I'm Ready (Muddy Waters song)
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| "I'm Ready" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by Muddy Waters | ||||
| B-side | "I Don't Know Why" | |||
| Released | October 27, 1954 | |||
| Recorded | Chicago, September 1, 1954 | |||
| Genre | Blues | |||
| Length | 3:03 | |||
| Label | Chess | |||
| Songwriter | Willie Dixon | |||
| Producers | Leonard Chess, Phil Chess | |||
| Muddy Waters singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
"I'm Ready" is a blues song written by Willie Dixon and first recorded by Muddy Waters in 1954.[1] It was a hit, spending nine weeks on the Billboard R&B chart where it reached number four.[2] The song became a blues standard and has been compared to "Hoochie Coochie Man", the standard also written by Dixon that Waters recorded earlier in 1954.[1]
"I'm Ready" was inspired by a comment by Muddy Waters prior to a gig, when harmonica player Willie Foster visited him at home. As Foster recalled,
I knocked on the door, and he was shaving. He said "You here? I told you to come tomorrow." I said, "Yeah, but I'm here today." While drinking, Waters ribbed Foster for bringing a suitcase for a weekend. He said, "I mean you ready!" And I said, "Ready as anybody can be!" He popped his finger and turned to Willie Dixon and said, "Are you thinking what I'm thinking? That's a record, man!"[3]
Dixon proceeded to write a song and "I'm Ready" was completed within about three days.[4] The lyrics continue the use of swagger and supernatural imagery found in Dixon's "Hoochie Coochie Man", which Waters recorded in January 1954:
I gotta ax handle pistol, on a graveyard frame
That shoots tombstone bullets, wearing balls and chain
I'm drinkin' TNT, smokin' dynamite
I hope some screwball, start a fight[3]
In addition to the lyrical theme, "I'm Ready" incorporates a stop-time sixteen-bar structure analogous to "Hoochie Coochie Man". The song was recorded September 1, 1954, by Waters on vocal and guitar, accompanied by Little Walter on chromatic harmonica, Jimmy Rogers on guitar, Otis Spann on piano, Willie Dixon on bass, and Fred Below on drums.[5]
