Muddy Waters & Friends - Blues Summit, PBS Soundstage, WTTW Studios, Chicago, IL, 7-18-1974

Pretty much since I started this blog in 2018, I've wanted to post an album by blues legend Muddy Waters, but I couldn't find anything worthy. Now I have. This was the very first episode of the "PBS Soundstage" TV show (after they changed their name from "Made in Chicago" and became a national program, that is), and no doubt they wanted this to be first so they could start with a bang. The episode was titled "Blues Summit," and for good reason. Waters led the show and sang most of the song, but good portion of the biggest names in blues music still alive and active at that time joined him on stage: Junior Wells, Johnny Winter, Dr. John, Willie Dixon, Koko Taylor, Pinetop Perkins, Mike Bloomfield, Buddy Miles, and Nick Gravenites. Wow, what a collection of talent!

This is a must-have for any serious blues fan. It's a great performance with excellent sound quality. So I was surprised how hard it is to find. It had eluded all my previous searches for this sort of thing until a couple of days ago, when I started to hone in on finding Soundstage episodes. I discovered that it was released on DVD (but not on CD) in 2015. However, I had great trouble finding this. For instance, it wasn't on YouTube, other than a lower quality version recorded off the TV that was missing the last two and a half songs. I couldn't even find it on SoulseekQT, and they generally immediately have what I want 99 percent of the time, or, very rarely, it isn't there at all. But luckily, after a couple of days, I finally got a Soulseek hit on someone who had the DVD. I promptly converted that to mp3s, and here you are.

I only had a couple of issues with the recording. There was a voiceover on an instrumental section of the first song, "Blow Wind Blow." That's why that song has "[Edit]" in its title, because I removed that talking while keeping the underlying music, thanks to the UVR5 program. The next track was several minutes of people milling backstage and talking to each other. It's a lot more interesting to see the video of blues legends interacting than what can be heard here, so I deleted that track. If interested, check out the YouTube video of it.

The list of artist names per song is woefully incomplete. It would have taken me a long time to figure out exactly who played on what, and then I would have had some very long file names. So instead of that, I generally stuck to mentioning Muddy Waters (since he stayed on stage the entire concert), plus whoever happened to sing lead vocals on any given song, if it was someone instead of, or in addition to, him. That leaves a lot of people unmentioned. For instance, Buddy Miles, a star in his own right, played drums for most of the show, but he isn't mentioned in any of the song credits because he didn't sing lead vocals. 

This album is 54 minutes long.

01 Blow Wind Blow [Edit] (Muddy Waters)
02 talk (Muddy Waters)
03 Long Distance Call (Muddy Waters)
04 talk (Muddy Waters)
05 Messin' with the Kid (Muddy Waters with Junior Wells & Nick Gravenites)
06 talk (Muddy Waters)
07 Stop Breaking Down (Muddy Waters with Junior Wells)
08 talk (Muddy Waters)
09 Mannish Boy (Muddy Waters)
10 talk (Muddy Waters)
11 Wang Dang Doodle (Muddy Waters with Willie Dixon & Koko Taylor)
12 talk (Muddy Waters with Johnny Winter)
13 Walking through the Park (Muddy Waters with Johnny Winter)
14 Hoochie Coochie Man (Muddy Waters with Willie Dixon)
15 talk (Muddy Waters)
16 Sugar Sweet (Muddy Waters with Dr. John)
17 I Got My Mojo Working (Muddy Waters)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/U8RWbQui

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/bPTOCcglRs8dIOc/file

As I watched the video of this concert, I kept an eye out for a spot where I could take a good screenshot for the cover image. But the quality was low-res, and it was rare to get more than one person on screen at the same time, since long distance shots were ruined by the low picture quality. Luckily, I found an image of the DVD cover. That had pictures of four of the stars, taken from the concert, so I used those. That's Muddy Waters at the top left, Johnny Winter at the top right, Dr. John at the bottom left, and Junior Wells at the bottom right. I was able to improve the image quality somewhat with the Krea AI program.

Various Artists - Covered: Willie Dixon, Volume 3: 1972-2012

Here's the third and last of the "Covered" songwriter series for Willie Dixon.

Dixon had poor health for most of the time period featured here. He eventually lost a leg due to diabetes complications, and finally died in 1992. As a result, most or all of the songs here are from earlier years, but he's such a blues giant that his songs continue to be covered every year. 

As I mentioned previously, my rule was to have each artist limited to just one song for the whole series, to showcase the diversity of those who have played his songs. For some songs, it was extremely tough to pick just one. Take "I Just Want to Make Love to You." Well over 100 artists have recorded covers - it seems to be a go-to song for anyone expressing horny urges. Just some of the famous names covering this song include: Muddy Waters, Van Morrison, B. B. King, Etta James, Chuck Berry, the Rolling Stones, the Righteous Brothers, Ann-Margaret, Lou Rawls, Bo Diddley, Isaac Hayes, Junior Wells, Eric Burdon, Paul Rodgers, Buddy Guy, Cliff Richard, Peter Frampton, Dion, the Isley Brothers, Santana, Tom Petty. So how the heck could I pick just one version?! In the end, I went with Foghat's version since they had a hit with it, and they performed it in a fairly different style.

The whole point of the "Covered" series is to highlight the skills of songwriters who generally didn't get famous as performers too. I hope you enjoy these three Willie Dixon albums and gain a new appreciation of his role behind many blues classics.

01 I Just Want to Make Love to You (Foghat)
02 Help Me (Van Morrison)
03 Built for Comfort (UFO)
04 Violent Love (Oingo Boingo)
05 Close to You (Byther Smith)
06 Let Me Love You, Baby (Stevie Ray Vaughan)
07 I Can't Quit You Baby (Otis Rush)
08 Howlin' for My Baby [Howlin' for My Darling] (George Thorogood & the Destroyers)
09 Third Degree (Eric Clapton)
10 Hidden Charms (Elvis Costello)
11 I Want to Be Loved (Cassandra Wilson)
12 You Can't Judge a Book by the Cover (Strypes)
13 Bring It on Home (Joan Osborne)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15833659/CoveredWilleD_1972-2012_Volum3_atse.zip.html

Once again, I don't know any details of where or when the cover art photo is from. But I'm guessing he's older than for the other two photos, just based on looks. And for once I was able to use an actual color photo of him instead of colorizing one. I did change the background color some, since the original happened to be close to the yellow I use for all the text in this series.

Various Artists - Covered: Willie Dixon, Volume 2: 1966-1972

This is the second of three albums in the Covered series, showing the songwriting skills of blues legend Willie Dixon. I've tried to focus on the influence Dixon had on rock and soul music. The time period here probably represents his peak for that kind of influence, as British rockers especially were really into his songs.

For many of these songs, I had a hard time deciding which version to use, because there are so many great versions. I narrowed down the choices by having only one artist per song for the whole series. Okay, I did cheat a bit on this one, since Koko Taylor sings both "Wang Dang Doodle" and is part of a duet for "Insane Asylum." But I picked the latter mainly because it's a rare example of Dixon singing lead, showing he was a perfectly capable blues singer.

With Volume 1, I included the song "You Need Love" by the Small Faces (also known as "You Need Loving"). That was fairly true to the original Dixon song, first made popular by a version done by Muddy Waters. Led Zeppelin clearly was familiar with the Small Faces version, since their lead singer Robert Plant was an unabashed Small Faces groupie for a time. They tweaked with it and turned it into the classic "Whole Lotta Love." At first, they claimed they wrote this by themselves, but they were later forced to add Dixon's name to the songwriting credits.

01 Wang Dang Doodle (Koko Taylor)
02 Diddy Wah Diddy (Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band)
03 The Same Thing (Animals)
04 I Love the Life I Live (Mose Allison)
05 Insane Asylum (Willie Dixon & Koko Taylor)
06 Back Door Man (Doors)
07 Hoochie Coochie Man (Jimi Hendrix)
08 You Shook Me (Jeff Beck Group)
09 Fire (Etta James)
10 Whole Lotta Love (Led Zeppelin)
11 Evil (Derek & the Dominos)
12 Dead Presidents (J. Geils Band)
13 Do the Do (Tim Hardin)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17180198/COVRDWilliDxon1966-1972Volum2_atse.zip.html

alternate link:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/9CESsGd6

As with the cover photo for Volume 1, I have no idea what year this cover photo is from. But I'm guessing it's some years after the one for Volume 1 due to his receding hairline. The original was in black and white, but I colorized it. Also like the photo for Volume 1, I darkened his skin some to better match how he looks in the actual color photo I used for Volume 3.

UPDATE: On September 29, 2024, I upgraded the photo with the use of the Krea AI program.

Various Artists - Covered: Willie Dixon, Volume 1: 1954-1966

Next up for the "Covered" series is Willie Dixon. You may not be familiar with him unless you're a blues fan, but he's a musical legend. I would guess that maybe half of all classic blues songs were written by him. And since blues has had such a massive impact on rock and soul music, he's a towering figure for those genres too. Chuck Berry has said of him, "He made me what I am, so far as the basics of my music." And Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones has said, "He is the backbone of post-war blues writing... the absolute." His nickname is "the poet laureate of the blues."

But despite his influence, he isn't as well known as he should be because he wasn't much of a performer. He did play bass on a lot of records, but he didn't sing much, or put out many albums under his own names. Instead, he was mainly content to write for others, most especially blues legends Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf.

If you want to know more about him, here's the link to his Wikipedia entry:

Willie Dixon - Wikipedia

I've found enough great songs from him for three albums. I could fill those albums mostly with performances by Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, and other blues greats. But since I want to introduce people to his musical legacy who aren't already big blues fans, I've tried to pick versions done by rock artists. In order to help with that, I'm limited myself to only one song for each musical artist for all three of his albums in this series. You'll still find some blues artists on this volume, but less so on the other two. The songs are sorted chronologically, and rock artists began covering him around 1964, which is in the later half of this album, when the Rolling Stones took his "Little Red Rooster" all the way to number one on the British charts.

This album is slightly longer than 45 minutes, and the other two volumes have similar lengths.

01 I'm Ready (Muddy Waters)
02 My Babe (Little Walter)
03 Pretty Thing (Bo Diddley)
04 I Don't Care Who Knows (Harrold Burrage)
05 I Cry and Sing the Blues (Buddy Guy)
06 Lovin' Up a Storm (Jerry Lee Lewis)
07 I Can't Hold Out (Elmore James)
08 For My Baby (Brook Benton)
09 Three Hundred Pounds of Joy (Howlin' Wolf)
10 Little Red Rooster (Rolling Stones)
11 Just like I Treat You (Rod Stewart & Long John Baldry & the Hoochie Coochie Men)
12 Meet Me in the Bottom (Everly Brothers)
13 Seventh Son (Johnny Rivers)
14 You Need Love [You Need Loving] (Small Faces)
15 Spoonful (Cream)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17180205/COVRDWilliDxon1954-1966Volum1_atse.zip.html

alternate link:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/9CESsGd6

I have no idea what year this photo of Willie Dixon is from. But pretty much all of the other photos I've found him show him at least partially bald, so I figure he's fairly young here. The original of this photo was in black and white, but I colorized it. His skin is fairly dark in the (actual color) photo I've chosen for the third volume in this series, so I darkened his skin some on this one to better match that one. 

UPDATE: On September 29, 2024, I upgraded the photo with the use of the Krea AI program.