West Side Soul

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Editorial reviews

Amazon.com
Many believe this 1967 landmark, Sam Maghett's first full-length studio recording, is the greatest blues album ever made. While that assertion is awfully difficult to substantiate, these 11 gems (plus one alternate) certainly deserve hyperbolic praise. These cuts have a dramatically direct emotional appeal, a blunt, unfiltered artlessness that's rarely been achieved in an electric setting. Sam's spirited vocals come from his heart and his belly, not his brain. His guitar work is smoothly melodic, à la B. B. King with a bit more bite, frenetic and energetic like Buddy Guy, but with more taste. Since this Mississippi native died at age 32, this album sits in a mystical place in blues history: In many ways, it is to Chicago blues what Robert Johnson's meager output is to Delta blues. --Marc Greilsamer

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Customer reviews

review by: Blue Barry date: 2008-09-25 rating:
Classic Chicago Blues--an almost perfect album
This is recognized by all as one of the classic blues albums of all time, probably the best Chicago blues album ever recorded. It is just about perfect. In saying that, I do not minimize the work of Howling Wolf or Muddy Waters who did their best recordings as singles. But,if you only are going to have 10 blues cds in your collection, this is a must have. Listen to these vocals with their honest emotion, appreciate this songwriting, the perfect guitar work and you will have a standard to measure all blues music by, particularly blues in the Chicago style. The present blues scene is populated by way too much weak songwriting that does little more than act as a way to get to the long guitar solo. Having said that, the blues should evolve and not be stuck in Chicago 50 years ago. West Side Soul was ground-breaking and my point is good music stands the test of time.

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review by: BirdandPrez date: 2008-09-15 rating:
The Real Stuff
What can you say? This recording from 1967 is an apex of the blues.

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review by: date: 2008-05-13 rating:
I cried out of sheer joy when i heard this for the first time.....
It was the summer of 1994, the first time i heard this record from a friend of mine (bless the man). you remember the kind of thrill that you experience when you see/ hear something so profound that it electrifies your whole system, i had tears in my eyes out of pure happiness when i heard the songs.

This is unarguably the greatest blues album ever made, its a tragedy that Sam Maghett had to pass away at the young age of 32. This album will blow you away into pieces, each and every song is pure gold.

Just read the emotion and passion of the other reviewers, barring one retard who feels this album is "dated" (must be a winehouse fan) , every other reviewer here is right on the money.

This album is a keeper and will define what music is like, a 100 , 200 years from now.

10 Stars. Recommend to own and makes for an awesome gift as well!

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review by: date: 2008-04-28 rating:
Lives up to the hype
Plenty of blues enthusiasts cite this as one of the best blues albums ever. I own quite a few albums by Muddy, B.B., and Wolf and this one stacks up to them. A nice find.


review by: date: 2008-04-05 rating:
west side is the best side
arguably one of the best blues recordings. get it, listen to it, and you'll want to listen to it again.

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