Customer Reviews

Hard Again

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"Hard Again" is one of Muddy's greatest works. This album is one of several that is produced by Johnny Winter and features Johnny on the guitar and James Cotton on the harp. The opening song "Mannish Boy" is packed with that great swagger that i always loved about him and Johnny howls in the backround. The best tracks are "Mannish Boy", "Bus Driver" and "I Can't Be Satisfied". "I can't be satisfied" has Winter doing some impressive guitar solos on his steel-bodied National guitar. "The Blues Had A Baby...." is also another impressive song with Muddy telling is version of the story of Rock and Roll.
This is a must have in your blues collection.

This is not only the best LP Muddy ever made, it's also probably one of the best blues albums ever, period. Even at the end of his career, Muddy still had "it," and on this album he was backed by one of his best bands ever, including Johnny Winter, Bob Margolin and James Cotton, who blows some incredible harp. This has more "guts" to it than just about any blues album you could ever hope to hear, and on top of all of that it's budget priced to boot. Just buy this, you'll see what I mean!

This the kind of down & dirty, hard-core, unadulterated, "slap-ya-momma-upside-the-head" type of blues that I love. Muddy is definitely in his element, and it seems that only the bionic harp skills of James Cotton would do to back him up. Johnny Winters and Pinetop Perkins are also featured, but this bad boy is all Muddy Waters. The remake of "Mannish Boy" is out of this world.

Each song feels as if Muddy had been wanting to make an album like this for a long time. This album not only enabled him to finally cut loose and "do his thang," but it shows why Muddy Waters is, was and will forever be the King of Delta Blues. Nothin' fancy, nothing prissy - this albums just plain ROCKS!

This is not only a great sounding blues album - it's a great sounding album. Who doesn't know the testosterone-laden "Mannish Boy"? Who could listen to "I Can't Be Satisfied" and not be affected in some way? The rhythms and guitars pound like locomotives right into your helpless brain. Water's voice is strong as ever, and the band is as tight as the density of a neutron star. This has to be one of the best blues albums out there (though we can all have a good time trying to find out).

In April, 1978, it was my immense privilege to see Muddy Waters live in Austin, Texas at Antones blues club. (The Fabulous Thunderbirds opened for him and were, well, fabulous, as usual.)There he was, dressed to the nines, stolling on stage to the accompaniment of his legendary band, his huge, baby face split wide in an immense grin, working his way through one masterpiece after another. It's a night I will never forget. Well, Hard Again was the album that first piqued my interest in this legend, and after 25 years, still holds up great. Producer and famed guitarist Johnny Winter leads Muddy, super harpist James Cotton, and an all-star band through one classic after another. "Mannish Boy" is one of the very best performances by Muddy ever captured on vinyl, with Muddy howling, Johnny screaming and James Cotton wailing on harp. In "Cross-eyed Cat," Muddy spins the fascinating tale about a woman living with a creature who is "too big to be a housecat and too small to be a lion...There's something wrong!!!" More great work by Cotton on this number and by Willie "Big Eyes" Smith on drums. "I Can't Be Satisfied," features Johnny taking several excellent solos on his steel-bodied National guitar, while "The Blues Had A Baby And They Named It Rock And Roll" finds Muddy telling his version of the birth of the music, accompanied by Pinetop Perkins excellent piano figures. In short, this is the album that gave Muddy Waters his well-deserved renaissance, and allowed him to die happy just a few years later knowing that his place in music history was assured.

Often you listen to a seminal artist and wonder, "what if they had captured this person at the top of their game, doing some of their better material with better musicians, in a more modern recording studio?" Well, here is THAT recording! First of all, Johnny Winter can't be given enough credit for setting this up, then executing it to perfection. There is only one way to describe this recording and that would be SHEER JOY! It is like some kind of religious experience. I remember hearing Mannish Boy when I was in early High School, while I was just learning how to really play the guitar, and I immediately knew, "Hey, this is where it begins!" Even Muddy said that this was his best album. There's nothing phony or forced on this work, oh no, it's like some kind of revival meeting where THE MINISTER of the blues "lays down THE TRUE WORD"...Glory Be! Throughout the entire set Johnny's yelping and howling, Muddy's laughing and joshing, however, this isn't a sloppy session; it's because they all know they're "in the zone," and they're unleashing THE BLUES as well anybody possibly ever could. If a person doesn't LOVE this record as soon as they put it on, then that person must be seriously "out of tune," in some manner? There's no "hidden meaning" here; the music is BLACK and WHITE! In fact, even if you're an established musician, you should play this occaisionally, to make sure that ya haven't strayed too far from "the basics." If you're only just listening, then relax and enjoy the ride, because Muddy's "driving the Bus!" 5 stars; well, how do you rate a sunny day? One of music's most "inspirational" and "wonderful" recordings...Muddy, you're "THE MAN!" This is as "REAL" as it gets, and if I could only have ONE blues recording in my collection, then this is THE ONE. Yeah, it's that GOOD, in every sense of the word! As if that isn't "GOOD ENOUGH," well, I'm Ready and King Bee are just about as GOOD...AND YOU CAN'T GET ENOUGH of ANYTHING this GOOD!!!

Johnny Winter obviously had a vision in mind when he produced this album. This is what newer blues artists want to sound like, and older blues artist could have potentially sounded like. Winter created a Muddy Waters album that somehow sounds more like Muddy, capturing the fury, the soulfullnes, and the fire better than previous, more "authentic" albums. Anyone who doubts that rock and roll is just bastardized blues should give this a listen.

Muddy Waters sounds looser here than I've ever heard him. This sounds like some friends getting together for a jam session at someone's home, with dialogue around some of the tracks, spontaneous-sounding vocal contributions from some of the musicians, and just a general laid-back feel. It's loud and raw, great jamming all around, and shows us that not only the young make great music. Waters IS the blues, and this is THE blues record. See if you can find it on vinyl if you're of that persuasion (I liek some thinsg better that way), otherwise it's damn cheap on CD. My local indie record shop was selling it for $8, and amazon's price is great too. Any price would be good for this one. Roll on, Muddy, wherever you are.

Muddy Waters was easily one of the greatest talents to emerge in Blues music from his very first recordings in the mid-1940's until the day he died. After moving to Chicago in the late 1940's he forged alliances with other Southern transplants and helped to create a Blues sound that that been highly admired by blues fans around the world. His recordings from the 1950's are treasures. As the popularity in Blues ebbed during the 1960's and 70's, Muddy's career ebbed as well. It was only through the help of his admirers that his career was kept alive.

It was with this and a few other albums that Blues fan and master guitarist Johnny Winter produced that put new life into Muddy's career. Winter assembled some of Chicago's best, including master harmonica blaster James Cotton, and made some of Muddy's very best recordings. Winters allowed the musicians, himself included, to play with reckless abandon and the results were Blues that had the heart and soul that make Blues so damn fun to listen to. Clean, but not overproduced, these songs are some of Muddy's best and everybody attacks each song like it were the last time they'd ever get to play. There is not one single weak song in the bunch and if I were compiling a list of the 100 best Blues albums of all time, this would make my top 10.

I definitely recommend that you get a copy of this CD if you haven't bought it already. It's definitely a must-have.

Muddy Waters may have recorded better songs than most of the ones on this album, but the super-competent backing band and sympathetic production still makes this a really fine blues record.

The three Muddy Waters classics which were re-recorded for this release ("Mannish Boy", "I Want To Be Loved" and "I Can't Be Satisfied") are certainly the highlights of the album, but the rest is more than worth a listen as well, and the "traditional" acoustic rendition of "I Can't Be Satisfied" is worth the price of the CD alone. Johnny Winter's incredibly catchy acoustic slide guitar riff sounds like the very best of the 40s, only with all the benefit of the technical equipment of the 70s.

Also, the opening rendition of "Mannish Boy" is probably the definitive reading of this one-chord classic, with some supremely confident vocals from Muddy Waters, and a rock-solid beat laid down by drummer Willie 'Big Eyes' Smith.

The eight-minute slow blues "Bus Driver" may be fundamentally generic, but it benefits greatly from som sublime lead guitar playing by Johnny Winter, and James Cotton's smouldering harp winding its way through the song, and these grade-A arrangements are a big part of what makes this album so good.
Cotton plays some really magnificent harp all through this album, alternating between solos and Rice Miller-like blasts and fills. Johnny Winter's and Waters' guitar playing is flawless. And Willie Smith holds everything together with some subtle, yet powerful drumming.

Mmmm....blues!