Born three years after the sailing of the "Titanic" (1915), McKinley Morganfield left Mississippi for Chicago in the middle 1940's and by 1948 had released two songs on a 78rpm record, "I Can't Be Satisfied" and "I Feel Like Going Home" - under the name Muddy Waters. Betwee
Born three years after the sailing of the "Titanic" (1915), McKinley Morganfield left Mississippi for Chicago in the middle 1940's and by 1948 had released two songs on a 78rpm record, "I Can't Be Satisfied" and "I Feel Like Going Home" - under the name Muddy Waters. Between this release and about 1955, Waters laid down the general method for amplified postwar blues performance in the US and later, the world. His song "Rollin' Stone" was the inspiration for the naming of the famous UK rock band formed by Mick Jagger, Keith Richard and others. Taking inspiration from the slide method of Son House and Robert Johnson and combining it with other Delta influences, Muddy Waters helped form the basis for rock submovements popularized by artists from Derek and the Dominoes to Johnny Winter.
His importance to popular music history is such that Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top had the log cabin that Waters was born in disassembled, preserved and relocated to the Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale, Mississippi. Songs such as "I Just Wanna Make Love To You", "Mannish Boy", "Got My Mojo Workin'" and "Hoochie Coochie Man" have been covered by uncountable artists and bands. Members of Waters' lineups over the years included Buddy Guy, Junior Wells, James Cotton, Pine Top Perkins and Otis Spann. He mentored blues/rock musicians like Mike Bloomfield, Paul Butterfield and co-produced records with Johnny Winter.
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