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Track Listings
| 1. I'm A King Bee |
| 2. Too Young To Know |
| 3. Mean Old Frisco Blues |
| 4. Forever Lonely |
| 5. I Feel Like Going Home |
| 6. Champagne & Reefer |
| 7. Sad Sad Day |
| 8. (My Eyes) Keep Me In Trouble |
| 9. Deep Down In Florida #2 |
| 10. No Escape From The Blues |
| 11. I Won't Go On |
| 12. Clouds In My Heart |
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Customer Reviews
However, in spite of this, when i put the disc in my Cd player i was blown away with a raw, powerful version of King Bee in which the whole band including Muddy sounded on top form. The party mood of Hard Again and I'm Ready had gone but this does not seem to detract too greatly from the music and it may have added even more mood and deep sadness to slow blues songs. However, i found that after track 7 the CD gradually went down hill with uninspiring numbers like 'Deep Down in Florida No.2' and 'No Escape From the Blues'.
King Bee is a mixed bag with some fantastic songs like 'King Bee' and the deep and moody 'Sad Sad Day' but also some weak material which appears to have been used to fill out the album when there was a shortage of quality songs. If you don't already own 'Hard Again' and 'I'm Ready' i would stongly advise that they are your first port of call. King Bee is still a good album mainly because it was recorded by the king of the blues backed by one of the hottest bands in the history of electric blues but alongside 'Hard Again' and 'I'm Ready' it is slightly disappointing.
Originally issued in 1981, "King Bee" was recorded at a time when Muddy Waters, then 65, was slowing down because of health problems, and his band was losing money because they were gigging less, finally causing them to quit en masse.
Guitarist Bob Margolin's candid liner notes are much more brief and a lot less jolly than the warm and often humorous mini-essays he wrote for the reissues of "Hard Again" and "I'm Ready", and while his fondness for Muddy Waters is very obvious, it is equally obvious that he did not have a good time recording this album, Muddy Waters' last.
Because of the tensions in the studio preceding the breakup of the Muddy Waters Band, producer and occational guitarist Johnny Winter felt the sessions had not produced enough solid material to yield an entire album, so he padded "King Bee" with outtakes from the 1977 "Hard Again" sessions (and this 2004 edition adds another two previously unreleased numbers).
But there is certainly nothing wrong with the songs that did make the cut. "King Bee" is as lean and mean an album as Muddy ever made, and though the guest stars from the first two Blue Sky albums are missing, the "regular" Muddy Waters Band is every bit as competent as any all star combo. Muddy may have been ailing, but his voice is still strong and confident, and the rhythm section of Calvin "Fuzz" Jones (bass) and drummer Willie "Big Eyes" Smith is rock-solid, digging a train track groove on each and every song. Well, except the acoustic slide guitar workout "I Feel Like Going Home", a wonderful re-recording of one of Muddy's earliest waxings.
Muddy Waters and his killer ensemble lifts relatively lightweight numbers like "Deep Down In Florida", "My Eyes Keep Me In Trouble" and "Champagne And Reefer" high above mediocrity, and songs like "No Escape From The Blues", the swaggering "Too Young To Know" and the gritty title track pack an immense wallop.
There are no weak songs here, actually. The re-recording of "Sad Sad Day" should be a blueprint for all slow blues numbers, and the two bonus tracks are by no means throwaways.
Muddy recorded James Oden's "I Won't Go On" (which is suspiciously reminicent of "I Feel So Good") way back in the 50s, and here it is again, rough and tough and sung in a deep, manly baritone by Waters. And the slow grind of "Clouds In My Heart" is one of the finest songs on the album, featuring a sublime soulful lead vocal, masterful drumming, and some tremendous lead guitar playing courtesy of "Steady Rollin'" Bob Margolin.
Johnny Winter plays excellent slide guitar on several songs (although that is Muddy himself wielding the bottleneck on "Sad Sad Day"), and there is not a glimmer of rock commercialism in is playing, it is pure blues. His abilities as a producer are equally fine, and while "King Bee" doesn't usually get the attention of "Hard Again" or Muddy's classic Chess sides, it should be considered a must-own for any semi-serious Muddy Waters-fan, especially this expanded edition.
4½ stars. Highly recommended.
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