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Muddy Waters - Chess Box (1972)

Track listing:
  1. Gypsy Woman 2:36
  2. Good Looking Woman 2:44
  3. Mean Disposition 2:37
  4. I Can't Be Satisfied 2:44
  5. I Feel Like Going Home 3:12
  6. Train Fare Home 2:48
  7. Mean Red Spider 2:18
  8. Streamline Woman 3:20
  9. Little Geneva 2:49
  10. Rollin' and Tumblin', Pt. 1 3:02
  11. Rolling Stone 3:09
  12. Walking Blues 2:59
  13. Louisiana Blues 2:56
  14. Evans Shuffle (Ebony Boogie) 2:14
  15. Long Distance Call 2:42
  16. Honey Bee 3:24
  17. She Moves Me 2:59
  18. Still a Fool 3:20
  19. Stuff You Gotta Watch 2:51
  20. Standing Around Crying 3:25
  21. Flood [#] 2:42
  22. Baby Please Don't Go 3:19
  23. Blow Wind Blow 3:13
  24. Hoochie Coochie Man [alternate take] 2:48
  25. I Just Want to Make Love to You 2:52
  26. I'm Ready 3:05
  27. Smokestack Lightning 3:10
  28. Young Fashioned Ways 3:03
  29. Mannish Boy 2:58
  30. Trouble No More 2:43
  31. Forty Days and Forty Nights 2:54
  32. Just to Be With You 3:17
  33. Don't Go No Farther 2:57
  34. Diamonds at Your Feet 2:27
  35. I Love the Life I Live, I Live the Life I... 2:52
  36. Rock Me 3:13
  37. Look What You've Done 2:24
  38. Got My Mojo Working 2:51
  39. Good News 2:50
  40. Evil 2:21
  41. She's Nineteen Years Old 3:20
  42. Close to You 3:07
  43. Walkin' Thru the Park 2:47
  44. Blues Before Sunrise 3:55
  45. Lonesome Road Blues 3:06
  46. Take the Bitter With the Sweet 3:54
  47. She's into Something 2:48
  48. Southbound Train 2:56
  49. Double Trouble 2:48
  50. I Feel So Good [live] 3:00
  51. You Shook Me 2:45
  52. You Need Love 2:46
  53. Twenty-Four Hours 2:32
  54. Elevate Me Mama [alternate take] 3:06
  55. So Glad I'm Living 2:55
  56. My Love Strikes Like Lightning 2:46
  57. You Don't Have to Go [alternate take] 2:53
  58. The Things That I Used to Do 3:16
  59. My Home Is in the Delta 4:02
  60. Good Morning Little Schoolgirl 3:16
  61. The Same Thing 2:42
  62. You Can't Lose What You Ain't Never Had 2:59
  63. Short Dress Woman 2:49
  64. Making Friends 2:39
  65. Black Night 3:20
  66. Bird Nest on the Ground 2:56
  67. Country Boy [live] 4:44
  68. Sugar Sweet 2:19
  69. All Aboard 2:42
  70. Going Down Slow [live] 4:12
  71. Who's Gonna Be Your Sweet Man When I'm... 5:10
  72. Can't Get No Grindin' (What's the Matter... 2:47

Notes

The Chess Box does not contain all the great music Muddy Waters made. His talent and legacy are too large to be captured in a mere three discs, even one that spans from 1947 to 1972. This means, of course, that his legendary plantation recordings with Alan Lomax are not here, nor is his dynamic late-'70s comeback, Hard Again. But, truth be told, it doesn't feel like they're missing, since Waters' legend was built on the music that he made for Chess, and much of the greatest of that is here. Few box sets have chronicled an artist's best work as effectively as this; even the handful of rare, previously unreleased recordings sit perfectly next to the essential singles (this is particularly true of alternate takes of Fathers and Sons material). Sure, there are great Chess sides that aren't here, but those are great sides that the serious listener and aficionado need to seek out. For everybody else, this is a monumental chronicle of Waters at his best, illustrating his influence while providing rich, endlessly fascinating music.