"They did this tune they wanted to dedicate it to Muddy and, for want of a better title, the
tune became "2120 South Michigan Avenue - Muddy Waters Was There." When I saw
the tune come out with "2120 South Michigan Avenue," which was the studio address, it
was kinda cute, and Muddy got a big kick out of that, but the "Muddy Waters Was There"
part of it was deleted somewhere along the line."
- Ben Malo, recording engineer at Chess Records, 1964
Mckinley Morganfield, better known as Muddy Waters, was one of the main creators of the Chicago blues sound and a major figure in blues history influencing musicians in both blues and rock. The Rolling Stones even went so far as to take their name from one of Muddy's 1950 hit "Rolling Stone." The popularity of The Stones and other British groups brought Muddy's music to the attention of a young white public who might never have heard of him otherwise.
Muddy was born into a Mississippi Delta sharecropping family in 1915. He was raised by his grandmother after his mother died in 1918. They lived on a plantation, just outside Clarksdale. He got his nickname as a child because he loved to play near a muddy creek. He learned how to sing out in the cotton fields, where he worked for fifty cents a day. When he was a young boy, Muddy learned how to play the harmonica. He didn't learn how to play guitar until he was seventeen.
In the late '30s, the folklorist Alan Lomax was looking for Robert Johnson. Finding Muddy instead, Lomax recorded him for the Library of Congress and his career was born. Muddy was influenced by Son House, whose bottle neck guitar style he admired. He was also impressed by the records of Big Bill Broonzy and Robert Johnson. Although he is not the first blues man to play electric guitar, Muddy's talent pushed the limits of what could be
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