MUDDY WATERS
The Real Folk Blues & More Real Folk Blues
MCA/Chess
Muddy Waters came to Chicago in 1943, but
didn't have a hit recording until 1948's "I Can't Be
Satisfied". He learned his craft from Delta bluesman
Eddie "Son" House and others and was recorded
by Alan Lomax and John Work in 1941. Two years later he
boarded the train for Chicago, where he hoped to be able
to make a living playing music. On the heels of that first
hit record, he became one of the city's top blues bandleaders
and singers. His recordings on the Aristocrat and Chess
record labels helped to revolutionize the blues, helping
to create an urban blues sound that influenced generations
of blues and rock guitarists/singers.
Muddy's last R&B chart hit with Chess
came in 1958, and by the time the Rolling Stones and other
British blues-based bands like the Animals were hitting
the U.S. he was no longer a popular recording artist. Chess
looked about for a way to promote the singer to a young
generation, and hit upon the folk music craze that was taking
place. Muddy Waters, Folk Singer was released in
1964, and in 1966 The Real Folk Blues came out.
The tracks included were a collection of Muddy's work, including
his very first single for Aristocrat, "Gypsy Woman"
(1947) as well as things he had recorded in the early '60s.
This meant that some of the songs came from the deep rural
blues tradition (the "folk" aspect) while others
were much more urban, demonstrating the influential sound
that Waters had been spreading around since his arrival
in Chicago.
The album opens with "Mannish Boy"
which was to be a mainstay of Waters' repertoire for much
of his career (see his performance captured in Martin Scorseses'
The Last Waltz). Jimmy Rogers provides incendiary
guitar punctuations to Waters' preaching on the song, along
with Willie Dixon on bass and either Little Walter or Junior
Wells on harmonica. "Screamin' And Cryin'" is
from 1949, and has a much more rural blues feel, with Waters'
guitar the main instrument with some backing from Little
Johnny Jones on piano as well as bass and drums. Waters'
own composition "Walking Thru the Park" features
James Cotton on harmonica and reworks some lyrical material
("she may cut you /she may shoot you too") from
Mississipi John Hurt's 1928 recording "Ain't No Tellin'".
His reworking of Robert Johnson's "Walkin' the Blues"
is just Waters, his guitar, and the loping bass work of
Ernest "Big" Crawford, a combination that we hear
quite a bit of on More Real Folk Blues, and one that provides
the maximum heat-soaked, humidity-drenched Delta blues experience.
For an example of just how much Muddy and others in Chicago
had changed the sound of blues, check out the most recent
recording on Real Folk Blues, Willie Dixon's "The
Same Thing", recorded in 1964. Here a band comprised
on Otis Spann on piano, James "Pee Wee" Madison
on guitar, Willie Dixon on bass and S.P. Leary on drums
demonstrate the urban, midnight-in-a-back alley sound that
most modern blues listeners will recognize immediately.
Yet, the blues is still the blues, as Dixon point out in
his original liner notes for the album: "Muddy Waters,
in 'Same Thing' emphasizes the fact that the world seems
to fight about the same things. Muddy Waters is looking
deep into the facts of life."
The second LP included on this disc, More
Real Folk Blues contains music from a much more compact
period of Waters' career, 1948-1952. There are fewer band
arrangements, with most of the tracks featuring Waters and
the bassist Ernest "Big" Crawford, sometimes with
the addition of harmonica. Also interesting is the fact
that despite the "folk blues" sound of these recordings,
all of the tracks were actually written by Waters himself.
Of course, his songs show the heavy imprint of various Delta
blues masters, particularly Sonny Boy Williamson, whose
"Down South" becomes "Down South Blues".
There is no question that one is in the presence of a blues
master when listening to these recordings, which many who
came to Muddy Waters through his later efforts, some with
various rock musicians playing or producing, will not be
familiar with.
The sound quality on these recordings is excellent
as well, which dramatically helps in gaining listeners used
to today's top-notch digital recordings—just look
at the increased interest in Charlie Patton since the digitally
remastered release of his recordings. It's interesting to
note that by the time More Real Folk Blues was
release in 1967 Muddy Waters was beginning to play venues
like the Fillmore and that the 1970s would see a resurgence
of his career as famous rock musicians like Eric Clapton,
Keith Richards, Levon Helm, and John Mayall cited him as
major influences on themselves and their respective bands.
Muddy no longer needed the "folk blues" marketing
tactic to help him reach a younger audience. Thankfully,
Chess Records hit upon this plausible way of repackaging
some of his earlier recordings to keep him going in the
meantime. Not every blues performer was so lucky.
