Muddy Waters biography

Waters then set about assembling the finest blues band of the era, which included Marvin 'Little Walter' Jacobs on harmonica and vocals, Otis Spann on piano and Will Dixon on bass, among others. Waters not only attracted the greatest talents but gave them a platform to develop their talents until they left the band to pursue solo careers. Waters didn't start recording under his own name until 1948 under the Aristocrat label (later to become Chess Records). Waters first single, I Can't Be Satisfied sold out on its first pressing on the strength of his reputation. Further hits followed with Rollin' and Tumblin' (1950) and Rollin' Stone in the same year. Waters went on to score a further 13 hits up to 1956. His band toured the UK in 1958 and audiences were mesmerised by the power of the performances. Songs like Hoochie Coochie Man, Baby Please Don't Go, I Got My Mojo Working and Mannish Boy soon became standards among burgeoning UK R&B bands of the day including The Mojos, The Mannish Boys and of course, The Rolling Stones.

But it would take Waters a long while before he would reap the financial benefits of his popularity.He was often outsold by Jimmy Reed and Little Walter. By the end of the 50s, Chess had decided to market Waters as an album based performer. He released two albums in 1960 including the highly acclaimed Muddy Waters At Newport. Famously, when the Stones arrived to record at the Chess studios in 1964, Waters was on a ladder, painting the studio. During the 60s, Waters was superseded by exactly the same bands that his music had originally inspired. In an attempt to update Waters' sound, Chess persuaded him to record the psychedelic, Electric Mud album which included a version of The Stones Let's Spend The Night Together. Ill-advised as this was, Waters went on to win Grammy's in 1972 for the albums London Sessions (recorded with Steve Winwood and Rory Gallagher) and They Call Me Muddy Waters.

But tragedy struck the following year when Waters was seriously injured in a car crash. The accident killed three other people and put Waters into semi-retirement for two years. The following year he returned with the Grammy Award winning, Muddy Waters Woodstock album and he performed Mannish Boy at The Band's farewell concert. Waters left Chess in 1977 after the label was sold and he signed to the Blue Sky label, for which white bluesman Johnny Winter also recorded. Winter jumped at the chance to work with his hero and set about recreating his electric 50s sound with a series of top blues players. The results could be heard on four subsequent albums released between 1977 and 1980 - Hard Again, I'm Ready, Muddy Mississippi Waters (all Grammy winners) and I'm A King Bee.

By 1980 Waters had retired from the music business, he retired to the suburbs with his 25-year-old wife. The guitarist died in his sleep on 30th April, 1983 of cancer. He received a posthumous induction to the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame in 1987 and Lifetime Achievement Award at the Grammy's in 1992.

• Discography