Recently got the Muddy Waters album Electric Mud, which has the reputation of being a disaster but which Chuck D among others has praised in recent years. It is an odd mix: in 1968 the young Marshall Chess, son of Leonard, decided that Muddy should be recorded in an "up-to-date" setting, i.e., quasi-psychedelic guitars and pounding beats. The results are...interesting. One thing to note is that Muddy is on form -- whatever the drawbacks of the final result, Muddy's vocals are strong and sure.
For my money, the best two songs are the only really new ones. (Of the eight tracks, five are re-recordings of songs that Muddy had done before, and one is a Rolling Stones cover.) Here's "Herbert Harper's Free Press News," complete with 1968-style title.
In addition, here's one of the musicians talking about the recording of the album, along with Howlin' Wolf's contemporaneous and similar The Howlin' Wolf Album.
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