VARIOUS ARTISTS
''WILLIE DIXON: THE CHESS BOX, DISC TWO''
1989
110:29
DISC ONE
1/My Babe/Little Walter
Willie Dixon/2:40
2/Violent Love/The Big Three Trio
Willie Dixon/2:20
3/Third Degree/Eddie Boyd
Willie Dixon/3:13
4/Seventh Son/Willie Mabon
Willie Dixon/2:52
5/Crazy for My Baby/Willie Dixon
Willie Dixon/2:49
6/Pain in My Heart/Willie Dixon
Willie Dixon/3:18
7/(I'm Your) Hoochie Coochie Man/Willie Dixon
Willie Dixon/2:45
8/Evil/Howlin' Wolf
Willie Dixon/2:52
9/Mellow Down Easy/Little Walter
Willie Dixon/2:40
10/When the Lights Go Out/Jimmy Witherspoon
Willie Dixon/2:50
11/Young Fashioned Ways/Muddy Waters
Willie Dixon/2:59
12/Pretty Thing/Bo Diddley
Willie Dixon/2:49
13/I'm Ready/Muddy Waters
Willie Dixon/3:02
14/Do Me Right/Lowell Fulson
Willie Dixon/2:52
15/I Just Want to Make Love to You/Muddy Waters
Willie Dixon/2:50
16/Tollin' Bells/Lowell Fulson
Willie Dixon/3:04
17/29 Ways/Willie Dixon
Willie Dixon/2:08
18/Walking the Blues/Willie Dixon
Willie Dixon/3:01
DISC TWO
1/Spoonful/Howlin' Wolf
Willie Dixon/2:45
2/You Know My Love/Otis Rush
Willie Dixon/2:40
3/You Can't Judge a Book by Its Cover/Bo Diddley
Willie Dixon/3:08
4/I Ain't Superstitious/Howlin' Wolf
Willie Dixon/2:52
5/You Need Love/Muddy Waters
Willie Dixon/2:39
6/Little Red Rooster/Howlin' Wolf
Chester Burnett / Willie Dixon/2:25
7/Back Door Man/Howlin' Wolf
Willie Dixon/2:48
8/Dead Presidents/Little Walter
Willie Dixon / Bill Emerson/2:45
9/Hidden Charms/Howlin' Wolf
Willie Dixon/2:21
10/You Shook Me/Muddy Waters
Willie Dixon / J.B. Lenoir/2:40
11/Bring It on Home/Sonny Boy Williamson II
Willie Dixon/2:33
12/Three Hundred Pounds of Joy/Howlin' Wolf
Willie Dixon/3:02
13/Weak Brain, Narrow Mind/Willie Dixon
Willie Dixon/4:24
14/Wang Dang Doodle/Koko Taylor
Willie Dixon/2:59
15/The Same Thing/Muddy Waters
Willie Dixon/5:54
16/Built for Comfort/Howlin' Wolf
Willie Dixon/2:33
17/I Can't Quit You Baby/Little Milton
Willie Dixon/6:38
18/Insane Asylum/Koko Taylor
Willie Dixon/4:19
Billy Boy Arnold /Harmonica
Harold Ashby /Sax (Tenor)
Gene Barge /Arranger, Conductor, Sax (Tenor)
Fred Below /Drums
The Big Three Trio
Michael Bloomfield /Guitar
Eddie Boyd /Piano, Vocals
Earl Brown /Sax (Alto)
J.T. Brown /Sax (Tenor)
Paul Butterfield /Harmonica
Calvin Carter /Producer
Leonard Caston /Guitar, Piano, Vocals
Eddie Chamblee /Sax (Tenor)
Francis Clay /Drums
Lee Cooper /Guitar
Ernest Cotton /Sax (Tenor)
Ollie Crawford /Guitar, Vocals (Background)
Little Sax Crowder /Sax (Tenor)
Bo Diddley /Guitar, Vocals
Willie Dixon /Bass, Guitar (Acoustic), Producer, Vocals, Vocals (Background)
Al Duncan /Drums
Donald "Duck" Dunn /Bass
Lowell Fulson /Guitar, Vocals
Jarrett Gibson /Sax (Baritone), Sax (Tenor)
Lloyd Glenn /Piano
Henry Gray /Piano
Jerome Green /Maracas, Vocals (Background)
Buddy Guy /Guitar, Guitar (Bass)
William K. "Billy" Hadnott /Bass
Donald Hankins /Sax (Baritone)
Earl Hooker /Guitar
Howlin' Wolf /Harmonica, Vocals
Clifton James /Drums
Casey Jones /Drums
Frank Kirkland /Drums
Sam Lay /Drums
Lafayette Leake /Organ, Piano
Little Milton /Guitar, Vocals
Little Walter /Harmonica, Vocals
Robert Lockwood, Jr. /Guitar
Willie Mabon /Piano, Vocals
Jack Meyers /Bass (Electric), Guitar (Bass)
Matt "Guitar" Murphy /Guitar, Guitar (Bass)
Dave Myers /Guitar
Bob Neely /Sax (Tenor)
Odie Payne, Jr. /Drums
Earl Phillips /Drums
Milton Rector /Bass (Electric)
Jimmy Rogers /Guitar
Otis Rush /Guitar, Vocals
Otis Spann /Piano
Hubert Sumlin /Guitar
Koko Taylor /Vocals
Johnny "Big Moose" Walker /Organ, Piano
Percy Walker /Drums
Muddy Waters /Guitar, Vocals
Jody Williams /Guitar
Johnny Williams /Guitar
Johnny Williams /Guitar (Rhythm)
Sonny Boy Williamson II /Harmonica, Vocals
Jimmy Witherspoon /Vocals
REVIEW
by Bruce Eder
This was the most unusual, and probably the most difficult to assemble of MCA's Chess Box series, mostly because of the unusual nature of Willie Dixon's contribution to Chess Records. To be sure, Dixon rates a place in the history of the label right alongside that of Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, and Little Walter, but his role was more subtle than that of a performer (indeed, two of the half-dozen recordings here that feature Dixon as a singer were previously unreleased). So he is all over this two-CD set, as a songwriter, producer, and bassist, and occasionally as a singer as well, but the unifying element are the Dixon songs, and he is the only blues songwriter to be honored by a major label with a retrospective of this type. Since he was not the performer on most of this material, but, rather, was working to mesh his material with the styles and sensibilities of a vast range of players, the sounds contained on these two CDs are a lot more varied than on any of the other Chess Box releases -- amplified Delta blues, big band, Mills Brothers-style harmony blues, jazz-influenced jump blues, and near-pop style R&B are all here; guitar pyrotechnics by Muddy Waters or Hubert Sumlin (on the Wolf's records), vocal acrobatics by Little Walter, and rippling performances by Koko Taylor illuminate this set throughout. While some of it, such as Muddy Waters' single of "Hoochie Coochie Man"; Little Walter's "My Babe"; Howlin' Wolf's performances of "Evil," "Spoonful," "Little Red Rooster," and "Back Door Man"; and Lowell Fulson's version of "Do Me Right" are easily available elsewhere, a lot else of what's here is genuinely rare and most enticing -- Dixon's own renditions of "Violent Love," "Crazy For My Baby," and "Pain In My Heart," in particular, are great records, lacking perhaps only a slight measure of the energy that a Muddy Waters brought to recording. Most of the set is concentrated on his blues work -- a pair of hot Bo Diddley sides ("Pretty Thing," "You Can't Judge a Book by Its Cover") that Dixon wrote are represented, but since he didn't write anything for Chuck Berry, that side of Dixon's history is left out, despite his having played bass on most of Berry's early recordings. Still, it's difficult to imagine anyone complaining over an "excuse" to bring some of the best sides of Muddy, Walter, the Wolf, Diddley, Taylor, Lowell Fulson, Jimmy Witherspoon, Sonny Boy Williamson, Otis Rush, and even Dixon's own '40s outfit, the Big Three together in one release. The sound is impeccable, holding up to standards even a dozen years later, and the set includes a well-illustrated and annotated booklet.
BIOGRAPHY
by Bruce Eder
Willie Dixon's life and work was virtually an embodiment of the progress of the blues, from an accidental creation of the descendants of freed slaves to a recognized and vital part of America's musical heritage. That Dixon was one of the first professional blues songwriters to benefit in a serious, material way -- and that he had to fight to do it -- from his work also made him an important symbol of the injustice that still informs the music industry, even at the end of the 20th century. A producer, songwriter, bassist, and singer, he helped Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter, and others find their most commercially successful voices.
By the time he was a teenager, Dixon was writing songs and selling copies to the local bands. He also studied music with a local carpenter, Theo Phelps, who taught him about harmony singing. With his bass voice, Dixon later joined a group organized by Phelps, the Union Jubilee Singers, who appeared on local radio. Dixon eventually made his way to Chicago, where he won the Illinois State Golden Gloves Heavyweight Championship. He might have been a successful boxer, but he turned to music instead, thanks to Leonard "Baby Doo" Caston, a guitarist who had seen Dixon at the gym where he worked out and occasionally sang with him. The two formed a duo playing on street corners, and later Dixon took up the bass as an instrument. They later formed a group, the Five Breezes, who recorded for the Bluebird label. The group's success was halted, however, when Dixon refused induction into the armed forces as a conscientious objector. Dixon was eventually freed after a year, and formed another group, the Four Jumps of Jive. In 1945, however, Dixon was back working with Caston in a group called the Big Three Trio, with guitarist Bernardo Dennis (later replaced by Ollie Crawford).
During this period, Dixon would occasionally appear as a bassist at late-night jam sessions featuring members of the growing blues community, including Muddy Waters. Later on when the Chess brothers -- who owned a club where Dixon occasionally played -- began a new record label, Aristocrat (later Chess), they hired him, initially as a bassist on a 1948 session for Robert Nighthawk. The Chess brothers liked Dixon's playing, and his skills as a songwriter and arranger, and during the next two years he was working regularly for the Chess brothers. He got to record some of his own material, but generally Dixon was seldom featured as an artist at any of these sessions.
Dixon's real recognition as a songwriter began with Muddy Waters' recording of "Hoochie Coochie Man." The success of that single, "Evil" by Howlin' Wolf, and "My Babe" by Little Walter saw Dixon established as Chess' most reliable tunesmith, and the Chess brothers continually pushed Dixon's songs on their artists. In addition to writing songs, Dixon continued as bassist and recording manager of many of the Chess label's recording sessions, including those by Lowell Fulson, Bo Diddley, and Otis Rush. Dixon's remuneration for all of this work, including the songwriting, was minimal -- he was barely able to support his rapidly growing family on the 100 dollars a week that the Chess brothers were giving him, and a short stint with the rival Cobra label at the end of the '50s didn't help him much.
During the mid-'60s, Chess gradually phased out Dixon's bass work, in favor of electric bass, thus reducing his presence at many of the sessions. At the same time, a European concert promoter named Horst Lippmann had begun a series of shows called the American Folk-Blues Festival, for which he would bring some of the top blues players in America over to tour the continent. Dixon ended up organizing the musical side of these shows for the first decade or more, recording on his own as well and earning a good deal more money than he was seeing from his work for Chess. At the same time, he began to see a growing interest in his songwriting from the British rock bands that he saw while in London -- his music was getting covered regularly by artists like the Rolling Stones and the Yardbirds, and when he visited England, he even found himself cajoled into presenting his newest songs to their managements. Back at Chess, Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters continued to perform Dixon's songs, as did newer artists such as Koko Taylor, who had her own hit with "Wang Dang Doodle." Gradually, however, after the mid-'60s, Dixon saw his relationship with Chess Records come to a halt. Partly this was a result of time — the passing of artists such as Little Walter and Sonny Boy Williamson reduced the label's roster of older performers, with whom he had worked for years, and the company's experiments with more rock-oriented sounds (especially on the "Cadet Concept" imprint) took it's output in a direction to which Dixon couldn't contribute. And the death of Leonard Chess in the fall of 1969 and the subsequent sale of the company brought about the end of Dixon's relationship to the company.
I Am the Blues
By the end of the 1960s, Dixon was eager to try his hand as a performer again, a career that had been interrupted when he'd gone to work for Chess as a producer. He recorded an album of his best-known songs, I Am the Blues, for Columbia Records, and organized a touring band, the Chicago Blues All Stars, to play concerts in Europe. Suddenly, in his fifties, he began making a major name for himself on-stage for the first time in his career. Around this time, Dixon began to have grave doubts about the nature of the songwriting contract that he had with Chess' publishing arm, Arc Music. He was seeing precious little money from songwriting, despite the recording of hit versions of such Dixon songs as "Spoonful" by Cream. He had never seen as much money as he was entitled to as a songwriter, but during the 1970s he began to understand just how much money he'd been deprived of, by design or just plain negligence on the part of the publisher doing its job on his behalf.
Led Zeppelin II
Arc Music had sued Led Zeppelin for copyright infringement over "Bring It on Home" on Led Zeppelin II, saying that it was Dixon's song, and won a settlement that Dixon never saw any part of until his manager did an audit of Arc's accounts. Dixon and Muddy Waters would later file suit against Arc Music to recover royalties and the ownership of their copyrights. Additionally, many years later Dixon brought suit against Led Zeppelin for copyright infringement over "Whole Lotta Love" and its resemblance to Dixon's "You Need Love." Both cases resulted in out-of-court settlements that were generous to the songwriter.
The Chess Box
The 1980s saw Dixon as the last survivor of the Chess blues stable and he began working with various organizations to help secure song copyrights on behalf of blues songwriters who, like himself, had been deprived of revenue during previous decades. In 1988, Dixon became the first producer/songwriter to be honored with a boxed set collection, when MCA Records released Willie Dixon: The Chess Box, which included several rare Dixon sides as well as the most famous recordings of his songs by Chess' stars. The following year, Dixon published I Am the Blues (Da Capo Press), his autobiography, written in association with Don Snowden.
La Bamba
Dixon continued performing, and was also called in as a producer on movie soundtracks such as Gingerale Afternoon and La Bamba, producing the work of his old stablemate Bo Diddley. By that time, Dixon was regarded as something of an elder statesman, composer, and spokesperson of American blues. Dixon eventually began suffering from increasingly poor health, and lost a leg to diabetes. He died peacefully in his sleep early in 1992.
