Customer Reviews

West Side Soul

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

"West Side Soul" is true-blue city blues, an absolute must-own for anyone interested in the genre. Folk and rock and rap and jazz are great at times, but sometimes you just need the blues. And unless you're willing to swan dive into a vat of dye at the local Levi's factory, you can't get any bluer than this. Jazz has "Kind of Blue," but this is "Really, Really, Really Blue."

Magic Sam's career may have been far too short (he released this and the almost-equally-excellent "Black Magic" before dying of a heart attack at the age of 32), but he at least died untouched by mediocrity. And he lives up to his name; his guitar is as spellbinding as Merlin's wand. Quick picks, long lazy notes, subdued background segments, and beautiful guitar solos: Magic Sam summons them all from his instrument with the effortless ease of a sorcerer.

And his voice--Oh, what a voice! There's a moment on "I Need You So Bad" that may well be my favorite moment of human vocal performance in the whole history of recorded music. It's one of those nearly inarticulate wails, an "Oh, baby" that captures a life's worth of emotion in the space of a few short seconds. You just can't top it, folks.

And yet, I'm not sure that that's the best song on the album. His "Sweet Home Chicago" may well be the definitive rendition of that classic blues staple. And "My Love Will Never Die" is a scorcher, a wonderful slow-cooker full of simmering blues gumbo that has it all: smoky guitar work, fiery declarations of undying and unrequited love, and that certain spicy je ne sais quois that makes a song inexplicably greater than the sum of its parts.

Chicagoans (like myself) are required by city ordinance to like the blues. I'm no expert, but I've listened to my share of it, and I've found some great anthologies and some excellent albums--Junior Wells' "Hoodoo Man Blues", B.B. King's "Live at Cook County Jail" and Buddy Guy's "Sweet Tea", to name but a few. Still I haven't found a better blues album than this one. Magic Sam, my love will never die.

West Side Soul is the definitive album by one of blues music's greatest guitarists and singers. Magic Sam (nee Samuel Maghett) had a booming soul-singer's voice, with a touch of aggressive blues-style delivery (think of an irate Otis Redding, or Screaming Jay Hawkins), which set him apart from other blues singers. He sounds like he means it when he says "you tend to your business, and I'll tend to mine" in the classic "I Don't Want No Woman." But what really puts him on the map, in my opinion, is his outstanding guitar work. His version of "Sweet Home Chicago" is the definitive one, and his picking on "I Need You So Bad" is some of the best blues guitar of all time. Definitely worthy of any music collection.

The word great gets used a lot, but this is a great cd. Magic Sam along with Otis Rush, Earl Hooker and Buddy Guy brought a more modern, urban, r&b influenced sound to the Chicago blues which was dominated by the Delta based sounds of Muddy and Howlin Wolf. Magic Sam had it all, especially on this cd. Extraordinary guitar playing and bone chilling vocals; even an instrumental. Very, very, very few had the whole package like this guy. Put the cd on and play it over and over and it will seep into every bone in your body.

This recording is a revelation to any blues lover. It is the electrified Chicago blues taken to a new level approaching blues nirvana. Magic Sam's soulful singing and savage guitar will turn your head. I thought I knew Chicago blues at its best--but not until I heard this!

This is one of my all time favourites and greatest surprises. I just decided to try old Sam out and found what I think is one of the greatest and most original sounding bluesmen ever. He has the voice of a soul singer and the guitar playing of someone who has heard B.B. King at his Best. His tone is distinct and his right hand man back-up guitarist Might Joe Young is perfect accompaniment. After several listens you realize that the whole band with him is grade-A. And they are subtle unlike many blues bands, Sam has the floor. That's all I need is a Soul tune. Almost every other song is a perfect blues song in my opinion. When I first heard him do Otis Rush's My love will never die, it was sealed. Sam is one of the most potent bluesmen when he wants to be. The crisp guitar leads and amazing vocals, and the great interplay with the other musicians and the composition, its all here and tops. I recomend this one to the most hard core electric blues fan or even to somebody who doesn't know the music at all. This just should work for anybody. It is just like it says in the liner notes - ''Regardless of your previous taste, if you are reasonably Turned on'' or whatever with humanity and life, you will like the album. The sound quality is good but could be better and that is pretty much the most minor complaint, and the only one I could think of.

Back in the late 60's my teen friends and I had a blues band. Our greatest hope was to experience the awesome power of as many Chicago blues artists as possible. We spent many nights traveling from one great blues show to another. Way too many to mention. It was not until we stopped by the Main Point Cafe in Pa. to see Magic Sam did we fully realize our greatest blues fulfillment. The sonic thunder of Sam's voice and guitar left many in tears and shaken to the bone. I have never seen another guitarist do what Sam did that night. That includes Eric C. (Cream),Otis R., John Mc., Jimi H., Johnny W., etc... This was a man head and shoulders above the rest. His guitar only matched by his soulful voice. Meeting him after the show, he was as humble as anyone I have ever met. West Side Soul is an all too brief look at a beautiful man and his music.

This is just one of the best feel good super cool blues albums ever put out by anybody anywhere, and Sam didn't live to put out much. Some of Chicago's most representative stuff. I can put this CD on at the bar every night and nobody ever complains "Hey, we've heard it!", but I do get an occasional customer who says, "Play that track again!" Buy copies for all your friends, this has got to be heard.

This album is Magic Sam Maghett's finest hour, and one of the finest electric blues albums of the 60s.
He plays blues with a strong soul influence, particularly on the magnificent "That's All I Need" and "I Don't Want No Woman". Classic slow blues ("All Of Your Love", "I Found A New Love"). And superb versions of Jimmy McCracklin's "Every Night And Every Day", Robert Johnson's "Sweet Home Chicago" and J.B. Lenoir's "Mama Talk To Your Daughter".

Magic Sam Maghett was an excellent singer and a sizzling lead guitarist, one of the finest representatives for the so-called "West Side sound" along with Buddy Guy and Otis Rush.
Not every song is equally memorable, of course, and the arrangements may feel a little bit unvaried towards the end, but the overall impression of "West Side Soul" is that of a truly great, electrifying blues record, one which belongs in any serious blues collection.
4 1/2 stars - highly recommended.

In the history of the blues, there are many great names whose lives were cut far too short (Robert Johnson dying from strychnine comes to mind), and Magic Sam is another great bluesman whose life ended far too soon, dying at the age of 32 from a heart attack. But simply because they lived a short time on this earth in no way means their music will fall by the wayside; if anything, they are legendary in part because of this.

"I Don't Want No Woman" is easily comparable to any of the great hits put out by the Beatles, The Rolling Stones....and the many other famous groups of the time. For some reason or other, the Blues get little to no recognition from the public at large, and this has always been a mystery to me since I discovered the Blues myself only a few short years ago. For fans of the Blues, I guess this is a good thing, since we have a treasure which few people know of......and Magic Sam's "West Side Soul" truly is a treasure.

His version of "Sweet Home Chicago" is probably the best version of the famous Robert Johnson song, only to be outdone by Johnson's original.

"Lookin' Good" is an amazing instrumental piece, and if you are like me, you will wear the replay button out on this song. And there are song's on this in which I wonder how his vocal chords hold up to the stress; namely "I Feel So Good (I Wanna Boogie)" among them. He would have been a truly entertaining figure to see perform live. "My love Will Never Die" is one of the more haunting pieces, one which shows his fantastic voice on display.

When I first heard this album, I was not overly impressed with it, as it did not seem to define the blues for me. However, the more I listened to it, the more it became an integral part of my Blues collection, one that I will indeed forever treasure. This album taught me that the Blues are not monolithic in any sense of the word; rather, they are composed of many different pieces and sub-genres. West Side Soul is probably the best example of Chicago Blues west side sound.

A must have for any lover of the Blues.

Long live Magic Sam!

On West Side Soul, Magic Sam, who died tragically in 1967 at the age of 32, teases and perplexes us with what was and what could have been.

Some of the finest blues guitar ever recorded is on this album. And Sam's singing, which had been accused of being uneven, was at its best. "Don't Want No Woman" is sung and played at a level of feeling reminiscient of Marvin Gaye's "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" and Percy Sledge's "When A Man Loves A Woman." "My Love Will Never Die" is rendered even more poignant with his early death. And his "Lookin Good" is one of the best blues shuffle toe-tappers you'll ever hear.

This is a classic album, and a must-have for every blues guitar lover.