Muddy Waters in London

TONY STANDISH

MUDDY WATERS IN LONDON

(PART II CONCLUSION)

One afternoon I carted a tape recorder southern states, y'know. and we only of Chess Records. At that time I was still up to Muddy’s hotel room. I wanted his would work Friday nights. Sat'day nights, playin’ acoustic. . . noooo. . . I guess story to be told but I didn't want it com- "bout two nights out of the week. I before I started recording I had an mited to unreliable memory and scribbled wouldn’t call that professional. Alan electric guitar. The one you’ve heard on elusive scraps of paper. Lomax, that was the man that put it on without electric is the one by Alan Muddy poured drinks. Otis and I lit my mind to turn professional, he opened Lomax. Yeah, that electric got a whole cigarettes, and I started the recorder. my eyes, an' I still think he’s a wonderful lotta sharp stuff. . . those controls. . . “Start talkin'? " asked Muddy. guy. I was so sorry I missed him over My style? Well I call it country style. I nodded and. with the murmur of the here. For gettin' into the professional I think that’s the correct name for it. tape as his only accompaniment. Muddy world I would think Alan Lomax was Big Bill was the daddy of country style began. . . responsible for me—he came down an’ blues singers, don't you think? An’ there’s recorded me the first time and suggested John Lee Hooker, you’d like him. He’s I was born in Rollin’ Fork. Mississippi. I should try the cities. Until then I didn't right out of the country, out of Mississi­ That’s a little place, so small you could know my voice was so good until I. ppi. Of the blues singers around today spit across it. I moved from there when y'know. heard the playback an’ I thought, B. B. King—I think he’s gonna be the I was quite young, 'bout two years old. “man. I can sing”. Of course, he sent me next man you gotta look out for. An’ I guess, an’ I was raised up outside a couple of copies after he went back. there’s Bobby Blue Bland., he’s makin’ a Clarksdale, Mississippi, in Stovall. That After he'd gone I didn’t stay down there name for himself. Washboard Sam's still was farming country, they raised cattle, longer'n two years. I'm sure. I was around Chicago, but I don’t think he's and horses, hogs n' sheeps an’ goats an’ workin' on a farm when he came down singin’ much, and Lightnin’ Hopkins all that stuff, chickens. My folks were two years straight to see me an’ the next won’t leave his little farm down in Texas farmers. My daddy was a guitar player, year I lef'. The next time he saw me I . . but he’s very big. Little Walter an’ he played guitar (like all southerners. was in Chicago. Wolf, that's Howlin Wolf, arc around Muddy pronounced this ’git-tar’). He’s I went straight to Chicago, didn’t Chicago an’ Elmo’ James is workin’ the still livin’ but he don’t play any more travel 'round at all. .. went by same place as me. Doc Clayton? He’s —too old. My mother, she's dead. But train from Clarksdale to Memphis. dead. Chuck Berry? That man’s a show he’s got all my records. That’s the... what is it?... ah stopper! Lowell Fulson? He’s out on the I started blowin’ on a harp when I was . . . R.C., yeah, the R.C. Railroad. You West Coast. . . sort’ve cooled off lately. about fifteen years old—I played with change at Memphis, an’ from Memphis Cousin Joe? Nooo. don’t know him: if several fellas. I had one fella with me to Chicago. . . I don’t know the name he's in New Orleans he prob’ly plays the name of Scott Bohound an’ another fella of that railroad. . . I came up on the fay joints. Ray Charles? Yeah, he’s by the name of Son Sims. He played train they call "Chicago 9’’. When I got great. We toured the South with him. . . lead vi'lin. Had a guy play mandolin by there at that time Bill was the top man— him an’ that little band. . . met up with name of Lewis Fuller (or Fowler). . . Big Bill. Memphis Slim. Sonny Boy him in Texas. I think it was. He sings we had a good little string band. Then Williamson. Yeah. I played with them. I ’til tears come out of those eyes. . . yeah, ’bout a year, couple years, after I got did some gigs with Memphis Slim—this he’s blind, but tears come out of his eyes. close to twenty — musta been about was about 1942/43. When I got there I He’s real country. Got that gospel. . . twenty, twenty-one years old, and then started playin’ house parties, y'know, get- y’know. . . right out of the country. . . . we just sittin' 'round the house and togethers. jus’ kept on until someone says But Bill was the daddy of blues singers he showed me different little things on —“this cat in town he got a good voice, . . . those old timers really had it. . . the guitar and then I got to play pretty man. he can sing"—an' so on an’ so on Doc Clayton, Robert Johnson. Sonny good on the guitar so we just put down ’til a few years later Chess discovered Boy. . . the harmonica and we had two guitars. me. He grabbed me. an' I'd like you to I think that Chicago’s the best city in I don’t play harp now—can’t blow put in there that he has been good to me the States for blues singers. Oh. we got 'em no more. Well. I was mostly playin’ —we came up together an’ I know that blues singers scattered everywhere. . . for kicks in those days—I had made my­ if ever I struck hard times he would in New York, but in New York City self a good name all around through the look after me: Leonard and Field Chess. they really don’t have blues singers but 3 all out in New Jersey. . . people is blues -but a lot of guys loose money like blues singers than any one club in the crazy ’right round twenty miles of New that, sellin' their songs outright. whole city of Chicago. He features blues, York. We was lucky enough to get into (Muddy and I were looking through a period. That’s what he likes and that's the Apollo theatre. . . but they had Chess catalogue I had brought with me. what he’s gonna have in there. Somethin’ diff'rent groups there. They had couple and I asked him if Eddie Boyd's "The else come, he say. “ 'gotta get this crap good blues singers on an' they also had Story Of Bill" was about Big Bill outa here, ’cause my people don’t like those group singers. . . what them teen- Broonzy. He laughed . . . " That’s what that”. I 'member at Silvio’s they had. age kids like an' all that stuff. I mean, a blues singer always sings from at once. Howlin’ Wolfs band, Elmore The rock ’n roll craze helped us a lot experience. No. that's not about Bill James' band. Jimmy Rogers' band, and back in the Slates, but these kids. . . Broonzy. You see, this cat's goin' with my band—four great bands in one night Elvis Presley, he's just a Johnny-come- Eddie's girl, so he makes a song about —and the peoples. . . you need a big lately. he's over-night man, but he's gon’ i t .) hall when you have that sort’ve show. get rich off it. . . he's just pinchin' We had ’em linin’ up tryin’ to pay coloured people's stuff an' takin' it an' Otis—he's my half-brother—and I been together ’bout ten or twelve years now. dollar head and couldn’t even get to sellin’ it to the white. He was raised the door. We had lots of fun. Man, I around Memphis. Elvis is a nice bay, Oh yes, I’ve had the same group for a long time; I think I’ve only had two like to get all them pretty little girls in but he's copy-cattin', that’s all. I used to there. . . No, I’m not there any more. do some that stuff, y’know, but I cut it. fall out, maybe three. That was Little Walter when he got strong enough to I’m at Smithy's Comer, a very wonder­ Didn't want people thinkin' I was tryin' ful little club. . . kinda small but it's to be Elvis. But that clownin’. . . you go for himself an’ the boy that played the second guitar for me was Jimmie wonderful and they’re nice people. South- know, if you clownin' you're doin’ side. 35th and Indiana, and that corner nothing else. You ain't playin’. Back in Rogers. Otis is the oldest fella with me now. been with me longer'n anybody is well known now. It always was ’cause the old days I used to clown all the time the old man been on it so long, but now - my group on the stand an' I'm way out else. I call the band Muddy Waters' Hoochie Coochie Boys — you want to some of the peoples say I made Indiana here somewhere. . . me an’ my guitar a one way street.. . was two-way over near the bar layin’ on the floor, get know name by name? You know Otis Spann, they spelled it wrong in the but we made traffic so heavy they your suit an' shirt all dirty. . . clothes at had to make it one-way. There’s the laundry all the time. You remember papers, an’ my second guitar player’s name is Pat Hare an’ third man is James Willie Mabon. he’s on Chess too. when you first joined the band. Otis? got a good little band across the street We were down in Bilge, Tennessee, a Cotton, he blows harmonica. My drum­ mer is named Francis Clay an’ my from us. Then there’s three or four real clownin’ band then. . . the whole others, forget the names, but they’re all band. One of my boys jumped out the clarinet boy’s name is Marcus Johnson. That's a real jammin' little band. Of right along there. All playin’ the blues, window. ’Nother one’s up there in the all very popular. That fella from over ceiling hangin’ by his knees wailin’ on course, my group sounds better’n just two of us. You can t expect for two people here, from Belgium. . . yeah, Yannick his guitar. . . (Muddy chuckled gleefully) —I was hopin' I'd see him here -he came . . . we had the place jumpin'. But no stomp loud as six. They all young fellows. . . mark out Otis and me and down to catch the band. Will they let more. People want to listen to you you in? Are you kiddin’? Sure. Chicago’s now. Just get up there and sing, and if rest of ’em less than thirty years old. But about the young guys. . . you say not in the South. You can go in any you’re good enough they’ll applaud. place ’mostly you want to go—some I didn’t play guitar until about two some people say they don't sing the blues. Well. I do myself. They don't seem to places I wouldn't want you to go be­ months ago, but I’m gonna keep on cause. I mean, they’re a little too low, playin’ now. I won’t rest no more—when have the pure blues like we s'posed to have. . . even a lot of the older ones but any club we play in, if you ever hit I rest next time I’ll be through. I was off the city you can come where we are. don't have it. I mean, they're not born it for two years. . . cut my finger right Usually, on weekends, you gotta wait along here, in 1955. after it got well I every day. . . people like Bill an’ myself outside 'til someone come out, so wasn't born every day, just born once in was lazy. . . I didn't want to go back crowded, but you just tell the guy that through that sweat again, so I had two a while. TV changed a lot of things too. you met me in London. guitar players and I just sang fifteen, Everything’s gettin' changed around but twenty minutes couple times a night and the blues won’t ever really die out. (Tape was running short, and I turned my guitars sing when I'm off the stand. People will always have the blues. my attention, briefly, to Otis—quiet Otis But my fingering is pretty good on some Oh yes. we did a lot of tourin' but we who played all that lowdown piano pieces. Sometimes, when it comes up to quit it last January. We got tired of it. behind Muddy and who was something a high tempo I'm kinda slow—that’s why We'd been on the road for five straight of a blues singer himself. ) I got the lead guitar player, let him take years, stayin' at home with our families care o’ that business—I’m slow, but when 'bout two months outa the year, so we Otis. . . it comes to the blues, why, I got pretty decided we gonna cool it, we were gonna No, not from Clarksdale. . . I’m from good fingers. get 'round the city and work there an' Jackson, Mississippi. Now I'll tell you — I play mostly my own compositions be at home with our families. We toured after I get out of school an' so forth, . . . oh. I play. . . if I did it would be all over. . . we were always very hot in and left the little country town, I came somethin' way back was made by Robert Louisiana. Alabama, and different spots to Chicago where my auntie was an' I Johnson or Leroy Carr or some the in Georgia. In Richmond Auditorium, started playin' with a little band. From older fellas y'know. Robert Johnson, oh that's out of San Francisco, my band there Muddy discovered me an' I went he was. he was one of my favourite and Guitar Slim an’ a vocal group with him. I always knew all the fellas an' guitar players, I got my style off've him called the Robins, we had 13,000 I used to come around an’ I would see an’ Son House. . . they all played. . . people there. . . really packed Muddy, you know, and I had asked him Son House he didn't get the name out 'em in out there. I been as far West as several times, 'way before, but he kept like Robert, y’know. but he was I can go. an’ this is pretty far East, an' puttin' me off, puttin’ me off—"Yeah , the best guitar player... and singer. before I came here I was a ll around we'll see 'bout it"—and finally he told Course. Robert had a lovely voice, but New York, even up in Connecticut, an’ me to come down one night. I went down to my idea Son was better. That guy we headed West out through Denver. an’ played. They signed me up. I been could just preach the blues. . . sit down Colorado. But that’s hard work. . . with him ever since. He’s a wonderful there and sing one thing after 'nother. sleepin' in cars, drivin’ and then that last boss. like a preacher. day. everyone wantin' to see their wives M uddy... When I was young I had to sell a lot an' families, girl-friends. . . drive all A package show over here? Oh, night. But that's finished now. . . the o f my stuff, blues I wrote, had to sell 'em that'd be real nice. All American blues blues are so popular we can work six. singers such as myself an' B. B. King outright—I needed the money in those seven nights just around Chicago. Im- 'n' couple more boys from over there. . . days. But no more. The older I get the personators? Well I tell you. . . right maybe Sonny and Brownie. . . boy, more money I make. I got a good con- now there's three or four Muddy Waters would we have a time?! ‘Cause we got tract with a good record company— tourin' round the South. That happens. . . people over there that people never heard Chess gets me to check all the blue* Yeah, everybody knows Silvio's. Now —such blues singers as myself. I mean records they make before they issue them he’s a nice guy. He brought up more they maybe heard of me. but they never 4 actually seen or heard me sing. . . I know, I wasn't so surprised. . . I was hear that. I got criticised too. Comin' up, mean, in person, lookin’ at me. . . an' just lookin' to be treated nice, y’know? when I first got a record I got criticised; there’s lot’s of ’em. I know las' night After hearin’ so much from Bill an’ but so many people liked me and liked when I was singin’, things got so quiet Brother John I wasn't so surprised. my records that that one that was talkin' when I was. . . ahahah. . . I got scared Seems it’s just gettin’ bigger 'n bigger, couldn't do me no harm. So I left a whole . . . I was. . . I started to go off the and I think Bill’s the daddy for it though, lot of the big musicians that have talked stage. . . everybody wasn’t sayin’. you huh? An’ Chris Barber. He is a wonder­ about our type of music, I left them in could hear a pin drop out there: but fu l guy an’ I mean, they should put him the States. They don't have a chance to after I got through the applause was on top shelf because he’s able to play even come over here. there. I feel that they were tryin’ to the type of stuff we wanta hear an' he Somebody gonna miss likin’ somebody, understand what I was sayin’. But the plays it. he’s not up there. . . oh yes. every time. You can’t please them, but applause was there when I finished. . . I’m crazy ’bout that band, that's a you can have so many on your s ide they, seemed to warm up slowly, y’know. wonderful band. I could work with him that them few don't make no difference. I guess I'll go right back to my old stuff six months those cats wail like coloured I heard people in the city sayin’. "Man, over here 'I Can't Be Satisfied'- an' people. They're a bunch of wonderful I wouldn't go two blocks to hear Muddy mix in some of the new ones. guys and any way they can help you, Waters", and later when I'm playin’ an’ Well, in 1952 they was talkin' about that's what they wanta do. And I like them gals is steady packed in there and bringin’ me over here an’ I refused. I that. you peep over the crowd an' you see him didn't think there'd be anything. Now They get criticised a lot? Well, I'm squeezin’ tryin’ to get in, and he'll say, I'm here? Oh. I think it's nice. I'd like glad to hear that one thing you spoke. "I didn't come for myself, my girl-friend, to come back twice a year. But you Bein' criticised is a boost. I'm glad to my wife, wanted t'come”, an’ all that crap, y’know. When you get to be peoples' friend, and they like you. them others can't hurt you. They can talk all they want, but they can't do you no harm. I want to make friends over here, and I just hope I'll be comin' back. I love these audiences and I'm sorry we can't play another concert in London. Man. if it’s warm let's get to­ gether in the streets an' let me sing. I don’t care. I'll sing my blues anywhere . . . anywhere.

Muddy had warmed to his subject, but we had no more tape. ''Still, we got a lot of talkin' down there", he said. And we did. We got some good, rich talking. I had begun to feel like Alan Lomax or Fred Ramsey. Soon after the last strand of tape had snaked past the recording head, Pat Halcox arrived and Jack and June Elliott dropped by for a chat. This time Muddy asked Jack to play for him, and Jack obliged with "Salty Dog" and a couple of other hillbilly numbers. Both Muddy and Otis were completely knocked out. “ ‘Shake that thing' ! " exclaimed Otis. “Remember that. Muddy? That was 'way back". Muddy shook his head wonderingly. “That's just the way my daddy used to play—that pure style, real hillbilly".

One of the possible results of his tour may be that local preference for “soft guitar and old blues” will send Muddy back to the songs of his youth, the songs of Robert Johnson. Leroy Carr and Son House. But. however much this might satisfy our own ideas, isn’t there something blatantly ridiculous about our trying to advise Muddy Waters on how to sing the blues? In certain cases I've no doubt that he would be only too pleased to resurrect a few of the old ones, but as he said in an interview with Max Jones: “There's no way in the world I can feel the same blues the way I used to. When I play in Chicago I’m playing up- to-date. not the blues I was born with. People should hear the pure blues—the blues we used to have when we had no money. I'm talkin' about when you couldn't even buy moonshine, a hot dog even. When you were making thirty-five cents a day”. Muddy flourished a big wad of notes and continued. “How can I have that kind of blues with this in my pocket? " Like Max, I will take anything Muddy artist. Today, with all the changes, he offers—old blues or new, acoustic guitar still is. or electric, "Blues Before Sunrise” was great, but so was “Manish Boy”. And There may be snow on the mountain... let’s face it—Muddy’s been in Chicago But there’s fire down under the hill. sixteen years now, and that's a long time out of the country. In America, among I think we should accept him on his his own people, he is a highly successful own musical terms. night club performer and recording artist. Cab drivers, waitresses, factory workers, At eleven o’clock on Monday night, shop assistants—these, the Negro working people, are the ones who know Muddy the 3rd of November, Muddy Waters Waters Hoochie Coochie boys and their and Otis Spann left London Airport for music. Muddy is recording advisor for Chicago, via New York. By Wednesday Chess and Checker Records, he owns a they would have rejoined the band at the couple of cars and his own home, and F & J Lounge in Gary, Indiana. The he brought Otis to England at his own following week they were to resume at expense. In other words, he has left the Smithy’s Corner. country environment behind, for better Theirs was a short tour arranged on or worse, and is now a city dweller sing­ short notice, but they easily earned them­ ing mostly city songs for city people. The selves a place on the priority list for years in the south produced the style and return visits. Such music, once heard in the accent but the city and good money person, leaves longings that are only have influenced, irrevocably, the material. As Otis said, “Remember that, Muddy? slightly placated by records. And there That’s way back”. are too few records by Muddy available Much the same thing can be said of to us. We can only point accusingly at his guitar playing. On the Library of Decca and demand that they give us, Congress recording, Muddy, aged twenty- without further ado, the twelve-inch long- six, played acoustic and it was a wonder­ player available to them from the Chess ful sound. But so too is the electric. When catalogue. That might tide us over until I hear of people being shocked by the the return visit, already rumoured for — too, too vulgar electric guitar I am late 1959. — instantly reminded of those maidenly Finally, I personally would like to souls who regularly take offence at Louis thank Muddy and Otis for all that won­ Armstrong’s hilarious jokes, or who derful music—for that and for being shouted “rape” when Chuck Berry did friendly. They are fine people. London his dance at the Newport Festival. was just so many degrees warmer while The Muddy of 1942 was a great blues they were around.