"If A Shark Bite Off My Leg" - Muddy waters, "Just To Be With You," 1956

Label image of Chess 78 1644, from 1956 (flip side is "I Got To Find My Baby.")

I've recently been commuting a couple of days a week by car, takes me between a half hour and an hour each way. Car tunes playing the whole time, of course.

At some point my shuffle brought up "Just To Be With You" by Muddy Waters from 1956, which it'd be an understatement to say CAUGHT MY ATTENTION. Between replaying the track as a whole, and just rewinding Little Walter's blink-and-you'll-miss-it harp solo, I must've played this 40 times last week. You can focus on each instrument  or Muddy's voice or the lyrics by Bernie Roth or just how the room at 2120 South Michigan Avenue sounded, and "Just To Be With You" will deliver on any level you can name. Otis Spann's piano is the only element that is hard to hear in the mix. On the other hand this may be the best drum recording they ever got at Chess.

I've been hectoring everyone I know who's into this stuff to give it a spin, and so far I've gotten a few takers but nobody else seems to have fallen off a cliff the way I have, into full-on obsession. So I figured I'd dust off the old blog so I can rant and rave into the void about it.

First and foremost: Little Walter dominates this record in such a swaggering, stylish way, "JTBWY" claims pride of place in his monumental personal portfolio. "The Jimi Hendrix of the harp" is a cliché that gets thrown around a lot with Walter. Here we have a prime example of how he stepped into a role that Hendrix wouldn't come to until 11 years later: the inventor of a sound no one else had ever made. In terms of chronology, Jimi Hendrix is more correctly called "The Little Walter of the guitar." There are so many beautiful little details here that I'm going to sound insane as I list them, but that's sorta the whole point of this post. First, the constant invention: as the guitarist[s] (Jimmy Rogers - and Muddy?) stay locked into the rhythm guitar riff throughout, Walter never plays the same thing twice. He slips in and out of the guitar gaps, all the while showing different licks, different textures, shifting dynamics. He drops knowledge onto Muddy's brilliant vocal (check out his melodic fanfare for the Devil at 0:52.) He announces his upcoming solo with a little "beep" after Muddy finishes up the verse before. As he gets himself revved up to solo, he shouts AT HIMSELF to "blow!" As if he needed reminding!

Well, Walter certainly psychs himself up all right. A couple of raspy phrases start us out, including the "Blow!" interjection.  Then a slippery trill that morphs into a few thick chords. To finish up, though, he busts out the crazy third section that has been keeping me rewinding for a week. I have trouble describing what I like so much about it; it's the greasiness, the bebopping turnaround at the very end, the brashness.... listen for yourself, starting with the beep at 2:04.  Maybe drop a comment telling me what YOU hear.

Little Walter is by no means the only figure of merit on this track, though. Muddy delivers a fine, powerful, nuanced performance and the songwriter Bernie Roth (also author of "Forty Days And Forty Nights") has come up with some wildly hyperbolic images to fit Muddy's way-larger-than-life mojo-workin' persona. Fight a shark with a toothpick. Walk a canyon on a wire. Survive an amputation (when the toothpick proves inadequate.) Just to be with you.

Musician credits:

Bass – Willie Dixon

Drums – Fred Below

Guitar – Jimmy Rogers

Harmonica [Harp] – Little Walter

Piano – Otis Spann

The drummer (Fred Below) is beautifully rendered with tremendous clarity and presence throughout the track and he is largely responsible for the intense drive and momentum we hear.

Discographical info: https://www.wirz.de/music/waters.htm

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvWAVYWYB5k