Customer Reviews

His Best 1947-55 (Chess 50th Anniversary Collectio)

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Although I sometimes think Muddy's vocal stylings edge toward the artificial, what cannot be debated is that this CD contains just about the sexiest set of songs on one CD. It's impossible to pick one favorite. Some personal faves are: "Long Distance Call" (delirious), "Rollin' Stone" very serious, "She Moves Me" which I find funny. While most songs are about the same thing, they are diverse and always interesting musically. There's a swing throughout, and in the latter half with the help of Little Walter's harmonica, a very full sound results.

I agree with the reviewer who said "I'm willing to stick my neck out and assert that Muddy Waters was the greatest blues performer in history." I feel sorry for rockers who had to follow this man.

"Excellent compilation", eh? So why only four stars?
Well, let's make it 4 1/2, 'cause the track selection is really great. It brings together almost all the best of Muddy Waters' rough, muscular blues...or rather, the best of 1947-55, which is why this is "only" a four star-compilation: It's not a career spanning retrospective, and it doesn't quite cut it on its own.
But get this CD along with its companion volume, "His Best: 1956-1964", which also features 20 tracks, and you'll have a really fine career overview, second only to the three-disc "Chess Box" set (and perhaps the 50-track "The Anthology: 1947-1972").

This CD only has one significant flaw: A production error means than a sloppy alternate take of "Hoochie Coochie Man" is included instead of the master. Muddy's vocals are fantastic, but the music is less so, and Little Walter's harmonica playing is, well, awful.
But apart from that minor glitch this is just about as fine a compilation as you could wish for. It includes Muddy's first single, the slashing acoustic slide guitar blues "I Can't Be Satisfied", and tough, electric Chicago classics like "I'm Ready", "Trouble No More", "I Just Want To Make Love To You", and the one-chord powerhouse "Mannish Boy".
Just remember that this isn't the definitive word on Muddy Waters - he made superb songs after 1955 as well, and if you're going to get two Muddy-discs anyway you might as well go for the double-disc "Anthology 1947-1972" right away.

This is the real deal. This is where rock and roll began, folks. Muddy Waters and his slide guitar, Willie Dixon's bass and Little Walter's harmonica. These twenty songs have had a profound influence on the music of the past fifty years. So many songs on here are classics, you have probably heard many of them even if you don't listen to the blues. They're that much a part of our culture. Muddy Waters will forever be remembered as not only one of the greatest bluesmen, but also one of the founders of rock and roll.

I was looking for the definitive Muddy Waters CD, and I found it here. The best songs from his best period with the best musicians. To me this is a CD that will always be heard. All 20 songs are masterpieces but I could single out "I'm Ready", "Mannish Boy", "can't be Satisfied" for their outstanding quality. Little Walter was an amazing Harmonica player who was at his best playing with Muddy Waters. His piercing solos gives the music here an edge I found nowhere else. The sound is very good, and the number of song (20) lets you enjoy the music thoroughly without being abraptly cut. This is a CD for the "deserted island" list.

I'm willing to stick my neck out and assert that Muddy Waters was the greatest blues performer in history. Robert Johnson wrote the world's creepiest blues tunes and his shadow looms large over every blues player who followed him, but Muddy and his band gave birth to rock and roll. They electrified the blues, and not just literally. The band that cut most of these tracks smokes like no other, and the cuts have a sound which, like Sun recordings, just can't be duplicated.

It may be the blues, but there is plenty of joy in these recordings, and nobody does bravado like Mr Morganfield ('I'm Ready', 'Mannish Boy' and the sublime 'Hoochie Coochie Man'.)

Just look at the track list. The blues does not get any better than this.

These are the seminal years of the second, the electric wave of Chicago Blues. Muddy Water's collaborations, especially with Willie Dixon here, created the modern Chicago blues which replaced the older acoustic style represented best by Tampa Red and Big Maceo, and by Lil Hardin Armstrong and Lonnie Johnson collaboration.
The older smaller tighter, more person (and it is hard to talk about anything more personal than even the least well prepared Muddy sides),blues. The performances are breathtaking in their strength. You know this man, and you know more about yourself after you hear this.

These are the songs that the BRITISH INVASION groups played to death in the sixties;here's your chance to hear the originals in this wonderful collection.In fact to be frank,this can be the only blues record you ever need when your friends want to hear that kind of music.Just for the record ,let's enumerate which songs were recorded by the likes of THE ROLLING STONES(I CAN'T BE SATISFIED,I JUST WANT TO MAKE LOVE TO YOU,MANNISH BOY);CREAM(ROLLIN AND TUMBLIN,I'M READY)and THEM(BABY PLEASE DON'T GO)and this is only a partial list.MUDDY WATERS was more than anybody else the best performer of the CHICAGO blues.If you like it, you can go with the follow up which completes this anthology perfectly.

This is the REAL beginning of rock'n'roll here, kids. Before Chuck Berry or Bo Diddley, there was Muddy Waters. Although most of the recordings on this disk are just him without a rythm section, this first in a must-have duo shows us The King of Chicago at his most stripped-down and primal. Also included are some really jucy harmonica licks courtesy of Marion "Little Walter" Jacobs. Anyone vaguely interested in hard-as-nails guitar and shit-kicking proto-rock attitude owes it ot themselves to check both of these disks out. Shaw'nuff!

I am a writer and ordinarily I can wax on into infinity. With "His Best" by Muddy Waters I'll keep it short and sweet--Muddy is rocking, at his best,(no doubt) mellow, spiritual, haunting. This is deep Roots music that is almost certain to touch and then stir the depth of emotions lurking in your soul.

If you are a blues fan you have to have at least one Muddy Waters CD and this would be the one. "Mannish Boy" is probably my favorite. This is the first Muddy Waters song I ever heard although I had heard plenty of his songs done by other artists. It was used in a beer commercial (Budweiser I believe)back in the early '90's and I had to find out who it was. His version of the often recored "Baby Please Don't Go" is my favorite version of this song. This is an essential CD if you are just getting into blues. Also see Howling Wolf's "Rocking Chair album" and "Moaning at Midnight." And for Delta Blues, Robert Johnson's complete recordings since it is only two CDs and Son House's "Father of the Delta Blues."