Music Munchers - Breakin' It Up and Breakin' It Down by Muddy Waters

Product Review
Muddy Waters had his second coming 30 years ago, when longtime friend and disciple Johnny Winter and his Blue Sky label returned him--after a series of listless recordings aimed at the rock audience--to the raw, powerful authenticity of his timeless Chess material with a series of powerful albums. Beginning with 1977's acclaimed Hard Again, a subsequent tour produced Muddy "Mississippi" Waters Live, recorded onstage in Detroit, New York, and Philadelphia with Muddy's band, Winter, and harmonica player/vocalist James Cotton. Enough live material remained for Legacy to release an expanded version with an entire second disc of unissued concert material. It seems even that wasn't the end. This collection returns again to those remarkable concerts, featuring Muddy on five tracks, among them a rousing "I Can't Be Satisfied," "Trouble No More," "Caldonia," and the closing "Got My Mojo Workin'." Winter and Cotton are no less powerful, Cotton redoing Jackie Brenston's hit "Rocket '88'" and Winter ripping up John Lee Hooker's "I Done Got Over It" and "Mama Talk to Your Daughter." --Rich Kienzle

Muddy Waters' work on Chess Records from the late 1940s to the early 1970s is truly amazing. He was the most powerful blues artist and one of the best songwriters. Many fans think he was in decline in the mid-1970s when "Breakin' It Up, Breakin' It Down" was recorded. This concert document should dispel those thoughts. It might have taken Muddy longer to build up a head of steam, but when he got rollin', he was as "mannish" as ever. With old pal James Cotton blowing away on harp and Johnny Winter (who ignited Muddy's revival by producing his later records on Blue Sky Records) as his co-stars on the 1977 tour, Muddy was pushed to the heights he regularly reached in his 1950s and 1960s heyday ("Pinetop" Perkins on piano, and Bob Margolin on guitar also shine). The live version of "Can't be Satisfied" - the second cut on the disc - is as strong as any live recording in his career. I saw this band at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. and the three stars were on fire and having a whale of a time. When I bought "Breakin' It Up, Breakin' It Down," I thought, "there is no way this recording will be as good as I remember the show." But not to worry, it's all here and hearing it again made me smile at the memories of Muddy, James, and Johnny pouring out electric blues. A rousing "Got My Mojo Working" (the encore) finishes things up nicely. Someone once said, "In Muddy Waters' hands 'the blues' is a misnomer." Comment | Permalink | (Report this)