"Muddy At Newport Waters 1960" - a great album
(For info on that, clickety-click-click)
In which I say both hello and goodbye to Newport, and find out all about mammals and gasoline.
TL;DR
Forget ABBA, I praise the True Dancing Queen
More after The Cut >>>
1.) I Got My Brand on You - Ughhhhhh this so goooooood. When I think of "blues" music, this is exactly the kind of song that comes to mind: raspy, confident vocals over an absolutely wailing band. The energy here is more of a simmer than a boil, but it's HOT EITHER WAY, BABY!
Scientifically proven
2.) (I'm Your) Hoochie Coochie Man - Just kidding, THIS is maybe my prototypical blues song. References to the singer's childhood and/or destiny? Check. Bragging about, ahem, "hoochie coochie" prowess? Definite check. EXCELLENT harmonica? The checkmark has caught fire and has turned the paper to ash. Bonus points for numerous references to voodoo and the number seven.
This song, like "I Got My Brand on You," was written by the outstandingly talented (and apparently at 6'6" outstandingly tall) Willie Dixon, and man, is it good.
For some added fun, check out this version from 1981 that Waters did with the Rolling Stones. They're all clearly having a phenomenal time. And yes, Mick Jagger does look like he just ran in from having played a rousing game of soccer football and drinking a pint or twelve. He contributes virtually nothing to most of the song, but bless him, he's living his best life. And dammit if Waters doesn't sound just as good as ever.
3.) Baby, Please Don't Go - I dig the opening bars with their brash, almost heartbeat-like drum. I can see how this impacted acts as recent as The White Stripes, from the lyrics ("Before I be your dog/I get you way'd out here") to the instrumentation itself.
This is a "modernized" version of a pre-WWII song apparently first made popular by one Big Joe Williams, who I wasn't familiar with:
Big Joe Williams' version, with its fiddle/washboard and much rougher sound, is far more in keeping with the song's origins as a prisoner's theme, versus Waters' souped-up version.
Speaking of souped-up versions...AC/DC has also famously done a version of their own, and needless to say....it's a slightly different vibe:
...but I'm sure I'll get back to AC/DC at some point in the next 50 years of my life.
4.) Soon Forgotten - Could someone PLEASE just give this man a pencil and paper?! SHEESH!
Ahh, that's better
I love the whiny guitar that opens this (somewhat whiny) song. Basically, this is a "Nah, I don't even NEED you" anthem...or is it? After essentially seeing his woman out with another hombre, he sings, "Right then, I quitted you, but you begged me to take you back."
The quote that keeps on giving
Gotta say, I love the closing lyrics in particular: "Yeah, and I been so many people forgotten, one day I'm going to forget you." You tell 'em.
5.) Tiger in Your Tank - Is that a tiger in your tank, or are you just happy to see me?
This is a mainly piano-driven song, again written by Dixon (hey, girl!) and absolutely CRUSHED by Waters. His vocals on this track in particular are absolutely incredible: he waaaaaails.
Fun fact: I Googled the phrase "tiger in your tank" (yes, with Safe Search on) and discovered that the phrase was first used in Esso gas ads in 1959...
A picture is worth a thousand words, and well...
...which for sooooome strange reason inspired this horndog of a song. Go figure!
Lyrically, it's no Shakespearean sonnet (he repeats the line "I'll put a tiger in your tank" upwards of what feels like 17,000 times), but WHO CARES! Waters' vocal performance alone is enough to make this a must-listen, let alone the incredible performances from the band.
6.) I Feel So Good - This is the first recording on the album (as far as I could hear, beyond a single muted outburst here and there) where I could really hear the audience FREAKING OUT.
And it makes sense - the energy has been mounting throughout from the start of the set to this point, and you can tell that the musicians and the audience alike are "feeling like ballin' the jack"...which I have just learned first was "railroad slang that referred to a train going at full speed" and then later came to mean "going all out physically on the dance floor or in the bedroom."
This was first written and recorded by "Big Billy Broonzy" (I guess Muddy Waters loved "Big" artists) in the early 40s:
Broonzy's is a much more mellow version, but no less fun.
7.) Got My Mojo Working - LOVE a mojo reference, and this is the second on the album! Wowee! But sadly, his mojo "just won't work on you."
IT'S A CONSPIRACY!
This is a rollicking song if ever there were one. At around the 2:45ish mark onwards, he literally just devolves into a frothing mess of syllables at points, and am I ever here for it.
From 3:30 onwards, the tempo starts to really go off the rails. What rails? The rails are a lie.
Sooooo it turns out that Mr. Waters & co. got into a bit of a pickle over this song...after he basically stole the song from original writer Preston Foster and performer Ann Cole:
Cole's version deserves more notice than it gets, I gotta say, though Waters' is clearly phenomenal.
8.) Got My Mojo Working, Part 2 - So nice, they did it twice!
...it's pretty much the previous song done again, a bit shorter this time around.
9.) Goodbye Newport Blues - This last song by Muddy Waters...isn't by Muddy Waters! Apparently he was too tired from putting his tiger all up in those tanks to carry on, so pianist Otis Spann stepped in to sing this last improvised song with lyrics written that day by a small up-and-coming writer you may have heard of called Langston Hughes (yes, I am being facetious, thanks for noticing).
A great closer to a great album.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
What a RIDE! I thoroughly enjoyed this from start to finish. It's a fairly short listen that feels even shorter. You can basically draw a straight line between this and later acts like Led Zeppelin or the Rolling Stones.
Lightning in a bottle that had an enormous impact on the world of music.
Personal standout tracks:
Listen to the whole thing start to finish for OPTIMAL LISTENING, but if you really want to select a few: "I Got My Brand on You", "(I'm Your) Hoochie Coochie Man", "Tiger in Your Tank", "Got My Mojo Working"
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