Today in Music (1960): Muddy Waters performed at Newport

At Newport Muddy Waters

Released: November 15, 1960 Recorded: July 3, 1960 Peak: -- Sales (in millions): -- Genre: blues

Tracks: Song Title (Writers) [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to charts. I Got My Brand on You I’m Your Hoochie Coochie Man (3/13/54, #3 RB) Baby Please Don’t Go Soon Forgotten Tiger in Your Tank I Feel So Good I’ve Got My Mojo Working I’ve Got My Mojo Working, Pt. 2 Goodbye Newport Blues

Rating: 4.365 out of 5.00 (average of 15 ratings) Quotable: “A great breakthrough moment in blues history, where the jazz audience opened its ears and embraced Chicago blues.” – Cub Koda & Bruce Eder, All Music Guide Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: This was “a great breakthrough moment in blues history.” AMG “Though his ‘50s recordings…revolutionized modern blues, it wasn’t until his raw, plugged-in steer blew up the Newport Folk Festival that whites in America gave Muddy (and the blues) proper respect.” VB “This was many white folks’ first exposure” BL “to live recorded blues.” AMG It was also significant because “the jazz audience opened its ears and embraced Chicago blues.” AMG As “one of the earliest recordings of Waters’ electric band, Newport found the former McKinley Morganfield in needle-sharp form with his mojo working overtime.” BL That band included Otis Spann, James Cotton, and guitarist Pat Hare. AMG “Kicking off the album with a version of I’ve Got My Brand on You that positively burns the relatively tame (in comparison) studio take, Waters heads full bore through impressive versions of Hoochie Coochie Man, Big Bill Broonzy’s Feel So Good, and Tiger in Your Tank.” AMG This set “literally had ‘em dancing in the aisles by the set closer, a rippling version of Got My Mojo Working, reprised again in a short encore version.” AMG “This album was in print almost continuously on vinyl for 20-plus years, and MCA reissued it in a fair CD version in 1986…but the real edition of this album to get is the March 2001 remastering from MCA. Transferred in high-resolution digital audio, it brings up the bass overall and the details of just about every aspect of the playing, as well as moving Muddy’s singing several layers forward in the mix, so that one gets a very vivid stage ambience.” AMG What’s most significant, perhaps, is that this is “still pretty damn impressive some 40-plus years down the line.” AMG This is “maximum mojo for yo’ moolah.” BL The album is, in a word, “immortal.” VB Notes: A 2001 CD reissue added “four studio sides cut by the same group a month prior to the concert – none hold a candle to the live material, but they do fill in a few holes in Muddy’s U.S. discography. The new notes by Mary Katherine Aldin also give a much better picture of the background of the show and Muddy’s performance.” AMG

Resources and Related Links: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Muddy Waters AMG All Music Guide review by Cub Koda & Bruce Eder BL Blender (10/08). “100 Greatest American Albums” VB Vibe (Dec. 1999). “100 Essential Albums of the 20th Century,” pages 154-164. Other Related DMDB Pages: First posted 7/3/2012; last updated 3/17/2024.