There was a track from the chess album Electric Mud, attributed to Muddy Waters, on a compilation I picked up the other day. I think it's an Australia-only release, called A Different Kind of Blues. Purportedly the compilation is music which inspired the Black Keys. Anyway, the notes carried on a bit and mentioned Electric Mud, how it was bagged at the time but is now considered a 'classic'. "Really?" I thought. "A 'classic'?" I seem to recall its still considered unlistenable embarrassing embodiment of horse sh1t as sound. This was the first I'd heard anyone had a different view, though of course folks do tend to have various opinions. I asked Dr Google. To my surprise I found a lot of reviewers do seem to hold it in high regard. I had a listen. Excrement. Very little in the way of redeeming aspects. In fact, almost unlistenable. If I hadn't been interested for scientific reasons I'd not have gone beyond 'She's Allright', which was really dreadful. I like the Black Keys. It's hard to imagine anyone being inspired by this stuff. Inspired to cry in relief when it stops maybe. Anyway, it may be Art. It isn't blues, although I felt pretty sad about listening to it. It may have been alright if they had remixed it without the guitars, which seem to be playing something a bit like the equivalent of when I used to put on a record and try to play along on the harp. I don't really know how this goes but ill use blues scale, pentatonic, is there a hook? Oh yeah ok, what's next? Anyway, everyone has an opinion. They all stink. That's mine. The reviews do seem quite polarised. Some people really love it. I suspect they're subversives. ----------
I think it's a cool album. They say it was targeted for the hippie community. It is certainly not a blues album. It is for people who likes rock music. Håkan
Mm, I thought I liked rock music too. I don't like that record. It sounds to me as though the guitarist was not in the same room. Like the guitar is almost unrelated to MW's performance of the song...and the guitar has such a nasty sound, sometimes I think they are not even playing in the same key. I think it's just cynical trash marketing. Like "these kids won't know any better, just make that wailing guitar sound and they'll buy it" I think it may be the worst album I've ever heard, and I used to own Hawkwind's "bring me the head of yuri Gagarin"! I'm pretty sure that recording was made by someone with a portable tape recorder who was refused admission to the venue and stood outside recording the sound coming through the closed door. ----------
Hah hah, "believe it or not", very good. Although, after checking all those threads, I think to say its been 'discussed before' is something of a misrepresentation. It's been mentioned before, certainly. Hardly discussed. I thought the most interesting mention was in comparison to R L Burnside's work which incorporates some elements of techno and rap. The poster remarked how that had not drawn the criticism that the electric mud fusion had. No one followed up on this comment, but as I have recently heard examples of both Electric Mud (shes alright) and RL Burnside (its bad you know) I have an opinion on why RLB did not draw the flack. It's because what was done with his work was done with much greater sensitivity to his sound. It was not a mere pastiche/parody of blues made in a cynical attempt to get a share of a pop market...well, maybe it was, but whatever, it didnt actually sound really bad. ----------
Last Edited by SuperBee on Feb 19, 2013 5:03 AM
According to this article, Muddy himself wasn't too fond of this album either. His description of the album in one of his autobiographies likens it to dogs and feces!!
The problem with the album is that it was dictated by the managers at Chess who wanted to sell a lot records to a white mainstream audience. It was a marketing exercise. Certain rock clichés were forced into the playing and production. Having said that, I must admit that I do like the electric rendition of Mannish Boy...
It may have been aimed at the hippies, but all the bluesified hippies I ran with thought it was garbage..but I haven't listened to it in decades, so I'll withhold judgement.
"In matters of taste, more than anywhere else, all determination is negation; and tastes are perhaps first and foremost distastes, disgust provoked by horror or visceral intolerance....of the tastes of others."
Pierre Bourdieu, Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste.
Last Edited by kudzurunner on Feb 19, 2013 7:41 AM
From the times I met Muddy in the 70's, this LP and the one that followed it, After The Rain, he absolutely despised it just as much as Howlin' Wolf despised This Is Howlin' Wolf's New Album. Some hiphop/rap artists have actually sampled some of these recordings in varying swatches and Public Enemy is the first to come to mind (and they also sampled BB King's The Thrill Is Gone as well).
The one who really pushed it was Marshall Chess more than anyone in the company. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
Not what we were used to hearing from Muddy Waters but its not that terrible imho. Sounds like stuff Jack White, Blues Explosion, Black Keys , Bob Log must have listened to along the way.
there is some cool guitar in there by Pete Cosey who played with Miles and Phil Upchurch who played with everbody,--Just not traditional blues on Electric Mud
Upon re-listening to "Electric Mud" after a few years I must say (regardless of Pierre B and his reductionist ontology of taste) that my dislike for this record has only increased. A product of that sad wannabe-hipster Marshall Chess, one can only hope that it gave Muddy some $ (but about that I don´t know a thing). The pathetic rescue attempt from the Martin Scorsese blues series a while back left me entirely unconvinced.
It´s interesting with those guitars: Phil Upchurch was an excellent guitarist and I wonder if he was told to play below his level?
