No. 4 TAM’s Top 15 Best Blues Songs of All Time!

I hope all you lovely people do enjoy this I know I do. Now, what kind of Best Blues list could possibly be complete without this following musician? And what would that say about me as a lover of music and blues specifically if this next artist was never mentioned? I know I usually throw up a small copy of the wiki to give a little more insight for you and I will continue that tradition because I want to give you more and I certainly don’t claim to know all the facts and history of every artist that is posted here at The Audio Museum. I try to do the research so you don’t have to, and as always I cite where it comes from so if you choose to you can dig even deeper, which I strongly encourage you to do. Especially since I only take bits and pieces of the bigger picture.

I honestly fell in love with the blues very early in my life, probably around the age of 6. I was totally captivated, and to this day I still wish I could play as good as some of my heroes. But it’s been the best journey and I have learned much and consider myself to be a life long student. I have always felt that when you think you know everything that’s when life shows you otherwise. This, in my opinion keeps me forever humble, and for this I will always be grateful. I choose to move forward with a spirit of gratitude and hope that what I do will somehow bring joy, happiness and maybe a little wisdom into someone else’s life. This post is a little longer than normal simply because of all the love.

“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you might miss it.” Yup you guessed it, Ferris Bueller.

Without further ado I would like to introduce to you none other than the one, the only, the King of The Mississippi Delta Blues…..McKinley Morganfield “I Feel Like Going Home”.

So it’s not surprising there’s practically no information on this song because I Feel Like Going Home was published by (Aristcrat 1305) Chicago. Apr 1948. The album it was released on is called Diggin’ Deeper Volume 9. But it’s clear the meaning and he certainly get’s his point across.

Wiki:

McKinley Morganfield (April 4, 1913 or 1915 – April 30, 1983), known professionally as Muddy Waters, was an American blues singer-songwriter and musician who is often cited as the “father of modern Chicago blues”, and an important figure to emerge on the blues scene during the post-WWII era.

Muddy Waters grew up on Stovall Plantation near Clarksdale, Mississippi, and by age 17 was playing the guitar and the harmonica, emulating the local blues artists Son House and Robert Johnson. He was recorded in Mississippi by Alan Lomax for the Library of Congress in 1941. In 1943, he moved to Chicago to become a full-time professional musician. In 1946, he recorded his first records for Columbia Records and then for Aristocrat Records, a newly formed label run by the brothers Leonard and Phil Chess.

In the early 1950s, Muddy Waters and his band—Little Walter Jacobs on harmonica, Jimmy Rogers on guitar, Elga Edmonds (also known as Elgin Evans) on drums and Otis Spann on piano—recorded several blues classics, some with the bassist and songwriter Willie Dixon. These songs included “Hoochie Coochie Man”, “I Just Want to Make Love to You” and “I’m Ready”. In 1958, he traveled to England, laying the foundations of the resurgence of interest in the blues there. His performance at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1960 was recorded and released as his first live album, At Newport 1960.

Muddy Waters’ influence was tremendous, not just on blues and rhythm and blues but on rock and roll, hard rock, folk music, jazz, and country music. His use of amplification is often cited as the link between Delta blues and rock and roll.

Legacy:

Two years after his death, Chicago honored him by designating the one-block section between 900 and 1000 East 43rd Street near his former home on the south side “Honorary Muddy Waters Drive”. The Chicago suburb of Westmont, where Muddy lived the last decade of his life, named a section of Cass Avenue near his home “Honorary Muddy Waters Way”. Following his death, fellow blues musician B.B. King told Guitar World magazine, “It’s going to be years and years before most people realize how greatly he contributed to American music”. A Mississippi Blues Trail marker has been placed in Clarksdale, Mississippi, by the Mississippi Blues Commission designating the site of Muddy Waters’ cabin. In June 2017, a massive mural in downtown Chicago was dedicated to him.

The Rolling Stones named themselves after his 1950 song “Rollin’ Stone” (also known as “Catfish Blues”, which was covered by Jimi Hendrix). Rolling Stone magazine took its name from the same song. Hendrix recalled that “the first guitar player I was aware of was Muddy Waters. I first heard him as a little boy and it scared me to death”. The band Cream covered “Rollin’ and Tumblin'” on their 1966 debut album, Fresh Cream, as Eric Clapton was a big fan of Muddy Waters when he was growing up, and his music influenced Clapton’s music career. The song was also covered by Canned Heat at the Monterey Pop Festival and later adapted by Bob Dylan on his album Modern Times. One of Led Zeppelin’s biggest hits, “Whole Lotta Love”, is lyrically based on the Muddy Waters hit “You Need Love”, written by Willie Dixon. Dixon wrote some of Muddy Waters’ songs, including “I Just Want to Make Love to You” (a big radio hit for Etta James, as well as the 1970s rock band Foghat), “Hoochie Coochie Man”, which the Allman Brothers Band covered (the song was also covered by Humble Pie, Steppenwolf, and Fear), “Trouble No More” and “I’m Ready”. In 1993, Paul Rodgers released the album Muddy Water Blues: A Tribute to Muddy Waters, on which he covered a number of Muddy Waters songs, including “Louisiana Blues”, “Rollin’ Stone”, “Hoochie Coochie Man” and “I’m Ready” in collaboration with a number of guitarists, including Gary Moore, Brian May and Jeff Beck.

Angus Young, of the rock group AC/DC, has cited Muddy Waters as one of his influences. The AC/DC song title “You Shook Me All Night Long” came from lyrics of the Muddy Waters song “You Shook Me”, written by Willie Dixon and J. B. Lenoir. Earl Hooker first recorded it as an instrumental, which was then overdubbed with vocals by Muddy Waters in 1962. Led Zeppelin also covered it on their debut album.

Muddy Waters’ songs have been featured in long-time fan Martin Scorsese’s movies, including The Color of Money, Goodfellas, and Casino. Muddy Waters’ 1970s recording of his mid-’50s hit “Mannish Boy” (also known as “I’m a Man”) was used in the films Goodfellas, Better Off Dead, Risky Business, and the rockumentary The Last Waltz.

Coming in at Number 4 on The Audio Museum’s Top 15 Best Blues Songs of All Time is Muddy Waters “I Feel Like Going Home”.

Lyrics

Well, it gettin’ Late on into the evenin’ and I feel like, like blowin’ my home
When I woke up this mornin’ all I had, I had was gone
Late on into the evenin’, child, I feel like, like blowin’ my home
Well now, woke up this mornin’, all I had was gone

Well, Brooks run into the ocean, the ocean run in, into the sea
If I don’t find my baby, somebody gonna sure bury me
Brooks run into the ocean, boys, that old ocean run into the sea
Well now, if I don’t find my baby, somebody sure gonna bury me

Well, minutes seemed like hours, but don’t it seem like days?
Seems like my baby would stop her old evil way
Minutes seemed like hours, an hour seemed like days
Well, seems like my baby, whoo-hoo well, boy
Would stop her low down way

Side note…I’m not 100% on the lyrics but this is what kept turning up over and over so I posted them.

A long time ago I heard that Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top was allowed to take a piece of wood from the shack Muddy Waters was born in. Of course he turned it into a guitar, with that Old Mississippi Muddy River flowing right down the middle of it!

This guitar was made from a block out of the cabin where Muddy Waters was born. It was made for ZZ Top. On display at the Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale, MS.