Muddy Waters
Muddy Waters
Mckinley Morganfield was born on April 4th 1915 in Rolling Fork, Mississippi. His mother died when he was three and his grandmother raised him. He became known as Muddy as he was often found fishing and playing in the muddy creeks of the Mississippi delta.
By the time he was in his teens he was playing the harmonica and leading a small band, performing in local clubs. At Seventeen he taught himself to play guitar listening to blues records and in 1941 was recorded by Library of Congress archivist Alan Lomax.
In 1943 Muddy moved to Chicago, by day he worked at menial jobs while playing at clubs by night, he recorded a number of tracks for Columbia records, but they were not released. He signed with Aristocrat Records but his first few offerings were unsuccessful, but the single “I Can’t Be Satisfied” / “Feel Like Going Home” was a hit. Over the following years the earthy delta blues style of Muddy Waters kept him performing and recording and by 1951 he had a full backing band, and the hits rolled out, “Honey Bee”, “She Moves Me”, and “Hoochie Coochie Man” to name a few. Despite record sales being mainly confined to Chicago and Mississippi he had an international following and in 1958 made a successful tour of England. Sales of singles had declined but he recorded several successful albums for which he won a number of Grammy’s.
Muddy Waters continued to perform and record successfully until June 1982 in fact some of his best selling albums appeared in the latter part of his career. This icon of blues died of a heart attack on April 30th 1983, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.
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