Johnny Cash: reinvented
When Marshall Chess gave old blues classics the full psychedelic treatment, fans were outraged. He delighted in the controversy and named Howlin' Wolf's record: This is Howlin' Wolf's New Album. He Doesn't Like It. He Didn't Like His Electric Guitar At First Either.
Muddy Waters got the same reworking from Chess' Cadet Concept label and his album Electric Mud is a revelation, reworking old classics like I Wanna Make Love to You to create the first psychedelic release.
Initial sales were strong, but then the backlash started. Rolling Stone called it "the worst album in the world" in an article that was to ruin the blues artist's reputation. But posterity has been kinder. Public Enemy's Chuck D loves it and said it was the first blues album he bought (in Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues). He brought the original band back together to play Electric Mud live in 2003.
Led Zeppelin have gone on record as saying it was the template for much of their own sound, and it is only a shame that the magnificent Howlin' Wolf album has not received the same regard. They are both perfect end pieces; unique, genuinely groundbreaking and fantastic electric blues albums.
They were also the first in a new genre: the re-imaginings of classic sounds for new audiences. When Johnny Cash returned in the 1990s, he was a good example of an old icon making a new record relevant to a modern audience, although his producer didn't change his classic sound much.
The idea that an artist who had been forgotten can be successfully rehabilitated to their full potential is a gripping concept that we all have embraced since.
Three other artists immediately spring to mind as having benefited from the same treatment.
RL Burnside, a traditional blues artist, rose to infamy in the alt.com world when Fat Possum released his album of lo-fi garage punk blues with Jon Spencer as musical director.
Loretta Lynn's Van Lear Rose brought her back into the mainstream after Jack White tinkered with her sound.
And Vashti Bunyan was sought out by various artists such as Piano Magic and Devendra Banhart, who coaxed her out of obscurity to record again. Her first EP after an absence of nearly 35 years was Prospect Hummer, recorded with the NYC avant garde band Animal Collective. Fans yearning for how she was the first time round are unlikely to have been very pleased.
Many other classic musicians are out there who could be reinterpreted for the changed tastes of a new generation. Which old stars would you give a modern makeover - and who should be at the controls?
