Customer Reviews

Chess Box

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Willie Dixon gave the blues (and, by proxy, rock and roll) much of its identity and personality. As a songwriter, he created some of music's most indelible images: the Back Door Man, Little Red Rooster, Hootchie Coochie Man, and Seventh Son. He not only gave British and Southern rock and roll much of its early repetoire, but his songs became their monikers ("Spoonful," "Pretty Thing"). He played bass on many seminal Chess Records sides (for Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Chuck Berry), and himself recorded several first-class singles.

Chess celebrates Dixon's legacy on the 2-disc "Chess Box," and hearing these original versions is a revelation after exposure for years to their classic rock covers. Hear Waters' "You Need Love," and "You Shook Me," Little Milton's "I Can't Quit You Baby," or Sonny Boy Williamson's "Bring It On Home." Led Zeppelin covered these over their first two LPs, but could only amplify the raw power of Dixon's original words and melodies.

Dixon's prowess also shows through his influential bass work and the sides he did solo and with his group, The Big Three. Highlights here include "Crazy For My Baby," the humorous "Walkin' The Blues," and the acoustic "Weak Brain, Narrow Mind."

So, applying Willie Dixon's place in music history to freshman logic class goes like this: Dixon once named an album, "I Am the Blues." He also said in the liner notes, "As long as American music survives, so will the blues." Therefore, as long as American music survives, so will the songs of Willie Dixon. "The Chess Box" proves that to be no boast.Essential.

Willie Dixon is the featured performer on only six of these thirty-six songs. But he is there on the rest as well, composing, producing, playing bass, and usually taking a back seat to stars like Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter and Bo Diddley.

All of these songs are written and composed or co-composed by Willie Dixon, including classic blues hits like Little Walter's "My Babe", Bo Diddley's "Pretty Thing", Muddy Waters' "Hoochie Coochie Man", and Howlin' Wolf's magnificent "Hidden Charms" with its fiery guitar solo.

But there are many other superb songs here as well, including lesser-known tracks like the delightful jazzy number "Violent Love", performed by Dixon, guitarist Ollie Crawford, and pianist Leonard Caston, and Dixon's own performance of the catchy "29 Ways".
Eddie Boyd's "Third Degree" is here too, co-written by Dixon, and from Howlin' Wolf's incredible catalogue comes "Evil", along with "I Ain't Superstitious", and "Little Red Rooster".
Little Milton performs "I Can't Quit You Baby" (usually associated with Otis Rush), Willie Mabon contributes the excellent "Seventh Son", and Muddy Waters' "I Just Want To Make Love To You" ranks among the highlights as well, as do Little Walter's rendition of "Dead Presidents" and Jimmy Witherspoon's take on "When The Lights Go Out".
Sonny Boy Williamson II (Rice Miller) usually composed his own songs, but he pops up as well, doing "Bring It On Home".

Willie Dixon's "Chess Box" is a great collection of 50s and 60s blues, proving if proof was needed that Dixon deserves his place alongside the greats of Chess Records, Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters and Rice Miller.
Furthemore, the sound is impeccable, and this fine set includes a well-illustrated and annotated booklet.
4 1/2 stars - highly recommended.

Looking at the track listing for this album shows just what an impact Willie Dixon's songwriting had on Chicago Blues and popular music in general. The list of Chess artistes featured on this album speaks for itself. This is almost the "Best of Chess".

It's remarkable the number of songs on the album that were covered or "expanded on" by bands of the sixties and seventies: "I Just Want To Make Love To You" and "Little Red Rooster" - The Rolling Stones. "Spoonful" - Cream. "Back Door Man" - The Doors. "You Shook Me", "Bring It On Home", "I Can't Quit You Babe" and "You Need Love"(Whole Lotta Love) - Led Zeppelin. It's also worth noting that several songs we normally associated with Muddy Waters or Howlin' Wolf were in fact penned by Dixon.

"Third Degree" was covered by Eric Clapton in recent years. "Evil" is an excellent vehicle for Howlin' Wolf's voice. "Mellow Down Easy" has an unusual rhythm. "I Just Want To Make Love To You" is probably now better known for the Etta James version, rather than the Stones, thanks to TV. "I'm Ready" is one of my favourite Muddy Waters tracks. It's a perfect example of that unique Chess "sound". Little Walter's harp sound in the solo is unearthy.

Disc 2 features a series of classic Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters songs, with fine guitar from Hubert Sumlin on the Wolf tracks. There's a change of mood for the acoustic "Weak Brain, Narrow Mind", one of 5 tracks featuring lead vocals by Willie Dixon. He plays bass on many of the songs.

I would recommend this album to anyone you has enjoyed the covers of these songs, and is interested in hearing the originals. Or indeed to anyone who likes Dixon, Wolf, Muddy, or any of the artistes featured.

Willie Dixon does not get the spotlight or the notoriety of those such as Muddy Waters, nor the accolades of greats such as Howlin' Wolf, but one can certainly look at his body of work and see that without Willie Dixon, the Blues as we know it would not exist. What makes this set exceptional is the fact that Dixon's songs were covered by so many great bluesmen (and women) and because of this you have an excellent introduction to blues if you are not already well versed in the blues.

Dixon himself only has about 6 songs on this box set, and that is probably appropriate, as he was best known as a songwriter for the greats already mentioned, Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf, along with scores of other great bluesmen. A little known fact: He would often have to play one artist off of the other, saying that he wrote a song for X when in fact he wrote it for Z, using reverse psychology to get that artist to actually sing the song he wrote for them. I will not even go through my favorite songs on this set, as I would probably wind up listing all 36 songs (except perhaps Violent Love), though I will say the version of "I Can't Quit you Babe" found here is much more intense than the Otis Rush version done with Cobra records.

There is not a song on this box set which I skip over, and this is a testament to one of the all time greats in Blues. Few have heard of Willie Dixon; this is no way diminished his stature among the great names in Blues.

Highly recommended for anyone interested in the Blues, especially anyone just starting out in the blues genre, as this two-CD box set gives a great overview of Post-War Blues.

I never have understood how some people have an inate quality for music and some don't. Well , Willie was one of those that definately did. It is hard to imageine the blues without the likes of Willie Dixon: the writer, the musician, the producer, the businessman. I listen to his work over and over again , each time learning new nuances I did not hear before.

How incredible is that ?

This box is a fantastic introdution to post-war Chicago blues and the key figure behind Chess Records' success, Willie Dixon. I am a huge fan of the Chess box sets, and this one is my favorite. With seminal tracks by blues icons like Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Bo Diddley and Koko Taylor as well as lesser known artists and Dixon himself, this CD is definitely on my deserted island list. If you're only going to have one blues CD in your collection (which would be a tragedy), this is the one to buy. Best of all, for the quality and quantity of music, you can't beat the price!

If you love the Blues AND you love Willie Dixon, this is one set ya' gotta have! After hearing Willie's "I Am The Blues" we wanted to hear more. From the reviews of this set and of course, all those who are also there singing his songs, decided to get this collection. It's PERFECT and not a "filler" song on either disc. There are two discs with a really good booklet, several neat photos of the other performers, plus some good info about Willie. Thought it would be a smaller CD size set but this comes as a box about 12.5 inches square, so it will not fit your CD rack, but the two discs have their own case and you can put them in the rack with the others and put the box and booklet in with your other box sets. Now, about the music itself. The songs are listed on the Amazon site along with who performs them, so won't go into that part, except to say everything there are favorites. Good sound quality and original recordings, so you get the real sound. Hope these discs are well made....as they will be getting a LOT OF PLAY! Many of these performers and Willie Dixon are on "The American Folk Blues Festival" DVd's, including some of these songs, that is also from Amazon and a MUST HAVE for anyone who loves the blues, to see such wonderful artists while they were performing in Europe in the early 60's.

This two CD box set concerns the work of Willie Dixon for Chess Records. Willie didn't perform that many songs for Chess, but he did write a lot of songs that were recorded by other singers, most notably several classic songs by Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf. Disc one features 1950s recordings and disc two features 1960s recordings. Just about all of the songs are great, and even the lesser recordings are at least good. If you are a fan of the blues, you can't go wrong with this collection.

Like many blues musicians, Willie Dixon had an interesting background. He was born, and spent his childhood, here in Vicksburg. He never had formal music education, but a local carpenter taught him harmony singing. Dixon sang bass in a local gospel quartet. Along the way, he served a couple stretches on Mississippi prison farms. He started his career as a heavyweight boxer in Chicago, but switched to music and played bass, part of the time as a house musician.

Dixon started out as a studio bass player with Chess Records when it was a fledgling company started by the Chess brothers. The present set includes 36 songs written by Dixon, and performed by a variety of artists in addition to Dixon including Muddy Waters (Hoochie Coochie Man, etc.), Howlin Wolf (I Ain't Superstitious, etc.), Bo Diddley (Pretty Thing, and You Can't Tell a Book by its Cover), Koko Taylor (Wang Dang Doodle) and many others.

The boxed set is a must addition for your collection if you have a serious interest in blues. It also makes a good gift.

I would note that the Vicksburg Blues Society and others served as co-sponsors of the Willie Dixon Wang Dang Doodle Blues Festival held in Vicksburg in 2006. The City of Vicksburg has added a Willie Dixon mural to the murals on the Mississippi River floodwall near Catfish Row (the southern end of The Delta). The mursl, featuring the legendary Blue Room in the background, was painted by the noted mural artist Robert Dafford under the sponsorship of local blues patrons Ray and Nancy Neilsen.

As an added note, since originally writing this review I have been surprised by the number of people in Vicksburg (his hometown) who seem to be unaware of the set. I bought two this year (2011) to use as Christmas presents. They were much appreciated.

the willie dixon chess set is a window into the early blues
that was the basis for some of the most well known rock and
roll songs of all time. from led zeppelin to the kinks willie dixon and his music was a source of inspiration and musical reinvention. sometimes you have to stay true to your roots. its
an incredible journey into the heart of original blues.