Muddy Waters : Electric Mud (1968)

Muddy Waters purists love to hate this album. Released in '78, Electric Mud was recorded as his record company's attempt to capitalize on the hippies idolatry for Muddy Waters near the end of the seventies. You'll hear a wah wah pedal and fuzzbox combo all over this album, laying down a psychedelic production style on classic 50's Waters tunes. It's an incredibly goofy idea and I'm sure Muddy was ticked with his management for putting him in the session and for putting it out under his name, but it totally works. It rips. The b side re-working of "Mannish Boy" is wild and his cover of "Let's Spend the Night Together" is vicious. His backing band (Rotary connection) is tight throughout the release and complicates Waters' style in a unique way. You could argue it's a gimmick, and I'm sure most music fans with a strong sense of history and authenticity will bag on it, but this meeting point between psychedelia and traditional blues jams is a gem in my eyes.