Muddy Waters, born
McKinley Morganfield, was the patriarch of post-World
War II Chicago blues. A master artist who played
slashing slide guitar and sang with the tough, sinewy
view of a man who had seen his share of good and evil in
life, Waters was also a compelling songwriter and song
interpreter, a powerful stage performer and recording
artist, and a superb bandleader.
A list of those musicians who passed through his
bands reads like a Who's Who of Chicago blues
greats. Guitarists Jimmy Rogers, Pat Hare,
Luther Tucker, and Earl Hooker; harp players Little
Walter, Junior Wells, Big Walter Horton, James Cotton,
and Carey Bell; bass player Willie Dixon; pianists
Memphis Slim, Otis Spann, an
Pinetop Perkins; and drummers Elgin Evans, Fred
Below, and Francis Clay are just some of the blues men
who played in the Muddy Waters Band at one time or
another.
Many of these artists went on to lead prestigious
blues bands of their own, or became highly respected
sidemen, though none, save Little Walter, ever came
close to attaining the success or building the legacy
that Waters did.
The list of artists Waters influenced would go on
almost indefinitely. Besides the entire
generation of Chicago blues artists who came of age in
the 50s and 60s, Waters also left his mark on dozens
of British and American blues rockers. Chuck
Berry, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Jeff
Beck, Johnny Winter, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Robert Cray,
and the Rolling Stones (who named their group after
one of Waters' songs) are just the tip of the iceberg.
The attraction of Waters' brand of blues is due to
his brilliant blues artistry and his critical role in
providing the link between deep Mississippi Delta
blues and hard-edged, urban and electric Chicago
blues; more than any other musician, Waters was
responsible for the mesh between old and new blues in
the early postwar period.
Waters also helped transform the blues guitar
sound. Although other blues men had recorded
with an electric guitar before Waters did, his
importance as an innovative player is
substantial. Waters' guitar work was raw and
vital and executed with the same urgency as the blues
of Robert Johnson and Son House, two of Waters'
mentors.
Robert
Santelli
-- The Big Book of Blues : A Biographical
Encyclopedia