Muddy Waters - The Essential Collection

Title: The Essential Collection Artist: Muddy Waters Release Date: 2000 Re-Released On: 8/7/2000 Label: Spectrum Music Album Type(s): Greatest Hits UPCs: 731454434928, 766486245020 Genre: Blues Styles: Chicago Blues, Electric Chicago Blues, Electric Blues, Delta Blues, Blues Revival, Slide Guitar Blues, Regional Blues Moods: Confident, Earthy, Exuberant, Passionate, Plaintive, Raucous, Rollicking, Rousing, Boisterous, Cathartic, Earnest, Energetic, Exciting, Greasy, Gritty, Rowdy, Amiable/Good-Natured, Fiery, Freewheeling, Melancholy, Organic, Playful, Autumnal, Brooding, Party/Celebratory, Quirky, Visceral, Wry Total Copies: 0 Members Wishing: 0 Number of Discs/SwapaCD Credits: 1

1. Got My Mojo Working
2. Long Distance Call
3. Close to You
4. (I'm Your) Hoochie Coochie Man
5. She Moves Me
6. Baby Please Don't Go
7. Mad Love (I Want You to Love Me)
8. I'm Ready
9. I Just Wanna Make Love to You
10. I Love the Life I Live, I Live the Life I Love
11. She's All Right
12. Mannish Boy
13. Young Fashioned Ways
14. I Want to Be Loved
15. Louisiana Blues
16. Forty Days and Forty Nights
17. Rollin' Stone
18. Stuff You Gotta Watch
19. Garbage Man
20. Can't Get No Grindin'

Year Type Label Catalog # 2000 CD Spectrum Music 5443492

No other editions were found for this album.

This mid-priced Muddy Waters compilation from England is comprised of 20 songs,17 of them dating between 1950 and 1958 and the other three from 1968 and 1972, arranged in no particular order. The selection opens with "Got My Mojo Working" in its original studio version and covers most of the obvious bases, including many of Muddy's best-known originals and his classic renditions of Willie Dixon compositions, but somehow missing out on "I Can't Be Satisfied" and "Rollin' and Tumblin'" in favor of "Garbage Man" from 1972 (a better case can be made for "Can't Get No Grindin'"). It's difficult to say what makes this collection "essential" -- one supposes that the producers wanted to emphasize the fact that Muddy was still making important music that late, but given that the notes focus on songs that were later staples of the British Invasion, the choices are odd. One can't criticize any Muddy Waters compilation too harshly, but the main virtue of this disc, along with its price, is that it utilizes the latest and best quality masterings of those classic Chess sides, and does throw an interesting (if inessential) curve ball or two at the listener. ~ Bruce Eder, All Music Guide

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