Muddy Waters - Collection (1941-2004)

Real name: McKinley Morganfield)
Born: April 4, 1915, in rolling Fork, Mississippi, USA (rolling Fork, MS)
Died: April 30, 1983 in Westmont, Illinois, USA (Westmont, IL)
Genre: Blues
Style: Blues Revival, Delta Blues, Electric Blues, Electric Chicago Blues, Chicago Blues
Instruments: Vocals, guitar
Record company: Chess, MCA/Chess, Charly, Vogue, Moon , Blue Sky, Sound Solutions
Chicago's post-war Blues scene is absolutely impossible to imagine without the magnificent contribution of muddy "Mississippi" waters. Without reciting his powerful vocals and piercing guitar attack of Chicago, might never have become a key city of the Blues. When he passed away in 1983, Windy City) I never fully recovered.
Born a sharecropper on April 4, 1915, in the town of rolling Fork in the Mississippi Delta, waters began playing the harmonica as a young man and picked up the guitar after hearing Charlie Patton, Robert Johnson, And Son House. The mighty bluesman son House, the Patriarch of the Delta, was his idol. Waters quickly mastered the guitar style of "battle neck" without anyone's help. Wearing a broken bottle neck on his middle finger, he learned to run it over guitar strings with a clink , a common technique among street guitarists in Clarksdale, Mississippi, where he grew up.
In 1941, musicologist and folklorist Alan Lomax was assigned by the library of Congress to travel across Mississippi in search of talented musicians. With the discovery of muddy waters, Lomax realized that he had stumbled upon something extraordinary. Sitting at his portable recording equipment in Delta Bluesman's House Studio, Lomax recorded waters ' enchanting rendition of "I Be Troubled"for the library of Congress. The Blues later became waters 'first bestseller, when a few years later he re-recorded it at Chess Records under the title "I Can't Be Satisfied".
In 1942, waters was already famous for his masterful performance of Blues throughout the Mississippi Delta, but dreaming of becoming a star, he went to the bright lights of Chicago. He worked and simultaneously played and sang in clubs, where he met the then famous bluesman big bill Broonzy, quickly acquired an electric guitar and began to perform some unusually sharp, sometimes even with a hint of barely restrained ferocity, folk Blues. Framed in a hard electric guitar rhythm, it made a deep impression. On the South side of Chicago, his skill was soon noticed. He played in clubs with pianists Sunnyland Slim, Eddie Boy, and guitarist Blue Smitty. Sunnyland slim played a big role in muddy waters ' early career. The pianist invited him in 1947 to accompany a session of the recording company "Aristocrat", which was produced by the company"Johnson Machine Gun". However, on the eve of the concert, waters had a problem: it was his working day installing lifting blinds. He couldn't help but realize what a Golden opportunity was slipping from his talented fingers. In order not to miss the chance, waters lied to his boss that his cousin was killed in the city slums, and he urgently needed to leave work for this reason. After Sunnyland's performance, waters sang a couple of his own songs: "Little Anna Mae"and" Gypsy Woman". It was still raw, raw stuff, unlike the ones he later recorded at Columbia studios, but still not as simple as "I Can't Be Satisfied" and "I Feel like Going Home".
Muddy put together a band that was so explosive and frenetic on stage that they got the nickname "Headhunter"; they could go to a bar where a band was playing, ask to sit and listen and play a little, and then" rip off the heads " of competitors with their stunning performance style. Producer Lester Melrose, who at the time owned a local recording Studio, became completely confused in 1946 when he accompanied Waters in the Studio. In small clubs, muddy's acoustic guitar was hard to hear, so he decided to attach it to an amp to "give a little drive" to the sound.
The Polish immigrants brothers Leonard and Phil chess, who bought the recording company "Aristocrat" in 1947, although they did not understand much about the harsh and even rough music of muddy waters, still saw in this sound something that should also attract residents of the Chicago ghetto. The first 78-rpm singles by muddy waters, which appeared under the "Aristocrat" logo, for some reason only a few people liked, with the exception of his second record "I can't Be Satiated", the entire small print run of which was sold out in one day. With Big Crawford slapping on bass against a background of raucous growls and waters 'crushing guitar wash, the Blues track "I Can't Be Satisfied" became a local sensation. Subsequently, even waters himself spent a lot of time and effort to buy a record on Maxwell Street. Despite the relative initial failure of muddy waters, the chess brothers, changing the name of the company to "Chess Records", still ventured to put on electric Blues. This calculation, in the end, worked. It was already 1950, when the chess brothers finally brought down the first scattering of truly impressive singles from their conveyor belt. Especially striking was Jimmy Roger's "That's All Right", and, of course, the now classic "rolling Stone" by muddy waters. In 1951, waters climbed the rhythm and Blues charts at least 4 times, starting with " Louisiana Blues "and continuing with such things as" Long Distance Call"," Honey Bee "and"Still a Fool". In the 50s, during his collaboration with Chess, he recorded such famous hits as:" Honey Bee, "" Got My Mojo Workin', "" Rollin' Stone "and" Hoochie Coochie Man " in the spirit of Willie Dixon, James Cotton, Little Walter Jacobs and Jimmy Rogers.
In 1952, the Blues of the Delta fields, extremely electrified by the hard rhythm of city streets, turned into a new concept - Chicago Blues. In the primitive Chess Records Studio, in the back room of the club, work was in full swing all day and night. Muddy waters selected the best of the best for his permanent line-up. Their names are now as legendary as he is. Guitarist Robert Johnson, pianist Otis Span, and a great galaxy of harmonica players-little Walter, James cotton, and Junior Wells. "Mad Love "-the only thing waters did that hit the charts in 1953, is remarkable for being the first hit to showcase the rolling piano style of Otis Span, who became a link in the waters conglomerate for the next 16 years. So the famous Chicago sound was born on the back of a nightclub on 33 Street. Or, if you like, modern electric Blues.
Bassist Willie Dixon, whose gigantic figure graced the Big Three Trio for several years, played a hugely important role in muddy waters ' success. In addition to the slapping bass on waters ' discs, the gruff Dixon was postine's inexhaustible source of songs that fueled muddy's repertoire for years. Just cite hits like" I'm Your Hoochie Coochie Man, "" Just Make Love to Me, "and"I'm Ready". One day muddy waters brought a man into the Chess Studio and loudly proclaimed: "This tough guy was only in prison for three years for armed robbery. But now he no longer robbers, and even turned to religion. He doesn't drink alcohol at all. By profession, a cosmetologist-hairdresser, but knows how to do cool country music. And his name is Chuck berry, from St. Louis." After Chuck berry made Chess Records famous all over America and half the world to boot, muddy waters admitted that he only brought Chuck to the Studio because he was playing some kind of electric country, not Blues. And he didn't see him as a rival. The second gift of fate came to the Studio" Chess " with their own feet. A former heavyweight boxer of immense size. He brought a rectangular box-shaped guitar and, smiling meekly, told me that he had already become famous in the professional ring under the name Bo Didley. And he's ready to record some killer singles. He wasn't joking. His first single, "I'm A Man", entirely in the ferocious, Moody spirit of muddy waters, impressed even muddy himself. And so much so that waters once created his acclaimed version of this cool number, known as "Mannish Boy".
For many years, the Chicago Blues was stewed in its own juice, seeping nevertheless, even in small quantities, sometimes even to very remote areas and countries, causing everywhere shock, numbness and an irresistible desire to hear once again this growling and bubbling electric Blues.
1958. Famous jazz trombonist Chris Barber traveled all over the island of great Britain, capturing warm but moderate applause. However, sometimes it turned into a standing ovation. And it was at those moments when suddenly someone named muddy waters appeared from behind him, whom Chris invited to a joint tour. And the guitarist's fierce electric pulse plunged the British youth into the strongest shock. Sophisticated British music critics resented this waters hotly and violently. But the overseas grain was already sprouting in the old English soil.
1960. Two London students met by chance in a tram car. They had not seen each other for several years and were happy to exchange a word. One of them had a stack of records under his arm. The other looked at them curiously. These were discs by Chuck berry, muddy waters, Howlin ' wolf, and Bo Diddley. You know who these guys were. Mick Jagger and Keith Richard, of course.
1960. Two London students met by chance in a tram car. They had not seen each other for several years and were happy to exchange a word. One of them had a stack of records under his arm. The other looked at them curiously. These were discs by Chuck berry, muddy waters, Howlin ' wolf, and Bo Diddley. You know who these guys were. Mick Jagger and Keith Richard, of course.
A 1960 concert at the Newport folk festival opened muddy waters to a much larger, now white audience. A major figure in the Chicago Blues scene of the ' 60s, he worked with the younger generation of musicians buddy Guy and Matt Murphy, perpetuating the Chicago electric guitar sound. He worked with rock bands such as the Rolling Stones, and his songs included" Canned Heat "and" Cream". A car accident in 1969 slowed him down a bit, but he still continued to tour around the world and record for Columbia Records' Blue Sky label.
Muddy waters died in his sleep on April 30, 1983.