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Electric Mud imagines Muddy Waters as a psychedelic musician. Producer Marshall Chess suggested that Muddy Waters record experimental, psychedelic blues tracks with members of Rotary Connection in trying to revive the blues singer’s career.

The album peaked at #127 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart. It was controversial for its fusion of electric blues with psychedelic elements, but was influential on psychedelic rock bands of the era.

Allmusic.com doesn’t like it:

” It’s a classically wrongheaded, crass update of the blues for a modern audience.”

I can understand the sceptics then, but I’m not a blues-purist and I really love the record!

She’s allright (audio):

 Chuck D(Public Enemy) is a big supporter of the record:
“To me, it’s a brilliant record. I’ve played it a thousand times. It took me a while to warm up to traditional blues, but what struck me right away was the Electric Mud thing.”

And check out the great inlay cover, the man looked great! :

There seems to be a direct similarity between this and what happened to Bob Dylan a few years earlier when he decided to go electric, making his fans angry that he was abandoning his folk roots. Electric Mud was dismissed by blues historians for many years.

But the album had its followers.  Hendrix listened to Herbert Harper’s Free Press News for inspiration before he would perform live.Rolling Stones had a poster of Electric Mud on the wall in their rehearsal studio. It was also an inspiration for Black Dog by Led Zeppelin according to bassist John Paul Jones.

 “…the English accepted it; they are more eccentric.”

– Marshall Chess

Muddy Waters – Electric Mud on Spotify:

“It was a brilliant but misunderstood record”
– Marshall Chess

I agree!

– Hallgeir