Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube
    Nostalgia Central
    • Home
    • Blog
      • Lists
    • Television
      • TV by Decade
        • TV – 1950s
        • TV – 1960s
        • TV – 1970s
        • TV – 1980s
        • TV – 1990s
      • Comedy
      • Drama
      • Kids TV
      • Variety
      • News & Sport
      • Advertisements
    • Music
      • Music by Decade
        • Music – 1950s
        • Music – 1960s
        • Music – 1970s
        • Music – 1980s
        • Music – 1990s
      • Artists – A to K
        • Artists – A
        • Artists – B
        • Artists – C
        • Artists – D
        • Artists – E
        • Artists – F
        • Artists – G
        • Artists – H
        • Artists – I
        • Artists – J
        • Artists – K
      • Artists – L to Z
        • Artists – L
        • Artists – M
        • Artists – N
        • Artists – O
        • Artists – P
        • Artists – Q
        • Artists – R
        • Artists – S
        • Artists – T
        • Artists – U
        • Artists – V
        • Artists – W
        • Artists – X
        • Artists – Y
        • Artists – Z
      • Artists – 0 to 9
      • Genres
      • Music on Film & TV
      • One-Hit Wonders
      • Playlists
      • Online Radio
    • Movies
      • Movies by Decade
        • Movies – 1950s
        • Movies – 1960s
        • Movies – 1970s
        • Movies – 1980s
        • Movies – 1990s
      • Movies – 0 to 9
      • Movies – A to K
        • Movies – A
        • Movies – B
        • Movies – C
        • Movies – D
        • Movies – E
        • Movies – F
        • Movies – G
        • Movies – H
        • Movies – I
        • Movies – J
        • Movies – K
      • Movies – L to Z
        • Movies – L
        • Movies – M
        • Movies – N
        • Movies – O
        • Movies – P
        • Movies – Q
        • Movies – R
        • Movies – S
        • Movies – T
        • Movies – U
        • Movies – V
        • Movies – W
        • Movies – X
        • Movies – Y
        • Movies – Z
    • Pop Culture
      • Fads
      • Toys & Games
      • Fashion
      • Decor
      • Food & Drink
      • People
      • Technology
      • Transport
    • Social History
      • 1950s Year by Year
      • 1960s Year by Year
      • 1970s Year by Year
      • 1980s Year by Year
      • 1990s Year by Year
      • Events
    Nostalgia Central
    Home»Music»Artists - L to Z»Artists - M
    Artists - M Music - 1960s 2 Mins Read

    Muddy Waters

    Share
    Facebook Twitter Pinterest WhatsApp Reddit Email

    Muddy Waters – real name McKinley Morganfield – was born in Rolling Fork, Mississippi in 1915 and was raised by his grandparents (his parents separated when he was six months old).

    His grandmother took him north to live with her on the Stovall Plantation in the rich cotton lands near Clarksdale, Mississippi, where John Lee Hooker and many other future blues stars grew to maturity.

    muddy_waters_3

    As a youngster, Muddy took up the harmonica, and that was the instrument he played when he began performing at country suppers and picnics in his early teens.

    He was singing with his own band at the age of 15 and later took up the guitar.

    In 1941 he recorded for the Lomax Brothers’ Library of Congress recordings, and two years later headed north to Chicago. After the war, he began playing electric guitar and recorded for Columbia before signing with Chess, for whom he recorded many many blues tracks throughout the 50s and 60s.

    Muddy recorded many songs which became blues standards including; Got My Mojo Working, Hoochie Coochie Man, Mannish Boy and I Just Want To Make Love To You.

    His visits to Britain in the early 1960s proved a formative influence on Alexis Korner, The Rolling Stones (who took their name from one of his songs) and all the others involved in the British blues boom. Immensely revered and emulated, Muddy is often seen as a bridging point between blues and rock & roll.

    In 1969 he recorded Fathers and Sons with Mike Bloomfield, Paul Butterfield and Donald ‘Duck’ Dunn, and in 1972 recorded a London Sessions album with Rory Gallagher, Stevie Winwood and Mitch Mitchell (amongst others).

    At the age of 64 Muddy went into the studio with something to prove. He succeeded in creating the album Hard Again (1977) – a work so powerfully raw and undeniably passionate that it sounds as if it is being performed at the fabled blues crossroads with both the Devil and Robert Johnson listening from across the street, merely able to shake their heads in admiration.

    Hard Again received uniformly positive reviews, earned Waters his fourth Grammy and, most importantly, perfectly illustrated that nobody gets the blues quite like Muddy Waters.

    Muddy Waters died on 30 April 1983 at the age of 70, after suffering a heart attack at his home near Chicago.

    Related Posts

    • Denise LaSalle
      Denise LaSalle
      Denise LaSalle (real name Denise Craig) was born in Greenwood, Mississippi, and raised in LeFlore County. After serving her apprenticeship…
    • Bobbie Gentry
      Bobbie Gentry
      Bobbie Gentry (real name Roberta Lee Streeter) was Mississippi born and bred. Her Portuguese parents divorced when she was still…
    • Jeff St John and The ID/The Copperwine
      Jeff St John and The ID/The Copperwine
      Jeffrey Leo Newton was born on 22 April 1946 in Sydney. He began his singing career by joining a church…
    • Adderley Smith Blues Band, The
      Adderley Smith Blues Band, The
      Alongside Brisbane's Bay City Union and Sydney's The Foreday Riders, Melbourne's Adderley Smith Blues Band is recognised as one of the first…
    • Koko Taylor
      Koko Taylor
      Koko Taylor - so named because of her lifelong fondness for chocolate - was born in 1928 and earned the…
    • Rolling Stones, The
      Rolling Stones, The
      The Rolling Stones formed in London in 1962. Their name came from a Muddy Waters track and the group quickly became…
    • Freddie King
      Freddie King
      Texas bluesman Freddie (originally 'Freddy') King was often named as one of 'the Three Kings' alongside BB and Albert. Although not as…
    • Groundhogs, The
      Groundhogs, The
      Having started life in the early 1960s travelling the UK in a van as John Lee Hooker's backing band, by…

    Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest WhatsApp Reddit Email
    Previous ArticleMotions, The
    Next Article Mötley Crüe

    Comments are closed.

    Follow us
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • YouTube
    • Instagram
    You May Also Like
    • Other ‘Arf, The
      1 9 8 0 – 1 9 8 4 (UK) 26 x 30 minute episodes The […]
    • Skidoo (1968)
      Imagine the following cast in a single film: Jackie Gleason, […]
    • Fuzzbox
      This female punk-pop quartet formed in Birmingham in 1985 and […]
    • First Among Equals
      1 9 8 6 (UK) 10 x 60 minute episodes Granada spared no expense […]
    • Darkwing Duck
      1 9 9 1 – 1 9 9 5 (USA) 91 x 30 minute episodes In the […]
    • Portnoy’s Complaint (1972)
      Based on the notorious 1969 novel by Philip […]
    Twitter Feed
    Please note


    Nostalgia Central covers the period 1950 to 1999 and contains some words and references which reflect the attitudes of those times and which may be considered culturally sensitive, offensive or inappropriate today.
    Popular Tags
    1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1975 1976 Action Figures Amicus Arcade games Australia Beach movies Beatles Blaxploitation Board games Britpop Canada Crime Disco Disney Doo-Wop Elvis Presley Girl groups Glam Goth Hammer Heavy Metal Irwin Allen Labels Merseybeat Mod revival Motown New Romantic New Wave NWOBHM Oi! One-hit wonders Power Pop Pub rock Punk Radio Scotland Ska Soul music Surf music
    Search Nostalgia Central
    Copyright © 1998, 2022 Nostalgia Central
    • About
    • Contact
    • FAQ

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.