Muddy "Mississippi" Waters Live [Live]

Muddy Waters | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (December 16, 2009)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Live
• Label: Columbia
• ASIN: B0000025F2
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #110,180 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Perhaps the Best Live Blues CD, August 31, 2001

By 

M. Allen Greenbaum (California) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Muddy "Mississippi" Waters Live (Audio CD)

If you like the blues at all, you'll be absolutely blown away by this live performance. Just the first 15 seconds thrill: Muddy Waters' deep deep vocal tones with an abrupt break to the familiar guitar/drums/bass/harp riff of his classic, "Mannish Boy." (And that's not even the best song on the CD.)

The audience is totally into it, both on this song and the entire album--screaming, yelling, whistling, shouting--making this almost as exciting as "James Brown at the Apollo," and certainly among the best live blues ever recorded. The sound quality is excellent, credit the mix to Dave Still at "The Schoolhouse and Hit Factory."

The group is unbelievably talented and plays with great empathy: Muddy Waters on vocals and guitar, "Pine Top" Perkins (piano), James Cotton (harp), additional guitar from Johnny Winter, Luther "Guitar Jr." Johnson, and many others. I don't hear any softening of Muddy Waters' voice; he is as authoritative, soulful, and unique as ever. Muddy Waters set a very high (probably unsurpassed) standard for anyone who followed. It's sheer delight to hear his inventive singing and slide guitar so well recorded and backed.

Perhaps the most memorable concert I ever attended was a late 1970's performance at the Roxy in L.A. As Muddy Waters walked up to the stage, I felt a sense of transcendentalism, as if History were climbing the stairs. And then he tore the roof off. Although only about 40 minutes long (and with notes limited to personnel descriptions), the music on this CD recaptured some of that experience for me.

Along with "Mannish Boy" and the great "She's Nineteen Years Old," other Morganfield compositions (there's one number written by Sonny Boy Williamson) include "Streamline Woman," "Baby Please Don't Go," "Howling Wolf," and "Deep Down in Florida." 'Wolf' features Waters' bee-stingingly intense slide guitar, one that can righteously cut through the thickest, meanest heart and soul. With just a few perfectly played notes, Waters' slide guitar dredges buckets of emotion. "Gainesville'--perhaps the best song here ("Yeah I believe I'll go back to Gainesville...just to see an old friend of mine.")--has amazing solos by "Pine Top" Perkins, Johnny Winter, and James Cotton, who blows some of the purest and most stirring harp notes in blues.

This is the liturgy of the blues, the thick ooze of the traditional and the familiar wrapped with enough personal style to uncover new emotion. Powerful, raw, and spine tingling, this is the blues as only McKinley "Muddy Waters" Morganfield could play it.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the Best Live Albums of Any Genre, January 20, 2003

By 

southsiderosie - See all my reviews

This review is from: Muddy "Mississippi" Waters Live (Audio CD)

Listening to my father's stories about going to hear Muddy Waters live in Chicago in the 70's, I can understand why he dislikes most of the music out today. In an age where most music is as packaged and plastic as a Barbie doll, how many artists can make their audience jump up and SHOUT! Muddy Waters personified the Deep South; a mixture of spirituality and soul with a secular sexy slide guitar. You can hear his joy through the recording; he completely gives himself to the audience, and their response, in kind, is electric. "Mannish Boy", the first cut has been reworked many a time, but this is by far the best recorded version. "19 Years Old" is one of the sexiest guitar workings EVER. PLEASE buy this album and see why this man was considered a guitar GOD by pretty much every classic rock artist from Eric Clapton to Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones. The only regret I have about owning this fabulous live CD is that I wasn't there.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Muddy was still in command., November 7, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Muddy "Mississippi" Waters Live (Audio CD)

Muddy was the man. And this disc proves it. On every single one of the tracks on this disc we hear an older Muddy still in full command of that special sense of timing and vocal control that made his name synonomous with blues. He teases us with a slow, stalling intro to a rocking version of Mannish Boy. He introduces Nineteen Years Old, playing to the crowd: "If she wasn't a young girl I wouldn't be arguing over her. I'm so carried away with young women that I'll kill anyone about one of'em." Highlights like these abound, and live audiences hoot their approval the whole way through. Also of note is some stellar instrumental work. James Cotton blows some searing harp on Nine Below Zero, as does Jerry Portnoy on Baby Please Don't Go. Both Johnny Winter and Pinetop Perkins cut loose on the marathon Deep Down in Florida. And, of course, Muddy displays his usual impressive chops on the slide. Buy this album and put it in your CD player at high volume. The results are electric.