McKinley Morganfield (April 4, 1913 – April 30, 1983), known as Muddy Waters, was an American blues singer, songwriter, and musician who played a key role in the blues scene after World War II. He is often called the "father of modern Chicago blues." His music style was described as having strong, rhythmic beats from the Delta region of Mississippi.

Muddy Waters was born on a farm near Clarksdale, Mississippi. By age 17, he was already playing the guitar and harmonica, learning from local blues artists like Son House and Robert Johnson. In 1941, he was recorded by Alan Lomax and Professor John W. Work III of Fisk University for the Library of Congress. In 1943, he moved to Chicago to work as a full-time musician. In 1946, he recorded his first songs for Columbia Records and then for Aristocrat Records, a new label started by brothers Leonard and Phil Chess.

In the early 1950s, Muddy Waters and his band recorded many songs that became famous blues tracks. His band included Little Walter Jacobs on harmonica, Jimmy Rogers on guitar, Elga Edmonds (also known as Elgin Evans) on drums, and Otis Spann on piano. Some songs were written by bassist and songwriter Willie Dixon. These songs include "Hoochie Coochie Man," "I Just Want to Make Love to You," and "I'm Ready." In 1958, he traveled to England, helping to renew interest in blues music there. His performance at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1960 was recorded and released as his first live album, At Newport 1960.

Muddy Waters' music influenced many American music styles, including rock and roll and later rock music.

Early life

Muddy Waters’ exact birthplace and birth date are not certain. He said he was born in 1915 in Rolling Fork, Sharkey County, Mississippi. However, other records suggest he was born in 1913 in Jug’s Corner, a small area in nearby Issaquena County. In the 1930s and 1940s, documents such as his marriage license, notes, and a musicians’ union card listed his birth year as 1913. In a 1955 interview with the Chicago Defender, he first said he was born in 1915, and he continued to say that year in later interviews. The 1920 census lists him as five years old on March 6, 1920. A record called the Social Security Death Index, based on a form he filled out after moving to Chicago in the 1940s, states he was born on April 4, 1913. His gravestone says 1915 as his birth year.

Muddy Waters was raised by his grandmother, Della Grant, after his mother died shortly after his birth. She gave him the nickname “Muddy” because he liked to play in the muddy water of Deer Creek near his home. Later, he added “Waters” to his name when he began playing harmonica and performing in local shows during his teenage years. He taught himself to play the harmonica. Parts of the cabin where he lived as a child on Stovall Plantation are now displayed at the Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale, Mississippi.

Muddy Waters first learned about music in church. He said he was a Baptist and sang in church, which helped him develop his musical style. By age 17, he bought his first guitar. He sold the family’s last horse for about $15, gave $7.50 to his grandmother, and used the remaining $7.50 to buy a Stella guitar. These guitars were sold by Sears-Roebuck in Chicago. He began performing his songs at local venues near his hometown, mostly on a plantation owned by Colonel William Howard Stovall.

Career

In the early 1930s, he traveled with Big Joe Williams on tours in the Delta, playing harmonica. Williams told Blewett Thomas that he later stopped working with Muddy "because he was taking away my women [fans]."

In August 1941, Alan Lomax went to Stovall, Mississippi, for the Library of Congress to record country blues musicians. "He brought his equipment and recorded me in my home," Muddy told Rolling Stone magazine. "When he played back the first song, I sounded just like the records I had heard. I felt very proud that Saturday afternoon when I heard my own voice. Later, he sent me two copies of the recording and a check for twenty dollars. I took the record to the corner and played it in the jukebox. I kept saying, 'I can do it, I can do it.'" Lomax returned in July 1942 to record him again. Both sessions were later released by Testament Records as Down on Stovall's Plantation. The complete recordings were reissued by Chess Records on CD as Muddy Waters: The Complete Plantation Recordings. These recordings were also released by the Library of Congress in 1993 and remastered in 1997.

In 1943, he moved to Chicago to become a full-time musician. He described arriving in Chicago as the most important event of his life. He lived with a relative for a short time while working a day job and performing at night. Big Bill Broonzy, a top blues musician in Chicago, had Muddy open his shows in lively clubs. This gave Muddy the chance to play in front of many people. In 1944, he bought his first electric guitar and formed his first electric band. He said he needed to use electric instruments because acoustic guitars were too quiet in the noisy clubs. His music showed the hope of African Americans after World War II. Willie Dixon said, "Many people sang the blues, but most sang sad songs. Muddy gave his blues more energy."

In 1946, he recorded songs for Mayo Williams at Columbia Records with a traditional band that included clarinet, saxophone, and piano. These songs were released later by a label in Philadelphia called 20th Century, but they were credited to James "Sweet Lucy" Carter and his Orchestra, not Muddy Waters. Later that year, he began recording for Aristocrat Records, a new label run by Leonard and Phil Chess. In 1947, he played guitar with Sunnyland Slim on piano for songs called "Gypsy Woman" and "Little Anna Mae." These were not released at first, but in 1948, "I Can't Be Satisfied" and "I Feel Like Going Home" became popular, and his fame in clubs grew. Soon after, Aristocrat Records changed its name to Chess Records. His song "Rollin' Stone" also became a hit that year.

At first, the Chess brothers did not let Muddy use his regular band in the recording studio. Instead, they used bass players like Ernest "Big" Crawford or musicians brought in for the sessions, such as "Baby Face" Leroy Foster and Johnny Jones. Over time, Chess allowed Muddy to work with his band. By September 1953, he was recording with one of the most famous blues groups in history: Little Walter Jacobs on harmonica, Jimmy Rogers on guitar, Elga Edmonds (also known as Elgin Evans) on drums, Otis Spann on piano, and sometimes bassist and songwriter Willie Dixon. The band recorded many classic blues songs, including "Hoochie Coochie Man," "I Just Want to Make Love to You," and "I'm Ready."

His band became a place where many top blues musicians started their careers. In 1952, Little Walter left when his song "Juke" became a hit, but he continued working with Muddy and appeared on many of his recordings in the 1950s. In 1954, Howlin' Wolf moved to Chicago after his songs recorded at Sun Records were released by Chess. A rivalry between Muddy and Howlin' Wolf began, partly because Willie Dixon gave songs to both musicians, and Wolf thought Muddy got the best ones. In 1955, Jimmy Rogers left to focus on his own band.

In the mid-1950s, many of his songs appeared on Billboard magazine's Rhythm & Blues charts, including "Sugar Sweet" in 1955 and "Trouble No More," "Forty Days and Forty Nights," and "Don't Go No Farther" in 1956. In 1956, one of his best-known songs, "Got My Mojo Working," was released but did not appear on the charts. By the late 1950s, his success on the charts had ended

Personal life, death and estate

Muddy Waters married his first wife, Mabel Berry, in 1932. They remained married until 1935. In the 1940s, he married his second wife, Geneva Wade. She passed away from cancer on March 15, 1973. After her death, Muddy Waters gained legal guardianship of three of his children—Joseph, Renee, and Rosalind. He moved them into his home and later purchased a new house in Westmont, Illinois. In 1977, he met Marva Jean Brooks at a hotel in Florida. He nicknamed her "Sunshine." They married in 1979, with Eric Clapton serving as the best man at their wedding.

Muddy Waters had at least six children, including some who were not born within marriage. Two of his sons, Larry "Mud" Morganfield and Big Bill Morganfield, became blues musicians. In 2017, his youngest son, Joseph "Mojo" Morganfield, began performing the blues publicly. He occasionally played with his brothers and passed away in 2020 at the age of 56.

Muddy Waters died on April 30, 1983, at his home in Westmont, Illinois. He was 70 years old and had passed away due to heart failure and complications from cancer. He was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove, Illinois, where he was declared dead. His funeral took place on May 4, 1983, at Restvale Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois. Many blues musicians and fans attended the event. He is buried next to his wife, Geneva.

After his death, a long legal dispute occurred between his family and Scott Cameron, his manager at the time. In 2010, his family asked the court to appoint his daughter, Mercy Morganfield, as the administrator of his estate. This request was approved. Following Cameron’s death, his family’s lawyers claimed in 2018 that Cameron’s wife had taken money from royalty income. However, the family later asked that this claim not be pursued. The last court hearing was held on July 10, 2018. As of 2023, the arrangement over his estate remained unchanged.

Legacy

Two years after his death, the city of Chicago honored him by naming a one-block area between 900 and 1000 East 43rd Street near his former home on the south side "Honorary Muddy Waters Drive." In 2017, a ten-story mural created as part of the Chicago Blues Festival and designed by Brazilian artist Eduardo Kobra was painted on the side of the building at 17 North State Street, where State and Washington Streets meet. The Chicago suburb of Westmont, where he lived during the last ten years of his life, named a section of Cass Avenue near his home "Honorary Muddy Waters Way."

In 2008, the Mississippi Blues Commission placed a marker at the site of his cabin as part of the Mississippi Blues Trail in Clarksdale, Mississippi. He also received a plaque on the Clarksdale Walk of Fame.

Muddy Waters' Chicago home in the Kenwood neighborhood is being considered for designation as a Chicago Landmark.

In 2016, a crater on Mercury was named in his honor by the IAU.

In 2023, Rolling Stone ranked him at number 72 on its list of the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time.

Influence

The British band The Rolling Stones chose their name from Muddy Waters' 1950 song, "Rollin' Stone." Jimi Hendrix said he first heard Muddy Waters as a child and was very frightened by his music. Eric Clapton admired Muddy Waters as a young person, and his band Cream performed "Rollin' and Tumblin'" on their 1966 album, Fresh Cream. Canned Heat played the song at the Monterey Pop Festival, and Bob Dylan later included it on his album Modern Times. Many bands recorded "Hoochie Coochie Man," including The Allman Brothers Band, Humble Pie, Steppenwolf, Supertramp, and Fear. The Led Zeppelin song "Whole Lotta Love" has lyrics and a melody inspired by Muddy Waters' song "You Need Love," which was written by Willie Dixon. Angus Young of AC/DC said Muddy Waters influenced him, and the AC/DC song "You Shook Me All Night Long" uses lyrics from Muddy Waters' song "You Shook Me," written by Dixon and J. B. Lenoir.

In 1981, ZZ Top guitarist Billy Gibbons visited the Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale with Jim O'Neal, founder of The Blues magazine. The museum's director, Sid Graves, showed Gibbons Muddy Waters' original home and gave him a piece of scrap wood from the roof. Gibbons later made the wood into a guitar called "Muddywood," which is now displayed at the museum. In 1993, Paul Rodgers released an album titled Muddy Water Blues: A Tribute to Muddy Waters, which included songs like "Louisiana Blues," "Rollin' Stone," "Hoochie Coochie Man," and "I'm Ready." These songs were performed with guitarists Gary Moore, Brian May, and Jeff Beck.

After Muddy Waters passed away, B.B. King told Guitar World that it would take many years for people to fully understand Muddy's contributions to American music. John Hammond, another blues musician, said in Guitar World that Muddy Waters was a master of playing only the right notes. His guitar style was deep and simple, blending country blues with electric guitar in a way that made the lyrics more meaningful.

In 2003, Rolling Stone magazine listed The Anthology: 1947-1972 as one of the greatest albums of all time. They also ranked Muddy Waters as the 17th greatest artist of all time.

In film

Muddy Waters' songs have been used in movies directed by longtime fan Martin Scorsese, such as The Color of Money, Goodfellas, and Casino. A 1970s recording of the song "Mannish Boy" appeared in Goodfellas, Better Off Dead, Risky Business, and the rockumentary The Last Waltz. In 1988, "Mannish Boy" was also used in a Levi's 501 commercial and released in Europe as a single with "Hoochie Coochie Man" on the other side.

Muddy Waters is a main character in the 2008 American biographical film Cadillac Records. The role of Muddy Waters is played by actor Jeffrey Wright. Wright recorded the song "(I'm Your) Hoochie Coochie Man" for the movie's soundtrack.

Awards and recognition

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame named four songs by Muddy Waters as part of the 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll.

Blues Foundation Awards

Discography

• Muddy Waters Sings "Big Bill" (Chess, 1960)
• Folk Singer (Chess, 1964)
• Muddy, Brass & the Blues (Chess, 1966)
• Electric Mud (Cadet, 1968)
• After the Rain (Cadet, 1969)
• Fathers and Sons (Chess, 1969)
• The London Muddy Waters Sessions (Chess, 1972)
• Can't Get No Grindin' (Chess, 1973)
• Mud in Your Ear (Muse, 1973)
• London Revisited (Chess, 1974) (a shared album with Howlin' Wolf)
• "Unk" in Funk (Chess, 1974)
• The Muddy Waters Woodstock Album (Chess, 1975)
• Hard Again (Blue Sky, 1977)
• I'm Ready (Blue Sky, 1978)
• King Bee (Blue Sky, 1981)