|
Muddy Waters was the leading exponent of Chicago blues in the Fifties. With him, the blues came up from the Delta and went electric, and his guitar licks and repertoire have fueled innumerable blues bands. Waters was the son of a farmer and, following his mother's death in 1918, was raised by his grandmother. He picked up his nickname because he fished and played regularly in a muddy creek. He learned to play harmonica, and as a teen he led a band that frequently played Mississippi Delta clubs. His singing was influenced by the style of local bluesman Son House. At 17, Waters began playing guitar by studying Robert Johnson records. In 1940 he traveled to St. Louis and in 1941 joined the Silas Green tent show as a singer and harmonica player. Sometime around 1941-42, Waters was recorded by folk archivists/researchers Alan Lomax and John Work in Mississippi for the Library of Congress.
In 1943 he moved to Chicago, where he found employment in a paper mill. The following year, Waters got an electric guitar and began performing at South Side clubs and rent parties. He cut several sides in 1946 for Columbia's Okeh subsidiary, but none was released until 1981, when they appeared on a Columbia blues reissue, Okeh Chicago Blues. In 1946 bluesman Sunnyland Slim helped Waters get signed to Aristocrat Records, where he cut several unsuccessful singles, and Waters continued playing clubs seven nights a week and driving a truck six days a week.
In 1948 the Chess brothers changed Aristocrat to Chess. Waters' first single on the new label was "Rollin' Stone," a major blues hit. "I Can't Be Satisfied" and "I Feel Like Going Home" from that year secured his position as a major blues performer. Most of Waters' early recordings featured him on electric guitar, Big Crawford or writer/producer Willie Dixon on bass, and occasionally Little Walter on harmonica. By 1951 he was supported by a complete band with Otis Spann on piano, Little Walter on harmonica, Jimmie Rodgers on second guitar, and Elgin Evans on drums.
"Honey Bee" in 1951; "She Moves Me" (#10 R&B) in 1952; "I'm Your Hoochie Coochie Man" (#8 R&B), "I Just Wanna Make Love to You" (#4 R&B), "I'm Ready"(#5 R&B), and "Got My Mojo Working" in 1954; and "Mannish Boy" (#9 R&B) in 1955 are all regarded as blues classics and have been recorded by numerous rock groups. During the Fifties, many of the top Chicago bluesmen passed through Waters' band, including Walter Horton, Junior Wells, Jimmie Rodgers, James Cotton, and Buddy Guy. In addition, Waters was helpful in the early stages of both Howlin' Wolf's and Chuck Berry's careers.
During his peak years as a record seller, Waters' sales were confined primarily to the Mississippi Delta, the New Orleans area, and Chicago. But his reputation and music were internationally known, as the attendance at concerts on his 1958 English tour revealed. The Rolling Stones named themselves after his song, "Rollin' Stone." After the mid-Fifties Waters never had another Top Ten R&B single, but his albums began to reach rock listeners. Into the Sixties, Waters appeared at concerts and festivals nationally, such as the 1960 Newport Jazz Festival, where Muddy Waters at Newport was cut. In the late Sixties and early Seventies, he recorded several albums either with rock musicians or in a rock direction, the best of which were the London Muddy Waters Sessions and Fathers and Sons, the latter with many of the players he had influenced, including Mike Bloomfield and Paul Butterfield. In 1971 Waters won the first of several Grammys with They Call Me Muddy Waters.
In the early Seventies Waters left Chess and sued Chess's publishing arm for back royalties. He signed with Steve Paul's Blue Sky records in 1976, the year he appeared at the Band's farewell concert. Using members of his Fifties bands and producer/guitarist Johnny Winter, Waters made three of his best-selling albums, Hard Again, I'm Ready, and King Bee. Winter and Waters frequently performed together in the Seventies and Eighties. He last performed publicly at a June 1982 Eric Clapton show. Waters died in 1983 of a heart attack. In 1987 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
|
