Muddy Waters - The Complete Aristocrat & Chess Singles As & Bs 1947-62 [4 CD, 2014]

 

Muddy Waters brought a Son House-like Delta country-blues style north with him from Mississippi to Chicago in 1943, intent on making a living from music. Switching from acoustic to electric guitar in order to be better heard in the Chicago clubs and bars, Waters gradually assembled one of the greatest ongoing bands in the history of blues, and in the process, Waters and his band assembled the very template for classic Chicago blues. Waters first cut a track for the Chess Brothers in 1947, who released it on their Aristocrat Records imprint, and for the next two decades or so, Waters turned out the basic iconic catalog of electric Chicago blues for various Chess imprints, and those singles, both A- and B-sides, are collected here in this four-disc, 98-track set. Waters was an astute bandleader, and musicians like Little Walter, Junior Wells, James Cotton, Willie Dixon, and Otis Spann all contributed heavily to these sides, which sit at the very heart of Chicago blues, and signal the very point where the blues became modern and urban.


CD 1
1. Gypsy Woman
2. Little Anna Mae
3. I Can't Be Satisfied
4. I Feel Like Going Home
5. Train Fare Home
6. Sittin' Here And Drinkin'
7. You're Gonna' Miss Me When I'm Dead And Gone
8. Mean Red Spider
9. Streamline Woman
10. Muddy Jumps One
11. Little Geneva
12. Canary Bird
13. Screaming And Crying
14. Where's My Woman Been
15. Rollin' And Tumblin' Part 1
16. Rollin' And Tumblin' Part 2
17. Rollin' Stone
18. Walkin' Blues
19. You're Gonna Need My Help
20. Sad Letter Blues
21. Louisiana Blues
22. Evans Shuffle
23. Long Distance Call
24. Too Young To Know
25. Appealing Blues

CD 2
1. Honey Bee
2. My Fault
3. Still A Fool
4. Early Morning Blues
5. She Moves Me
6. All Night Long
7. Country Boy
8. Please Have Mercy
9. Looking For My Baby
10. Standing Around Crying
11. Gone To Main Street
12. She's All Right
13. Sad Sad Day
14. Who's Gonna Be Your Sweet Man
15. Turn The Lamp Down Low
16. Mad Love
17. Blow Wind Blow
18. I'm Your Hoochie Coochie Man
19. She's So Pretty
20. Just Make Love To Me
21. Oh Yeh!
22. I'm Ready
23. I Don't Know Why
24. Lovin' Man

CD 3
1. I'm A Natural Born Lover
2. I Want To Be Loved
3. My Eyes Keep Me In Trouble
4. Manish Boy
5. Young Fashioned Ways
6. Trouble No More
7. Sugar Sweet
8. Forty Days And Forty Nights
9. All Aboard
10. Don't Go No Farther
11. Diamonds At Your Feet
12. I Got To Find My Baby
13. Just To Be With You
14. Got My Mojo Working
15. Rock Me
16. Good News
17. Come Home Baby
18. I Live The Life I Love
19. Evil
20. I Won't Go On
21. She's Got It
22. Close To You
23. She's Nineteen Years Old
24. Mean Mistreater

CD 4
1. Walkin' Thru The Park
2. Clouds In My Heart
3. Ooh Wee
4. Take The Bitter With The Sweet
5. She's Into Somethin'
6. Recipe For Love
7. Tell Me Baby
8. I Feel So Good
9. When I Get To Thinking
10. I'm Your Doctor
11. Read Way Back
12. Love Affair
13. Look What You've Done
14. Tiger In Your Tank
15. Meanest Woman
16. Got My Mojo Working Part 1 Live
17. Woman Wanted
18. Messin' With The Man
19. Lonesome Room Blues
20. Going Home
21. Tough Times
22. Muddy Waters Twist
23. You Shook Me
24. You Need Love
25. Little Brown Bird