Fathers & Sons [Extra tracks, Original recording remastered]

Muddy Waters | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 30, 2001)
• Original Release Date: 1969
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Extra tracks, Original recording remastered
• Label: Chess
• ASIN: B00005R8GU
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,721 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #34 in Music > Blues > Traditional Blues
  • #40 in Music > Blues > Chicago Blues
  • #78 in Music > Blues > Regional Blues

Editorial Reviews

No Description Available
No Track Information Available
Media Type: CD
Artist: WATERS,MUDDY
Title: FATHERS & SONS
Street Release Date: 10/30/2001
Domestic
Genre: BLUES TRADITIONAL

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

55 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Forget Electric Mud, this is the Real Godfather and Sons...., March 9, 2002

By 

George McAdams (Alabama, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Fathers & Sons (Audio CD)

In 1970, when I was visiting my brother in Maryland, a neighbor's son had this album and let me record it on reel-to-reel. For years I treasured the tape, then it deteriorated to dust; but, as luck had it, I found a copy of the LP in a used record bin. I've gotten rid of over 600 LP's, but "Fathers and Sons" stayed with me for the last 10 years, along with a turntable to play it (and some quad records). With the issuance of this CD last year, I can forget fretting about whether my album will play warped or not, and play this CD in the car, while cutting the grass, or when I want to lift the spirits of everyone in the room.

To say that this is "one hell of an album" is an understatement. Most people like blues music, fewer people love it. Muddy Waters bridged the some of the walls that separate blues and pop with his energetic, lifting voice and wailing guitar. If you have, or just listened to, the "Chess Set" or "Electric Mud" of Muddy Waters and you were disappointed, "Fathers and Sons" is the CD for you. Recorded with some of the best players on the scene at the time: Otis Spann (Piano) , Michael Bloomfield (Guitar), Paul Butterfield (Harmonica), Donald "Duck" Dunn (Bass), Sam Lay (Drums), Buddy Miles (Drums on "Got My Mojo Working, Part Two), and others, in a Chicago Studio and live in concert at the Super Cosmic Joy-Scout Jamboree in Chicago (both over 4 days from April 21st to April 24th, 1969), the tunes have a faster tempo, a more uplifting style. As for the tunes other than "Mojo," Muddy's electric guitar sings the blues in ways that reminds us of his importance to British groups, such as "The Beatles" and "The Rolling Stones."

There's not much more I can add to this review other than I dare anyone play "Got My Mojo Working" on their stereo or in the car without inching up the volume and feeling great about the state of the world. Enough said....Buy it!!!!

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent expanded re-issue, August 24, 2003

By 

Docendo Discimus (Vita scholae) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fathers & Sons (Audio CD)

This is probably the best of the "senior musician meets and plays with eager young fan"-projects of the sixties and seventies blues revival.

Blues legend Muddy Waters and his piano player Otis Spann, with veteran Sam Lay behind the drum kit, teamed up with three young white musicians to record this 1969 album: Guitarist Michael Bloomfield, bassist Donald 'Duck' Dunn (of Booker T & the Memphis Group), and harpist Paul Butterfield.
And the results are magnificent. 26-year old Paul Butterfield shows off some truly excellent harmonic playing, Dunn is rock-solid and funky, and the combined forces of Bloomfield and Muddy Waters himself produces some terrific guitar playing.
The sound is great, too, and Otis Spann (who is supposedly one of the "Fathers" of the album's title, even though he was only in his late 30s at the time) plays some of the best blues piano you'll ever hear.

This is not actually better than Muddy Waters' recordings with his regular band, of course, but almost all of these songs are quite as good, and that's pretty great praise!
Highlights include the tough, swinging "Blow Wind Blow" and "I'm Ready", the supremely groovy slow blues "Can't Lose What You Ain't Never Had", the catchy "Forty Days And Forty Nights", Eddie Boyd's "Twenty-Four Hours", and the up-tempo rendition of "Sugar Sweet", which really shows off Otis Spann's masterful boogie piano playing.

Then comes four previously unreleased cuts, which aren't rejects by any means, although they didn't make the original double-LP, and six superb live tracks recorded on April 24th 1969 with the same band which had cut the studio tracks during the previous three days.
Muddy Waters' vocals on the slow slide-guitar workout "Long Distance Call" are sublime, and Butterfield's playing on the classic "Baby Please Don't Go" is pure Little Walter.
Out comes the bottleneck again for a grand rendition of "Honey Bee", followed by Willie Dixon's "The Same Thing" and an eight-minute take on "Got My Mojo Working", much to the delight of the crowd.

Not all attempts to "update" a blues artists sound were succesful, but this one is not only a succes, it is an excellent album which genuine adds to the legacy of Muddy Waters. And the live portion is among the best live Muddy on record - right up there with "Mojo - The Live Collection" and "Muddy Waters At Newport 1960".
Highly recommended.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Once A Measure of Hipness, April 9, 2007

By 

Kurt Harding "bon vivant" (Boerne TX) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Fathers & Sons (Audio CD)

Back when Fathers and Sons was originally issued, I was in the ninth grade. As kids in those days seemed to have broader musical tastes than many kids do today, whether or not you owned and liked Fathers and Sons quickly became a measure of musical hipness. Unfortunately, it seems that many of the older kids who were musically hip were also getting in trouble all the time, so it was a little difficult to be a big blues fan and not be seen as at least a potential troublemaker. But looking back, its amazing that we were sharp enough to detect the quality in the play of those who have stood the test of time.
Paul Butterfield and Mike Bloomfield were both young white blues heroes of the time and they introduced many thousands of suburban white kids to the black "old masters" of the Chicago blues scene. Chief among these old masters were guys like Muddy Waters and Otis Spann, both of whom are featured on this album. The symbiosis that took place when guys like Butterfield and Bloomfield were on the front lines learning the blues became beneficial to both the old masters and the young turks. With the aid of guys like Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf, white blues players gained both invaluable on-stage experience as well as the acceptance and grudging respect of black blues aficionados. What the old masters gained was access to the ears and to the purchasing power of millions of young white kids who would otherwise have remained largely ignorant of the blues scene.
Fathers and Sons is one of the fruits born of that symbiotic relationship. Though both Bloomfield and Butterfield died young, they are still looked at today as titans of the blues renaissance of the late 1960s. As for Muddy Waters and Otis Spann, what real blues fan is not hugely familiar with their work? Throw in old session stalwarts Donald Dunn, Sam Lay and Buddy Miles and you have the ingredients for a smash album.
I don't really have any favorites here, yet there is not a single song I dislike. For a measly ten bucks or so, the listener gets not only the original album, but also four songs not on the original. Those who hadn't heard the album yet will find on listening that they are probably familiar with a few of the cuts that have been covered by others.
In retrospect, Fathers and Sons stands as one of the great albums of the 1960s. If you like the blues, particularly of the Chicago strain, then you should own this.