Ok, so I have featured him before. Trust me, ain't nobody gonna complain that I'm featuring him again today. Thirty years ago he went to sleep and never woke up. I hope that last dream was a doozy, god knows he had a life and career most people can only dream of.
McKinley Morganfield, better know as Muddy Waters, was born in Mississippi but became known as the King of Chicago Blues... a title he shares with another blues legend Howlin Wolf. And really, who can choose the better of the two.
Whatever the music genre, Muddy had an influence on it. Whoever the band, they were influenced by him. One of the first to play the blues electric, there is no mistaking the Muddy Waters sound.
It's been a long, cold week. Dear lord, I am in need of some serious blues. Serious blues.
McKinley Morganfield died April 30, 1983 at approximately 70 years of age. His date of birth has long been in question but his impact on the American blues scene has not. He has been ranked as one of the top 100 musicians of all time, and influenced virtually every American and British rock or blues group from the 60's. Zeppelin, Cream, Hendrix, the Stones.. Hendrix is quoted as saying about him "I first heard him as a little boy and it scared me to death." The Rolling Stones got their name from one of his songs.
The king of Chicago Blues, a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame and recipient of the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Hell, they even issued a postage stamp in his honor.
Still can't place the name? How about what his friends called him: Muddy Waters.
Let's just taste a few of his best tunes. They are bound to warm you from the inside out.
