Muddy Waters, 1966

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The Vienna Secession influence was on full display in this Wes Wilson poster advertising Chicago blues master Muddy Waters. Andrew Staples had no relation to the Staples Singers and in fact was not even a person, just an obscure garage band from Davis CA. You can buy the November 5th sets by Quicksilver Messenger Service – one of many bootlegs that are now available from that era.

Muddy Waters, born in Rolling Fork, Mississippi in 1913, was considered the father of modern Chicago blues. In August 1941, Alan Lomax went to Mississippi, on behalf of the Library of Congress to record various country blues musicians. "He recorded me right in my house," Muddy recalled for Rolling Stone magazine, "and when he played back the first song I sounded just like anybody's records.  Later on he sent me the pressing and I carried that record up to the corner and put it on the jukebox. Just played it and played it and said, 'I can do it, I can do it!’”

In 1943, he headed to Chicago with the hope of becoming a full-time professional musician. He drove a truck and worked in a factory by day and performed at night. Big Bill Broonzy, then one of the leading bluesmen in Chicago, had Muddy Waters open his shows in the rowdy clubs where Broonzy played. Waters felt obliged to electrify his sound in Chicago because, he said, "When I went into the clubs, the first thing I wanted was an amplifier. Couldn't nobody hear you with an acoustic." His sound reflected the optimism of postwar African Americans. Willie Dixon said that "There was quite a few people around singing the blues but most of them was singing all sad blues. Muddy was giving his blues a little pep."

Along with his former harmonica player Little Walter Jacobs and recent southern transplant Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters reigned over the early 1950s Chicago blues scene, his band becoming a proving ground for some of the city's best blues talent. Muddy Waters developed a long-running, generally good-natured rivalry with Wolf.

In 1967, he re-recorded several blues standards with Bo Diddley, Little Walter, and Howlin' Wolf, which were marketed as Super Blues and The Super Blues Band albums in Chess' attempt to reach a rock audience. Songs by Muddy Waters?  How about “Hoochie Coochie Man,” “Trouble No More,” “Rollin’ Stone” (yes, that’s where the band and the magazine got their name), “I Just Want to Make Love to You,” and “I’m Ready.”