Transformation at the Maxwell Street Market

Handout 3 - Transformation at the Maxwell Street Market

Throughout the 20th century, as Poles, Jews (and Polish Jews) moved to Chicago, many settled in the neighborhood through which Maxwell Street ran.

Maxwell Street was known as a center of commerce as early as the ﬁrst decade of the 20th century. The streets and sidewalks were peppered with shops, restaurants, outdoor food and clothing carts, as well as roaming salespeople peddling everything from knives to used shoes. People from all over Chicago traveled to the Maxwell Street Sunday Market, a day all but Jewish business were usually shuttered. [Map Credit: Colin Talcroftt http://www.sonic.net/~talcroft/ ATIMS/theproject.html)

As many of the Jewish and Polish immigrants to the Maxwell Street neighborhood assimilated and prospered, they began to move away from Chicago’s inner city to its outer areas. However, many continued to run the businesses they had established. In the 1940s and 50s, with The Great Migration at full steam, many African Americans moved into the residential spaces vacated by Jews and Poles, and Maxwell Street became further diversiﬁed.

Maxwell Street was not home to many traditional music venues, however, busking--the practice of performing on the street--became an integral part of the Market’s magnetism, so much so that the street was the setting for a celebrated on screen performance of Blues musician John Lee Hooker and the Muddy Waters Band in the 1980 ﬁlm The Blues Brothers.

In the Market’s mid-20th century prime, one could have heard a black Southern Gospel group at one corner, a white Country Gospel group on another block, and any number of variants on the Delta Blues of the American South elsewhere. All of the performers competed for sonic bandwidth with barking salespeople, preachers, and noisy crowds. Many groups began using microphones, electric guitars, and ampliﬁers, often plugged into extension cords provided by the neighboring businesses. It is during this period that many suggest the Delta Blues of the American South transformed into the Electric, or Chicago Tribune Historical Photo, Maxwell Street, “Chicago” Blues. early 1900s

McKinley Morganﬁeld, known to most as “Muddy Waters,” was a Mississippi Blues musician who relocated to Chicago in 1943. In 1947, Waters began recording for Chess Records, and his early Electric Blues sides helped deﬁne the “Chicago” sound. Consider the instances of Waters’ transformation below, and respond to the included questions.

Transformation 1: Instruments

A. Muddy Waters and “Son” Sims, 1943

B. Muddy Waters Band, 1981

• What do you notice different about the instruments you see in each photo? • How is the ensemble different? • Where are the performers located in each photo? • How might these different photos represent a pre- and post- Chicago Muddy Waters?

Transformation 2: Attire

A. Muddy Waters and “Son” Sims, 1943

B. Muddy Waters at Chess Records, 1950s

• How would you describe Muddy Waters’ attire in each photo? • What do you think the attire might suggest about each location?

Transformation 3: Sound

A. Listen to “Burr Clover Farm Blues” from the 1941 Muddy Waters / Alan Lomax “Plantation Recordings,” recorded in Mississippi. B. Listen to “Got My Mojo Working,” written by Preston “Red” Foster and popularized by Waters’ 1957 Chess recording

• What instruments do you hear/see in each recording? How many musicians do you think might be on each recording? • How would you describe the feeling of each song? Is there any way that you think the sound and “feeling” of the song might represent the place it was recorded? • Look at the lyrics to each song below, how might you contrast the perspective of the vocalist on each? Are there any ways that the lyrics might reﬂect Waters’ place at the time of performance?

“Burr Clover Farm Blues” “Got My Mojo Working”

Well now, I told my man, way up in Dundee Got my mojo working, but it just won't work on you Lord, I told my man, way up in Dundee Got my mojo working, but it just won't work on you I wanna love you so bad till I don't know what to do Well now, you go down to Mr. Howard Stovall's place, he got all the burr clover you need Got my mojo working Well now, the reason I love, that old Burr Clover Got my mojo working Farm, so well Got my mojo working Yeah now the reason I love, that old Burr Clover Got my mojo working Farm, so well Got my mojo working, but it just won't work on you Well now, we always have money and we never raise no hell I'm going down to Louisiana to get me a mojo hand I'm going down to Louisiana to get me a mojo hand Well now I'm leavin' this mornin', sure do hate to I'm gonna have all you women right here at my go, yeah babe command Lord, I'm leavin' this mornin', an I sure do hate to go Got my mojo working Well now, I've got to leave that Burr Clover Farm, Got my mojo working I ain't comin' back here no more Got my mojo working Got my mojo working Yeah told you I was leavin' at 4 o'clock this Got my mojo working, but it just won't work on you mornin' Now goodbye everybody, an I may not come I got a gypsy woman giving me advice back down I got a gypsy woman giving me advice I said goodbye everybody, an I may not come She got some red hot tips I'm keepin' them on ice. back down Well now I gotta leave that Burr Clover Farm, my baby don't want me around

Transformation 4: You

Imagine that you moved to a new city and began interacting with diﬀerent people. How might you change? In what ways might you use relocation or a new environment as a platform for growth and personal development?

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