Wednesday, January 11, 2012

A MUSICAL EDUCATION IN 1001 STEPS - PT 29

Muddy Waters - Muddy Waters at Newport 1960 (1960)

It's Muddy Waters. If you like Muddy Waters, you'll like this album. If not, then you won't. I kind of liked it, but when you listen to a bunch of Muddy Waters songs in sequence, you sort of get wise to the methodology and it loses some of its shine. Most of his lyrics consist of the song titles repeated over and over while a 3 chord blues vamp chugs along behind him in the mix. Including all the intro/outro and Newport festival stage announcement ephemera gives you that "I was there" feeling, but, again, if you don't already "get" this kind of music by now, this album probably won't convert you - even though it converted many, many people, way back in its day..

I heard it before? Most of it.
Do I like it? Yes. But I don't love it.
Am I keeping it? Only the standout tracks.
Standout Tracks? "I Got My Brand on You", "Got my Mojo Workin", "Baby Please Don't Go"