On April 30, 1983, legendary blues musician Muddy Waters died in Westmont, Illinois. Dubbed the “Father of Modern Chicago Blues,” Waters had dozens of hits over the years and has been a major influence for generations of musicians.
Waters was born McKinley Morganfield in Mississippi. His exact birthdate is unknown, often cited as either 1913 or 1915. April 4, 1913 is generally accepted as his likely birthdate. Waters’ mother died shortly after he was born, and he was raised by his grandmother. She gave him the nickname “Muddy” when he was young because he liked to play in the muddy waters of Deer Creek.
Waters discovered his love for music in church and taught himself to play harmonica when he was young. He bought his first guitar when he was 17 and played his music around town. During the 1930s, Waters also toured the Mississippi Delta with Big Joe Williams, playing harmonica on stage.
In 1941, ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax came to town to record blues musicians for preservation by the Library of Congress. He recorded Waters right in his own house, and when he heard it played back, he couldn’t believe how it sounded, later saying “I sounded just like anybody’s records.” When he received a copy of the record, he took it to a local jukebox and played it over and over. Lomax recorded Waters again the following year and these recordings were later released for sale.
Waters moved to Chicago in 1942, a haven for blues musicians, hoping to make it big. He made ends meet by driving a truck and working in a factory during the day, then playing in clubs at night. Big Bill Broonzy invited Waters to open his shows, giving him the chance to perform in front of large crowds. Fellow musician Willie Dixon remarked that while most other musicians were playing sad blues, “Muddy was giving his blues a little pep.”
Waters started recording with other musicians in 1946. Two years later, he scored his first big hits with “I Can’t Be Satisfied” and “I Feel Like Going Home.” His signature song, “Rollin’ Stone,” was released in 1950, also becoming an instant hit.
1951 was a great year for Muddy. His records for the Aristocrat label were being played on black radio stations all over the south. One of Chicago’s best blues clubs, Smitty’s Corner, made Muddy Waters the house band. And what a band it was! Each musician was a top-rate entertainer, many of whom went on to have their own successful careers. Some of these musicians included Little Walter Jacobs, Jimmy Rogers, Elgin Evans, Otis Spann, and Howlin’ Wolf. Together they recorded such hits as “Hoochie Coochie Man,” “I Just Want to Make Love to You,” and “I’m Ready.” Muddy’s band had a distinctive sound with wailing harmonica, heavy piano, bass, and drum rhythms, and slashing slide guitar from Muddy. Perhaps the band’s greatest feature was Muddy’s physical, aggressive vocals, which were drenched with emotion.
Waters had several hits throughout the 1950s, many which climbed the charts, including “Sugar Sweet,” “Trouble No More,” “Forty Days and Forty Nights,” “Don’t Go No Farther,” and “Got My Mojo Working.” In 1958 he brought electric blues to England, which had only known acoustic blues up to that point. Their performances inspired several rising musicians from such notable groups as The Rolling Stones (named for Waters’ hit song), Cream, and Fleetwood Mac.
In 1960, Waters recorded one of the first live blues albums at the Newport Jazz Festival. And in 1963, he performed in the first of many annual tours of Europe as part of the American Folk Blues Festival. Waters scored his first Grammy Award in 1971, for Best Ethnic or Traditional Recording. He went on to win five more in the same category over the next decade. Waters continued to record, perform, and tour until his health began to quickly decline in 1982. He died from heart failure on April 30, 1983.
Several spots in Chicago have been named in Waters’ honor and his boyhood home in Clarksdale, Mississippi is now the Delta Blues Museum. He’s been inducted into the Blues and Rock and Roll Halls of Fame, with four of his hits listed among the 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. Several musicians have recorded Waters’ songs or cited him as an influence including The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Led Zeppelin, Allman Brothers Band, Humble Pie, Steppenwolf, and AC/DC, among countless others. After his death, B.B. King said of Waters, “It’s going to be years and years before most people realize how greatly he contributed to American music.”
Click here to listen to a 1979 Muddy Waters recording.
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I was lucky enough to experience Muddy Waters live at the Saugatuck Pop Festival in July of 1969.
Of course I purchased some of the stamps when they were released too.
Hey Uncle Scrooge, you were lucky! Wish I could have been there, he was one of the greats!
I saw Muddy Waters perform live on June 7, 1979 in Cincinnati Ohio at Riverfront Coliseum. He was the first to perform, followed by B.B. King, with Eric Clapton the main event of the evening. Sadly, Muddy was booed off the stage by the crowd, with my best guess being they were impatient and wanting to see Clapton perform, and also possibly because nobody was familiar with the songs he played that night (including myself, although I would never boo any musician, let alone a living blues legend at the time). I felt really bad for Muddy, and felt a lot of shame towards the city I was born and raised in for the way he was treated that night. It remains the only concert I’ve ever attended where a musician/band was booed off the stage. Thankfully, B.B. King was welcomed, but his performance was relatively short. Perhaps he didn’t want like the way Muddy was treated or he didn’t want to take the chance of the same thing happening to him. Of course Eric Clapton’s performance was sensational because he played most of his classics over the years as a solo artist and the Yardbirds, Derek an the Dominoes, and Cream. Everybody seemed to love when he played ‘Layla’, but the without a doubt, his hit ‘Cocaine’ had almost everybody in the coliseum (18,000+ rockers) singing the words with Eric. Great concert, except for the way they treated Muddy. Just a few months later, specifically at 7:28P on the cold winter Monday evening of December 3, 1979, I was almost killed in a crowd stampede at Riverfront Coliseum while waiting outside on the pavilion to see The Who perform in concert. I was about 4o yards towards the left side of the 8 main entrance doors (the only doors that security opened that night, all right next to each other, at 7PM, 1 hour before the concert started), stuck in bottleneck of 18,000+ half-frozen rockers, most with general admission/festival seating tickets, when suddenly I was picked up and carried by a force that came from behind me on my right side and carried me forward for 10-15 before I realized what was happening, and by then I was already falling down (more correctly, being pushed down by whoever was behind me). I remember being unable to move my arms out in front of me (that natural reaction everyone has when falling down to protect their head from hitting the ground) due to the tightly packed crowd around me. Quickly realizing there was nothing I could do to prevent whatever was about to happen, I just closed my eyes, fully expecting to feel the pain of being ‘Trampled Under Foot’, which ironically, was prophetically warned by the last song Led Zeppelin ever performed live in Cincinnati Ohio on 4/20/1977 (my very first concert at age 15, “An Evening with Led Zeppelin”). Only recently, over 4 decades later, did I remember thinking with my eyes closed, “Well, I guess this is how I will die”. Fortunately for me, the crowd pushed back at the force that was carrying me forward, which helped to push me back upright until I was finally able to stand on my own and regain my balance. The stampede was over, having stopped as quickly as it started, and probably only lasted 30 terrifying seconds. My first thought was I was so thankful just to be alive. Indeed, I was very lucky that night. Or, perhaps I should say, I was luckier than the 26 fans taken to local hospitals for their severe trauma injuries they received in the same/similar crowd push/stampede I survived that night, and definitely luckier than the 11 rockers sent to the coroner, may they all R.I.P., they are not forgotten. It was 8:20 PM, after the concert had already started, when I finally arrived at the main entrance and handed my ticket to security, who verified my ticket, tore in half and returned my stub, and then SURPRISE!, I was given a pat down search by a different security guard. That was the very first time Riverfront coliseum security had ever searched me (I had been to a couple of hockey games and art least 12 concerts at Riverfront coliseum prior to 12/3/79). no wonder it took so long to get inside that night. Apparently, security was trying to prevent illegal drug usage before, during and after the concert. SPOILER ALERT: it takes more than 1 hour to verify a ticket, tear it in half, return the stub and ‘pat down’ 18,000+ fans, and regardless of the type of event attended). Hindsight is always 20/20, but the new ‘pat down’ search utilized security that prevented them from opening more doors at different places around the coliseum, which had always been done in the past, and especially at events with general admission/festival seating, and done specifically to prevent large crowds from forming outside on the pavilion. In truth, on Monday December 3, 1979, it didn’t matter if the attendee had a reserved seat or a general admission because everybody was stuck outside in that bottleneck of people trying to get inside thru those 8 main entrance doors that security opened. In security’s defense, it made perfect sense to only open those 8 doors of the main entrance because they could control much more effectively to facilitate the new ‘pat down’ search they were doing. But the 8 doors were not opened until 1 hour prior to the start, so it was an accident waiting to happen. Indeed, whatever drug usage was prevented on December 3, 1979, it wasn’t worth the 26 people severely injured outside on the pavilion, and tragically, the 11 souls not here today who not only missed a great concert by The Who, but the rest of their young adult lives, may they all R.I.P., they are not forgotten. Sorry I went off topic, but anytime I think about the epic concerts I’ve seen at Riverfront coliseum, I can’t forget the night I luckily cheated death there. My final comment is that what I find shocking, is that the brand new ‘pat down’ search security performed was never been mentioned by the media; not on the TV, radio, newspaper or any magazine articles. Not once, or at least none that I’m aware of. Sad, but true. Apparently, the media found plenty of other reasons to blame The Who concert tragedy on, like rock music, The Who, the concert promoters, attendees under the influence of illegal drugs, general admission/festival seating, sound checks, union laws, not enough security on hand, doors opened to late, but never the brand new pat down search. If you ask yourself who directed coliseum security to perform the search, you’re on the road to finding out who caused the tragedy. Hint: they forced Jerry Springer (on Cincinnati’s City council) to resign in shame after his personal check was found in a vice raid of a massage parlor across the Ohio river in Kentucky, and also tried to prevent Larry Flint’s (Hustler magazine editor) freedom of speech. Springer apologized publicly, accepting blame for his actions and asked to be forgiven. The city responded by making him the youngest mayor in the city’s history. After that, Jerry quit politics and went on to become a household name with his immensely popular TV drama show. Behind blue eyes I can see for miles so we won’t get fooled again. Simply put a bargain was made to protect those ultimately responsible for 11 deaths and 26 severe injuries at The Who concert on Monday, 12/3/1979 at Riverfront Coliseum, Cincinnati, Ohio. I know because I was there.