Muddy Waters
April 4, 1913 — April 30, 1983
Muddy Waters was an American blues musician and bandleader from Mississippi who transformed the Delta blues he grew up with into the amplified, electric Chicago blues sound that became the foundation of rock and roll — directly inspiring the Rolling Stones (who named themselves after his song), Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, and virtually every American and British rock musician who followed.
From the Delta to Chicago
Born McKinley Morganfield on April 4, 1913, in Rolling Fork, Mississippi (the exact date is debated; some sources cite his birth around 1913–1915), he got his nickname as a child from playing in a muddy creek near his grandmother's home in Clarksdale. He taught himself guitar from listening to Delta blues legends Son House and Robert Johnson. In 1941 and 1942, folklorist Alan Lomax traveled to the Mississippi Delta to record blues musicians for the Library of Congress; his sessions with Muddy Waters represent the earliest recordings of a performer who would change popular music. In 1943, Muddy moved to Chicago's South Side, where he traded his acoustic guitar for an electric one and built the crackling, amplified sound that became Chicago blues.
Chess Records and the Electric Blues
Signed to Chess Records in 1950, Waters released a string of epochal recordings: "Rollin' Stone" (1950), "Hoochie Coochie Man" (1954), "I Just Want to Make Love to You" (1954), "Mannish Boy" (1955), and dozens more. His band — which at various times included harmonica genius Little Walter and pianist Otis Spann — defined the sound of urban blues: raw, powerful, deeply sexual, and absolutely modern. When the Rolling Stones toured America in 1964, a journalist asked Mick Jagger what he wanted most. Jagger replied he wanted to meet Muddy Waters. The journalist assumed he meant "muddy water."
Did You Know?
Muddy Waters' song "Rollin' Stone" from 1950 directly inspired the names of three major cultural touchstones: the Rolling Stones (the band), "Like a Rolling Stone" (Bob Dylan's 1965 song), and Rolling Stone magazine (founded in 1967). He is reportedly the musician most cited as an influence by other musicians in rock history. When the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame opened in 1986, Muddy Waters was in the inaugural class of inductees.
Legacy
Waters won six Grammy Awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Award in 1992. He continued touring and recording into his sixties, experiencing a commercial and critical renaissance when the rock world he had inspired began honoring its debts in the 1970s. He collaborated with Johnny Winter on the Grammy-winning album Hard Again (1977). He died of heart failure on April 30, 1983. Rolling Stone magazine ranks him 2nd on their list of the greatest guitarists of all time and among the 100 greatest artists of any kind. His influence on American music is so wide and deep that it is nearly impossible to fully map.