Vinyl of the Week - 9 August 2020

The Best of, Muddy Waters

This week we take a look at an album with a history that, in my opinion, makes it one of the most important of all time. McKinley Morganfield aka “Muddy Waters” was born in 1913 in a remote part of Mississippi and raised by his grandmother on Stovall Plantation near Clarksdale. By the time he was in his teens he was a proficient guitar and harmonica player, performing the hits of his local idols Son House and Robert Johnson. His grandmother nicknamed him “Muddy” because he was always playing in the muddy creek. “Waters” came later as his stage name. He was one of the earliest recorded blues musicians, Alan Lomax taping him at the plantation for the Library of Congress archives in 1941. Muddy moved to Chicago and under the wing of the great “Big Bill Boonzy” started his magnificent career, one that would last until his death in 1983 and influence the very foundation of rock & roll. He was one of the first blues artists to play an electric guitar and his Fender Tele just came to life in his hands. You can check out YouTube to see him in action, playing with some special guests at The Checkerboard Lounge in 1981. Those guests were none other than The Rolling Stones who cite Waters as one of their biggest influences (for more than one reason). This is the story I love about this album, one which propelled a still unnamed band into rock & roll history. It was 1962 and in a tiny apartment in London, Brian Jones was on the phone to Jazz News magazine promoting his new band’s upcoming gig when the journalist asked him the name of their band. Realising they didn’t have one he quickly searched the room for inspiration and saw a bunch of records lying on the floor, one of which was Muddy Waters. Scanning the track list he told the journalist “we are the Rollin’ Stones”. To say the rest is history would be somewhat of an understatement. Exactly which album it was has been debated, however Keith Richards quotes it as this week’s pick! It may not have been but that’s hardly the point. An amazing record in its own right - DS