Muddy Waters
Muddy Waters Blues as an art form gave Blacks a
medium to manifest their
feelings. Feelings ranging from humorous to silly to
depressed. Fortunately for
a entire genre of music, the only way for Mckinley
Morganfield to express
himself was through song. Morganfield better known as
Muddy Waters became a
legendary blues vocalist /guitarist. When the Blues
industry saw commercial
success many of its artists also saw rising fame.
Muddy Waters enjoyed success
in the industry up until and even after his
death in 1983. Morganfield was born
April 4, 1915 to Ollie Morganfield
and Bertha Jones. He was born in Rollingfork,
Mississippi. Near their two
room shack in Rollingfork there was a creek, Deer
Creek. As a youngster
he used to play in the creek and get all dirty and muddy.
It was at this
point when his sisters gave him the nickname ‘Muddy Waters’.
Bertha died
when he was about three. After her death he had to move in with
his
grandmother in Clarksdale. Raised in Clarksdale, he also went to school
there.
He went to school until he was old enough to work in the fields.
Much like all
of the other field laborers Muddy Waters hollered in the fields
to pass time or
just to get things off of your chest. Waters would also teach
himself to play
instruments. When he was fifteen he knew how to play the
harmonica and he would
later teach himself the guitar. The young Waters
followed in his fathers
musician footsteps. He was part of a band at fifteen,
with Scott Bowhandle on
guitar and Sonny Simms playing the violin. They would
play some Saturday nights
in downtown Clarksdale and others he would sell
fried fish on nights. And other
nights he would watch the greats like Son
House, Robert Johnson and Charlie
Patton were great musical influences on
Waters. The main influence on Waters was
Son House, although Waters style
of play was more similar to that of Robert
Johnson. Muddy Waters was
first recognized by word of mouth. Alan Lomax of The
Library of Congress
went to Clarksdale to record Robert Johnson. But to his
dismay, he found out
that Robert Johnson was dead and had been for two years.
The word on the
street at that time led Lomax to Muddy Waters. Waters would
record two songs
with them in 1941, far before he became famous. His name would
not reach
household status until 1947 when he recorded his first hit single,
"I
can’t be satisfied." Muddy Waters style of blues was considered rough
and
uncompromising. It was different from all of the other too ‘polished’
for the
South musicians. Waters didn’t have a sing-song voice, but a deep
raspy
voice. Success was steadily increasing especially since the addition of
band
members. The band complimented his sound. Jimmy Rogers was on the guitar,
and
harmonica specialist Little Walter. The band provided superb sounds while
the
‘grand ole man’ played his guitar and sang. Although I listened to more
than
two selections there were two that stood out in my mind; ‘The
Hoochie
Coochie Man’ and ‘Corine Corina’. Waters proclaims his arrival
and his
presence as the hoochie coochie man. He wants to let the world know
that he is
here. Over a consistent baseline, he begins each verse with a
whisper and
concluding each verse with a shout almost. Adding to the effect
that says his
coming and know he is here. The next song ‘Corine Corina is
fast paced and
upbeat. In an almost pleading voice he asks Corina why she
does not love him. He
leaves Corina by the end of the song. This record has a
blend of saxophones, a
base and a bridge with a harmonica. Neither of these
songs carry the typical
thoughts of what a Blues song should like. "The most
astonishing aspect of the
blues is that, through replete with a sense of
defeat and downheartedness, they
are not intrinsically pessimistic; their
burden of woe and melancholy is
dialectically redeemed through sheer force of
sensuality into an almost exultant
affirmation of life, of love, of sex, of
movement, of hope. No matter how
repressive was the American environment, the
Negro never lost faith in of
doubted his deeply endemic capacity to live. All
blues are a lusty, lyrical
realism charged with taut sensibility. I’ll never
understand why most people
define the blues as an expression of sadness
only." -Richard Wright,
definition of blues Muddy Waters is a legend. Not
only is he a legendary Blues
vocalist /guitarist, but he is a musical legend.
Inspiring artists from blues to
rock &roll. He transformed a single genre
of music into what we can hear
today. He brought his Delta roots style to
Chicago and intertwined his with the
blues sound of Chicago. The sounds he
produced, influenced many. even though he
passed away on April 30, 1983, the
memory of Muddy Waters lives on through his
music and through the music of
those for whom he was an
inspiration.