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Hard Again

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June 29, 2004
Title: Hard Again
Title: I'm Ready
Title: King Bee
Artist: Muddy Waters
Rate: Great

When it rains it pours...

Telling someone with even a modest interest in "GREAT" music to check out a Muddy Waters album is like telling a baseball fan the New York Yankees have had some good players. In an honest discussion Muddy Waters was the foundation that defined popular music in the 20th century.

If there is any question, allow me to erase it now, Muddy Waters, more than Elvis or Chuck Berry or ANYONE ELSE birthed the sound of rock n' roll. Oh yeah, Elvis made it sexy and Chuck gave it lyrics but Muddy birthed it and nurtured it. When the Beatles rolled off the boat in the early `60's all the great blues artists and many of the (white) rock artists got rudely shoved aside. When Johnny Winter got signed in the late `60's he was rumoured to have been the first "rock" solo artist to have received a million dollar recording contract. Go figure! Anyway, within a decade Winter was at the recording helm breathing new life into the great Muddy Waters recording career with these three albums.

In 1977 Johnny and Muddy would release the critically acclaimed album, Hard Again. It was on this album that Waters would re-record his older hits using a `modern' recording studio with one of his great bands including; Pinetop Perkins (piano), James Cotton (harp), Willie `Big Eyes' Smith (drums), `Steady Rollin' Bob Margolin (guitar) and Charles Calmese (bass). I can remember the buzz on this album being so strong that, as a high school senior, going in to purchase the brand new (and only) Sex Pistols album AND the Hard Again...which harkens me back to the time when it was the music that mattered!

So now, much to my own joy, Muddy's `Blue Sky Trilogy' have all been remastered and reissued; Hard Again ('77), I'm Ready ('78), King Bee ('81). No music collection is complete without a worthy sampling of Muddy Waters and no true music fan's knowledge is rounded unless they have developed a full appreciation for the greatness of Muddy Waters. Any of these three discs are worth the time and investment although I recommend beginning with Hard Again.

If you are a fan of the blues, and more importantly, Muddy Waters, this is the beginning of an essential triad that marked the grand finale of a long and storied career of the seminal blues figure of American music. For all the talk about Robert Johnson and Charlie Payton, the blues would never have evolved without Muddy Waters. There are any number of great CDs available from his career, but none as protean as the final three he did with Johnny Winter, plus the MUDDY MISSISIPPI WATERS LIVE CD and THE WOODSTOCK ALBUM guided by Levon Helm. These are the very last of his efforts and they are precious documents of the man who plugged the guitar in. Think about that just for a moment.
The remastered LIVE CD is an honest and uncompromising document of the Waters band in full flight, and while what was the official release suffers from Winters' presence, the second disc of the set is just so amazing that words fail to convey its power. While I am no fan of Johnny Winters, his work at the controls and in the studio with Waters through the course of these recordings is truly genius. This particular disc is as raw and as primal as the blues gets. It features Muddy's band, including Pinetop Perkins, Bob Margolin, Willie Smith, Calvin Jones Luther Johnson in a fired up, red hot, incendiary mood, and they simply burn through the catalog. This version of "Mannish Boy" is the most feral you'll ever hear. "Deep Down in Florida" steams like the Everglades in August. "The Blues had a Baby" rocks with a hip grinding intensity. "I can't Be Satisfied" threatens all sorts of promiscuity, and "Crosseyed Cat" is as quintessentially a part of African American humour (which is also a key element of the blues) as it gets. A bonus track is added from the sessions.
The remastering is incredible: this sounds as though it was done live, first take, and they all nailed it. Were he to have passed away right here, Muddy would have left us with an endearing ememory of his force. But the best was still to come.
Make no mistake, get this. This IS the blues.

As a dumb teenager of 13 years, I first encountered Muddy Waters on the RISKY BUSINESS soundtrack, where buried between Jeff Beck and Bob Seger was "Mannish Boy" (the version found here, on HARD AGAIN). At that braindead age, I jumped the needle to get to "Old Time Rock&Roll". Man, was I dumb.

A few years later, I found that album and listened to the song I was skipping. I was blown away. I had to have more and bought HARD AGAIN. Best money ever spent, period. From the opening of "Mannish Boy" to the National Steel on "I Can't Be Satisfied" to the ultra funky "Cross-eyed Cat", this is the shizzle. Muddy's voice is ultra powerful, Johhny Winter and Bob Margolis interplay their guitars seamlessly and Pinetop Prking just about steals the show. Add Jerry Portnoy's harmonica and you get the most fantastic blues album ever.

If you like music, you must buy this.

I loved this CD. Muddy is back, swingin'. The sound quality is just wonderful, the band is full of energy, Muddy is howlin' at the top of his voice. The blues are played with great drive, strenth, and passion. But one unfortunate thing is - Muddy never picked up his guitar for this disc. As one of his band members writes, he had it all tuned and plugged in, but he just never picked it up. Muddy plays a guitar like no one else, and while his guitar-playing has some imperfections, it's what makes his guitar-playing beautiful, to me. I am hooked to listening how he does it. I missed that on this disc. All the guitars were done by Johnny Winter and Bob Margolin. The guitar work was really excellent, but obviously not quite Muddy himself. I must say, though, that Winter is quite the talented player. Another thing I thought could use a little more work was the way they mixed Muddy's voice. It's getting a little lost in all the guitar/harp work there on some tracks. Mannish Boy was perfectly done. But Bus Driver, while excellent and intense blues, doesn't make Muddy's voice loud enough to make it a real "Muddy" song. But these are fairly subtle and minor complaints. Overall, the disc is some of the best blues I own. Get it.

"Hard Again" was the first in a series of four albums recorded by Muddy Waters between 1976 and 1978 for the Blue Sky label (which was Johnny Winter's manager' own imprint). This album was released in 1977 and was duly received with a lot of acclaim, not only from seasoned blues aficionados but - more importantly - by a lot of younger rock fans who mostly knew the man by the countless cover versions of his songs by rock/blues bands.
This record was also a boon for Muddy Waters who had become ill served for years by his old, crumbling Chess label.

Johnny Winter, who masterminded both the record deal and the recording sessions, was astute enough not to drown the main man in a sea of well-known "hot shots" rock guitarists and singers (Winter himself could really play the blues, curbing here his own excesses). Muddy plays with his great sounding road band, augmented by former band member Jimmy Cotton (ace harmonica!).

The result was seen as a startling "comeback" and a gritty demonstration of the master who was really at the top of his game, whilst thoroughly enjoying the proceedings.

It has been argued that the material here relies too much on familiar material but this is not the point; one of Winter's objectives - besides recording with one of his blues heroes - was to get Muddy Waters across a new audience and this was easier to do with his better known tunes. Besides, the "new" material sounds very much like ... the old (which is a compliment, by the way.) I think one has to rejoice that a blues giant like Muddy Waters finally got a deal with a major record distributor (Columbia) enabling him, aged 62, to tour and play to bigger and younger audiences with so much panache.

I wonder why Muddy did not play his own electric slide Telecaster on these recordings. I had the good fortune to see him live at the North Sea Jazz Festival in The Hague in July 1977 (not long after the release of "Hard Again") and his slide playing was truly ... wow ... visceral, powerful and truly magical (Johnny Winter was not there and Paul Oscher - I think - played the harp).

This Epic/Legacy remastered edition features one additional recording (track # 10). The sound on the original US LP was already very much "in your face" (I assume this was due to both artistic and commercial choices.) However, I feel that the new remastering emphasizes this effect. The overall sound becomes a bit fatiguing to me after listening for a while (when playing the CD at "realistic" - not excessive - loudness levels.) This indicates that too much compression has been used in both original recording and new remastering to make the album sound "louder" but at the expense of the shadings in the music (could this be another reason why the chosen title was "Hard Again"?). This will be a very minor complaint to most listeners anyway.

The booklet, including recollections by original guitarist Bob Margolin, is very well done and informative. Margolin really puts the whole project in proper perspective.

Overall, this CD is certainly a very good one to listen to Muddy Waters, especially for those unfamiliar with the artist. If you enjoy this CD, try to listen to the wonderfully remastered double CD: "The Anthology: 1947 - 1972". You sure will not regret it. Enjoy.

There's not really anything about this album not to like.

Muddy Waters? Forceful, energized, professional, singing with the same incomparable power and vigor he possessed in the 50s, and which he had struggled to recapture in the decade preceding this album. Moreover, he sounds like he's having the time of his life. The phrase "infectious enthusiasm" is very apropos here.

Johnny Winter? All he does is handle the equally demanding jobs of lead guitarist and producer, and does both flawlessly.

Bob Margolin, James Cotton, Willie Smith, Charles Calmese, Pinetop Perkins? All play in an inspired fashion, driving the songs like a freight train and pushing each other to new heights seemingly by the minute. Cotton's harp screams like no harp before or since, while Smith lays down the kind of pocket that guitarists and bass players dream about at night. Calmese's playing has just enough of a funky '70s edge to make the material sound contemporary and relevant while not detracting from its Chicago roots. Margolin plays with a tastefulness and restraint which belies his young age at the time, and Pinetop is...well, Pinetop.

Old songs? This isn't a popular sort of thing to say, but the reworkings of Muddy's '50s classics presented here (particularly "Mannish Boy" and "Walkin' Through the Park") sound as good or better than their original Chess counterparts. That's not an insult to Jimmy Rogers or Little Walter, it's just the way it is.

New songs? "Crosseyed Cat," "Jealous Hearted Man," and "The Blues Had a Baby" are as good as any blues music ever recorded. Ever.

In summation, if you don't already own this album, stop wasting your time with this silly review and buy the damn thing. Right now.

Most artists in their 60s would just have rested on their laurels, being admired and cited as a major influence by legions of younger musicians.
But not Muddy Waters. He recorded and toured right up until the end of his life, and this gritty 1977 album, the first of three studio albums produced by Texas guitarist Johnny Winter, recharged his career as well as winning Muddy a Grammy (in the "Traditional Folk" category!).

This 2004 reissue has been remastered, but not remixed (there was no need, says former Muddy guitarist Bob Margolin, who has written the excellent, warm and informative anecdotal liner notes). And one bonus track has been added to the original nine songs, a great rendition of the classic "Walking Through The Park" which was omitted from the original album release - perhaps because of the limited playing time of the LP. It certainly can't have been a quality issue.

If you already own "Hard Again" on CD you don't need to run out and secure a copy right away...the sound on the first CD reissue was good enough, and if you're a Muddy fan you probably have "Walking Through The Park" somewhere in your collection already. This 1977 re-recording is not particularly different from the original.
But if you don't have "Hard Again", go get it right away. These recordings usually don't show up on the various Muddy Waters-compilations (most of them only chronicle his Chess years), and while some of the songs are "only" new versions of 50s and 60s numbers, the album as a whole remains one of the strongest Muddy Waters ever recorded. The band is magnificent...Waters himself only sings, according to Bob Margolin, so all the Muddy Waters-like slide guitar riffs are actually played by Johnny Winter.
But there's no mistaking the great James Cotton, Muddy's former harmonica player drafted to play on this album, or the supple, muscular groove laid down by the great Willie "Big Eyes" Smith, one of the best-ever blues drummers (alongside Fred Below, of course). He and bassist Charles Calmese form a top-notch rhythm section all the way through.

The album has a wonderful "live" feel, and literally everything is great, from the opening holler of the one-chord "Mannish Boy" over the magnificent acoustic slide guitar blues "I Can't Be Satisfied" (originally the flip side of Muddy's first single), and to the seven-minute slow grind of "Little Girl".
"Hard Again" (the origin of the title is explained in lurid detail by Bob Margolin) should not be missing from any collection of electric Chicago blues. It is one of Muddy Waters' finest moments, alongside the Newport album and 1969's "Fathers And Sons".

I bought this album as a kid, and it was my introduction to Muddy Waters. I was stunned when I first dropped the needle on this record and the intro of "Mannish Boy" hit my ears and made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. This is some powerful music, and Muddy Waters is most deserving of the term "blues legend". I wore out my old vinyl version of this album years ago, and just replaced it with this CD version. The clean mastering and clarity of this powerful music only makes me love it all the more.

I have since gone on to buy most of Muddy's catalog (on both vinyl and CD), and had the opportunity to see Muddy open up for Eric Clapton many years ago, shortly before he passed away. Muddy will always embody the true spirit of the electric blues guitar to me, and the album "Hard Again" will always be at the top of my ever-growing blues collection. The standout tracks on this album are the powerful "Mannish Boy", "The Blues Had a Baby and They Named it Rock and Roll" and "Little Girl". This was a comeback for Muddy while he was in his 60's, but he sounds as vital and powerful here as he ever did on any of his earlier works. Having Johnny Winter as part of his band for this only makes it all that much stronger.

If you like electric blues, pick up this CD...you won't be sorry.

Hard Again is unadulturated Chicago Blues. Twelve bars, no chord subtitutions: the definition of the genre.

Johnny Winter produced this, and brought Muddy Waters into the age of modern amplifacation. "Mannish Boy," rocks so hard with such ressonence, the 1950s verison of the song seems immaciated. "Bus Driver" and "Little Girl" are also classic blues made better by decent recording equiptment.

I notice a difference in the bass playing--much of Water's 50s material used uprights-and there are subtle slides and runs that are not in pre-MaCartney playing.

But beyond this Hard Again is the straight blues we love and not enough modern players have learned.

For any musician or listener, this is essential.

Elwood Blues calls this the greatest electric blues record ever made. Believe him even if he is a fictional character. Winter dragged Waters out of retirement and into the studio back in the mid 70's supported by a who's who of great blues side-men and this was the result. STUNNING. This is a must-have for even the most novice, junior, uninitiated blues enthusiast. Whoooooooooa yeah. Whooooooooa yeah.