In an attempt to make Muddy more sellable to his newly found white audience, Chess lumbered him with Hendrix-influenced psychedelic blues arrangements for Electric Mud. Commercially, actually, the results weren't bad; Marshall Chess claims it sold between 150,000 and 200,000 copies. Musically, it was as ill-advised as putting Dustin Hoffman into a Star Wars epic. Guitarists Pete Cosey and Phil Upchurch are very talented players, but Muddy's brand of down-home electric blues suffered greatly at the hands of extended fuzzy solos. Muddy and band overhaul classics like "I Just Want to Make Love to You" and "Hoochie Coochie Man," and do a ludicrous cover of "Let's Spend the Night Together"; wah-wah guitars and occasional wailing soprano sax bounce around like loose basketballs. It's a classically wrongheaded, crass update of the blues for a modern audience. The 1996 CD reissue adds interesting historical liner notes.
The celebrated "British Blues Revival" of the mid to late sixties spelled hard times for true blues Titans. We were all convinced that "the blues" was extended guitar solos and neon clothing. Alexis Korner, John Mayall, and others nurtured up and comers in the music, the structure of the blues, but really.....these kids didn't know from The Blues. Oh, they knew the records, they knew the songs...
reading the post about Bo Diddley Reminded me of this.Zepplin,Cream,and Hendrix,all mashed up and hired to back Muddy Waters = Genius. At last! got one to load
Dude, I totally just fell out of my chair. I am a 31 year old, mostly respectable woman, an assest to my community even! With all of those attributes you certainly wouldn't expect to walk in and see someone like me bouncing and bopping around to Muddy Waters to the point where I bounce my own ass right out of the chair and on to the floor. (Okay, if you know me in person you'd probably be mo...