01	All Your Love						02:58
	02	Love Me With A Feeling						02:10
	03	Everything Gonna Be Alright						02:56
	04	Look Watcha Done						02:15
	05	All Night Long						02:50
	06	All My Whole Life						02:16
	07	Easy Baby						03:30
	08	21 Days In Jail						02:45
	09	Love Me This Way						02:51
	10	Magic Rocker						02:31
	11	Roll Your Moneymaker						02:46
	12	Call Me If You Need Me						03:05
	13	Every Night About This Time						02:09
	14	Blue Light Boogie						02:40
	15	Out Of Bad Luck						02:24
	16	She Belongs To Me						02:32

All Your Love
Love Me With A Feeling
Everything Gonna Be Alright
Look Watcha Done
recorded at Chicago, 1957

All Night Long
All My Whole Life
Easy Baby
21 Days In Jail
Love Me This Way
Magic Rocker
recorded at Chicago, 1958

Roll Your Moneymaker
Call Me If You Need Me
recorded at Chicago, 1958

Every Night About This Time
Blue Light Boogie
recorded at Chicago, circa April 1960

Out Of Bad Luck
She Belongs To Me
recorded at Chicago, 1960


West Side Soul
Date of Release 1967
Styles Modern Electric Blues, Chicago Blues, Electric Chicago Blues, Electric Blues, Modern Electric Chicago Blues

To call West Side Soul one of the great blues albums, one of the key albums (if not the key album) of modern electric blues is all true, but it tends to diminish and academicize Magic Sam's debut album. This is the inevitable side effect of time, when an album that is decades old enters the history books, but this isn't an album that should be preserved in amber, seen only as an important record. Because this is a record that is exploding with life, a record with so much energy, it doesn't sound old. Of course, part of the reason it sounds so modern is because this is the template for most modern blues, whether it comes from Chicago or elsewhere. Magic Sam may not have been the first to blend uptown soul and urban blues, but he was the first to capture not just the passion of soul, but also its subtle elegance, while retaining the firepower of an after-hours blues joint. Listen to how the album begins, with "That's All I Need," a swinging tune that has as much in common with Curtis Mayfield as it does Muddy Waters, but it doesn't sound like either - it's a synthesis masterminded by Magic Sam, rolling along on the magnificent, delayed cadence of his guitar and powered by his impassioned vocals. West Side Soul would be remarkable if it only had this kind of soul-blues, but it also is filled with blistering, charged electric blues, fueled by wild playing by Magic Sam and Mighty Joe Young - not just on the solos, either, but in the rhythm (witness how "I Feel So Good [I Wanna Boogie]" feels unhinged as it barrels along). Similarly, Magic Sam's vocals are sensitive or forceful, depending on what the song calls for. Some of these elements might have been heard before, but never in a setting so bristling with energy and inventiveness; it doesn't sound like it was recorded in a studio, it sounds like the best night in a packed club. But it's more than that, because there's a diversity in the sound here, an originality so fearless, he not only makes "Sweet Home Chicago" his own (no version before or since is as definitive as this), he creates the soul-injected, high-voltage modern blues sound that everybody has emulated and nobody has topped in the years since. And, again, that makes it sound like a history lesson, but it's not. This music is alive, vibrant, and vital - nothing sounds as tortured as "I Need You So Bad," no boogie is as infectious as "Mama, Mama Talk to Your Daughter," no blues as haunting as "All of Your Love." No matter what year you listen to it, you'll never hear a better, more exciting record that year. - Stephen Thomas Erlewine

1. That's All I Need (Magic Sam [1]) - 3:40
2. I Need You So Bad - 4:51
3. I Feel So Good (I Wanna Boogie) - 4:36
4. All Your Love (Magic Sam [1]/Rush) - 3:43
5. I Don't Want No Woman - 3:38
6. Sweet Home Chicago (Traditional) - 4:11
7. I Found a New Love - 4:03
8. Every Night and Every Day (McCracklin) - 2:19
9. Lookin' Good [instrumental] (Magic Sam [1]) - 3:11
10. My Love Will Never Die - 4:04
11. Mama Talk to Your Daughter - 2:40
12. I Don't Want No Woman [alternate take] - 3:30


Stu Black - Engineer
Earnest Johnson - Bass
Ernie Johnson - Bass
Robert G. Koester - Producer, Supervisor
Magic Sam - Guitar, Vocals, Performer
Odie Payne - Drums
Roger Seibel - Digital Mastering
Stockholm Slim - Piano
Mack Thompson - Bass
Mighty Joe Young - Guitar
Jack Bradley - Photography
Zbigniew Jastrzebski - Cover Design
Bill Lindemann - Liner Notes

1993 CD Charly BM29
1968 LP Delmark DS-615
CS Delmark DC-615
CD Delmark DD-615








Magic Sam
AKA born: Samuel Maghett
Born Feb 14, 1937 in Grenada, MS
Died Dec 1, 1969 in Chicago, IL
Styles Modern Electric Chicago Blues, Electric Chicago Blues

by Bill Dahl

No blues guitarist better represented the adventurous modern sound of Chicago's West side more proudly than Sam Maghett. He died tragically young (at age 32 of a heart attack), right when he was on the brink of climbing the ladder to legitimate stardom - but Magic Sam left behind a thick legacy of bone-cutting blues that remains eminently influential around his old stomping grounds to this day.
Mississippi Delta-born Sam Maghett (one of his childhood pals was towering guitarist Morris Holt, who received his Magic Slim handle from Sam). In 1950, Sam arrived in Chicago, picking up a few blues guitar pointers from his new neighbor, Syl Johnson (whose brother Mack Thompson served as Sam's loyal bassist for much of his professional career). Harpist Shakey Jake Harris, sometimes referred to as the guitarist's uncle, encouraged Sam's blues progress and gigged with him later on, when both were West side institutions.

Sam's tremolo-rich staccato finger-picking was an entirely fresh phenomenon when he premiered it on Eli Toscano's Cobra label in 1957. Prior to his Cobra date, the guitarist had been gigging as Good Rocking Sam, but Toscano wanted to change his nickname to something old-timey like Sad Sam or Singing Sam. No dice, said the newly christened Magic Sam (apparently Mack Thompson's brainstorm).

His Cobra debut single, "All Your Love," was an immediate local sensation; its unusual structure would be recycled time and again by Sam throughout his tragically truncated career. Sam's Cobra encores "Everything Gonna Be Alright" and "Easy Baby" borrowed much the same melody but were no less powerful; the emerging West side sound was now officially committed to vinyl. Not everything Sam cut utilized the tune; "21 Days in Jail" was a pseudo-rockabilly smoker with hellacious lead guitar from Sam and thundering slap bass from the ubiquitous Willie Dixon. Sam also backed Shakey Jake Harris on his lone 45 for Cobra's Artistic subsidiary, "Call Me If You Need Me."

After Cobra folded, Sam didn't follow labelmates Otis Rush and Magic Slim over to Chess. Instead, after enduring an unpleasant Army experience that apparently landed him in jail for desertion, Sam opted to go with Mel London's Chief logo in 1960. His raw-boned West side adaptation of Fats Domino's mournful "Every Night About This Time" was the unalloyed highlight of his stay at Chief; some other Chief offerings were less compelling.

Gigs on the West side remained plentiful for the charismatic guitarist, but recording opportunities proved sparse until 1966, when Sam made a 45 for Crash Records. "Out of Bad Luck" brought back that trademark melody again, but it remained as shattering as ever. Another notable 1966 side, the plaintive "That's Why I'm Crying," wound up on Delmark's Sweet Home Chicago anthology, along with Sam's stunning clippity-clop boogie instrumental "Riding High" (aided by the muscular tenor sax of Eddie Shaw).

Delmark Records was the conduit for Magic Sam's two seminal albums, 1967's West Side Soul and the following year's Black Magic. Both LPs showcased the entire breadth of Sam's West side attack: the first ranged from the soul-laced "That's All I Need" and a searing "I Feel So Good" to the blistering instrumental "Lookin' Good" and definitive remakes of "Mama Talk to Your Daughter" and "Sweet Home Chicago," while Black Magic benefitted from Shaw's jabbing, raspy sax as Sam blasted through the funky "You Belong to Me," an impassioned "What Have I Done Wrong," and a personalized treatment of Freddy King's "San-Ho-Zay."

Sam's reputation was growing exponentially. He wowed an overflow throng at the 1969 Ann Arbor Blues Festival, and Stax was reportedly primed to sign him when his Delmark commitment was over. However, heart problems were fast taking their toll on Sam's health. On the first morning of December of 1969, he complained of heartburn, collapsed, and died.

Even now, more than a quarter century after his passing, Magic Sam remains the king of West side blues. That's unlikely to change as long as the sub-genre is alive and kicking.

1966 Magic Touch [live] Black Top
1967 West Side Soul Charly
1968 Black Magic Delmark
2002 Black Magic Blues RKO-Unique