a new 2 cd anthology which covers Muddy Waters aka McKinley Morganfield's Aristocrat and Chess material from 1947-72. There have been a number of Muddy Waters compilations in the past few years. This set is better buy than the "His Best Vols 1 & 2" compilations. This set contains 50 songs as opposed to 40 on the "His Best" compilations. This anthology contains less material than the Muddy Waters 3 cd box set but the tapes have been remastered for better sound since the box set was released. However, this anthologys fails to include 2 songs from the "His Best" compilations which are among my favorites "She's Into Something" and "You Need Love". The latter song provided the inspiration for Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love". A drawback to this set is there are a few "rarities" which I would have deleted in favor of the aformentioned songs and other favorites like "Blow Wind Blow" (covered by Eric Clapton), "Tell Me Baby" (covered by the Rolling Stones), "I Got A Brand On You" (covered by Johnny Winter), and "Tiger In Your Tank". In addition the second disk clocks in at around 71 minutes, so space was available for more songs. However, this is still an essential compilation.The music is electric Chicago Blues at its finest. Among the sidemen who appear are Little Walter, Walter Horton, Junior Wells, James Cotton, Paul Butterfield, Jimmy Rogers, Mike Bloomfield, Donald "Duck" Dunn, Willie Dixon, Buddy Guy and many others. This music has influenced the previously mentioned artists as well as such people as Stevie Ray Vaughn, Canned Heat, Rory Gallagher, The Allman Brothers Band, Savoy Brown, Jimi Hendrix, and many others. Blues classics such as "Mannish Boy" "I'm Your Hoochie Coochie Man", "Got My Mojo Working", "Trouble No More" and others have become staples of both blues and blues/rock performers. Other well known cuts include "Honey Bee" (covered by Stevie Ray Vaughn), "I'm Ready" (covered by Humble Pie), "You Shook Me" (covered by Led Zeppelin), "I Just Want To Make Love To You" (covered by Foghat), "The Same Thing" (covered by the Allman Brothers Band), and "Still A Fool", "I Want To Be Loved" and "Look What You've Done" (all covered by the Rolling Stones. The Rolling Stones even named themselves after one of Muddy Water's songs "Rollin' Stone" included here. This just scratches the surface of the influence Muddy Waters and his music had on musicians and blues fans alike. If you want a good overview of the Chess years this is an essential compilation.
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22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
How Many More Repackaged Anthologies Do We Need?, January 4, 2002
Muddy Waters' 1950 hit "Rollin' Stone" provided the name for the greatest rock 'n' roll band ever, a major music magazine, and the title of one of Dylan's best songs. His influence as a guitar player, songwriter and singer run deep and wide across the musical landscape. And this generous 50-song collection will serve as a great introduction to his vast body of work for the neophyte fan.But what about the serious fan? Consider this. Over the past decade, I have already purchased four Muddy Waters collections. The Anthology contains only seven songs not found on 1988's superb Box Set (which contains 72 tracks covering the same period). In 1997, MCA released His Best: 1947-1955. Anthology duplicates all but "I Want You to Love Me." The same year MCA released His Best: 1956-1964. Anthology duplicates all but four songs from that release ("All Aboard," "She's Into Something," "You Need Love" and "My Love Strikes Like Lightning"). In 2000, MCA released Rollin' Stone: The Golden Anniversary Collection (which covers the period 1947-1952). That release contains tracks 1-18 from Anthology. The bottom line is this: Purchasing Anthology would add only three songs to my collection--"Who's Gonna Be Your Sweet Man When I'm Gone," "I Want To Be Loved" and "My Eyes Keep Me In Trouble." It would appear as if MCA is simply flying by the seat of their pants when it comes to reissuing Waters' catalog with no master plan in mind. Otherwise there wouldn't be so much overlap in their releases over the past several years. Again, this is essential music. And if you're on a budget, this would be the one collection to own. The only real drawback to Anthology is that there are only two post-1964 tracks. "All Aboard" from 1969's often overlooked Fathers and Sons album. This track features Paul Butterfield (harmonica) and Michael Bloomfield (guitar). The other is "Can't Get No Grindin'" from 1973. With that said, this is powerful music and belongs in any serious fan's collection. ESSENTIAL
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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This is the blues right here, February 8, 2006
Muddy Waters is one of the greatest blues singers of all time, if not the greatest. His classic 1950s tracks had a profound influence on music as we know it today, particularly rock and roll. If your music collection has no Muddy Waters, then there's a huge hole that needs to be filled. If you really want to get into this classic music, Muddy Waters' Anthology is a great place to start. I personally don't own it. I have the two Chess collections His Best: 1947-1955 and His Best: 1956-1964, both of which are excellent. However The Anthology would be a much better choice because it has nearly everything that's on those two CDs, plus many more songs that aren't on them. Particularly from the early years, there are many more songs here that aren't on 1947-1955. Anthology has 50 songs total, and the two His Best collections combined have 40, so you get ten more songs with Anthology. Those additional tracks may not exactly be classics, the most essential stuff is contained on the His Best collections, however any Muddy Waters music is worth hearing and the more, the better.
Muddy's early songs are mostly raw and stripped down. Muddy plays an awesome slide guitar which is all over the early stuff. There's very little harmonica and also no bass and very little percussion. The songs are significantly less melodic than the later stuff. It's simply electrified delta blues. Then the stuff later has a more prominent rhythm section and the songs tend to be more catchy and not quite as raw. Unfortunately, Muddy's slide guitar also disappears for the most part as Jimmy Rogers takes over guitar duties. However, the great Little Walter plays an excellent harmonica on many of the tracks which is always a welcome addition.
If you're looking for a first Muddy Waters purchase, here you go. This is a great place to start, but not a great place to stop. Once you get a taste of Muddy, chances are you'll want more. After the essentials, I would recommend picking up Hard Again (1977), At Newport (1960), Fathers and Sons (1969), and I'm Ready (1978).
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