Personnel includes: Koko Taylor (vocals); Johnny "Twist" Williams, Matt Murphy, Buddy Guy (guitar); Walter Horton (harmonica); Gene Barge, Donald Hawkins (tenor saxophone); Albert "Sunnyland Slim" Luandrew, Lafayette Leake (piano, organ); Willie Dixon (bass, background vocals); Jack Myers (bass); Clifton James, Fred Below (drums).
Reissue producer: Andy McKaie.
Recorded between December 7, 1965 and April 23, 1969. Originally released on Chess (1532). Includes liner notes by Bill Dahl.
All tracks have been digitally remastered.
The drawing on the cover of Koko Taylor's self-titled 1969 debut album recalls the pictures that decorated 78 sleeves, advertisements, and sheet music for Bessie Smith and the other early blues mamas, linking Taylor to her musical heritage. However, the record itself was a very contemporary affair. Collecting singles reaching back as far as Taylor's '65 hit "Wang Dang Doodle" (an absolutely classic single) and featuring the cream of her Chess Records crop, KOKO TAYLOR is prime late-'60s Chicago blues. The difference between this rollicking music, the R&B records made in Muscle Shoals for Stax/Volt, and the rock & roll on the early Rolling Stones and Pretty Things albums is primarily a matter of the age and ethnicity of its makers--musically, it's all directly related. The CD reissue includes two previously unreleased bonus tracks, "Love Sick Tears" and "He Always Knocks Me Out." minimize