Muddy Waters Caricature

Muddy Waters Caricature, illustrated here in 1965, age 52 in a recording session at the Boardinghouse Club, San Francisco, California.

McKinley Morganfield, better known as Muddy Waters, was an American blues musician who is often cited as the “father of modern Chicago blues”.

Muddy Waters grew up on Stovall Plantation near Clarksdale, Mississippi, and by age 17 was playing the guitar and the harmonica, emulating the local blues artists Son House and Robert Johnson.

In the early 1950s, Muddy Waters and his band; Little Walter Jacobs on harmonica, Jimmy Rogers on guitar, Elgin Evans on drums and Otis Spann on piano, recorded several blues classics, some with the bassist and songwriter Willie Dixon.
These songs included “Hoochie Coochie Man”, “I Just Want to Make Love to You” and “I’m Ready”.

Muddy Waters’ influence was tremendous, not just on blues and rhythm and blues but on rock and roll, hard rock, folk music, jazz, and country music.
His use of amplification is often cited as the link between Delta blues and rock and roll.

The Rolling Stones named their band after Muddy’s 1950 hit “Rollin’ Stone”.

Muddy Waters died in his sleep from heart failure, at his home in Westmont, Illinois, on April 30, 1983, age 70.