Five solos that prove Muddy Waters was a guitar genius
We often underestimate the impact that some of the blues and R&B guitarists who made a name for themselves prior to the 1960s had on the industry as a whole. Well, underestimate no longer; it’s time to focus on Muddy Waters.
Fun fact: a lot of your favourite rock bands probably wouldn’t exist were it not for Muddy Waters. That’s speculation on some level, sure, but when it comes to bands like the Rolling Stones, it’s an absolute guarantee. Band members like Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were originally inspired to start making more blues-oriented music because they felt moved by a Muddy Waters gig.
Everything about him came together to give listeners something which allowed them to tap into the blues on another level. His raspy vocals, writing style and overall panache were a delight from start to finish. However, the biggest standout feature of Waters was his guitar playing ability; never before had people heard such emotion in a solo as they did with something from this blues legend.
It begs the question, which was his best? There are plenty to choose from, revered for both their complexity and simplicity, but each of which taps into the emotive nature of the blues. So, without further ado, these are the songs that celebrate his genius.
The five solos that prove Muddy Waters is a genius:
‘Got My Mojo Working’
Timeless is a term we throw around a lot these days, so much so that its use is quite often undermined. However, we can pretty confidently attach such a phrase to ‘Got My Mojo Working’. This is a blues track that almost every blues band has been reeling out in the decades since its release. Despite the song being so widely covered, the version by Muddy Waters with his melodic guitar line mimicking the vocals, paired with a vibrato-heavy solo, is still one of the best ever recorded.
“If you were in Chicago in 1960, as I was, every blues band in Chicago played that tune,” said former Muddy Waters band member Elvin Bishop when discussing just how widespread this tune was, “And here it is in the 2000s, and half the blues bands you go and see now play ‘Got My Mojo Working’.”
‘I’m Your Hooch Coochie Man’
Willie Dixon was inspired by the mystical arts when he originally penned ‘Hoochie Coochie Man’. “People believe in mystic things. Like people today believe in astrology,” he said, “That’s been going on for generations, since biblical days. People all over the world believe in it. Even before Jesus was born, according to the Bible.”
When you have a song that is open to the weird and wonderful, you best believe that the artist performing it needs to tap into something truly otherworldly when playing it. That’s exactly what Muddy Waters does with this guitar solo. He sounds like a man possessed the way his fingers so effortlessly stroll up and down the fretboard. It’s a real treat to listen to and some of the greatest blues guitar music out in the world today.
‘Rollin’ Stone’
Before you had the Rolling Stones, you had ‘Rollin’ Stone’, a song which would inspire the long-haired rockers and every other band that came after them. Of course, Waters wasn’t the first to coin the term; that’s an honour reserved for Hank Williams; however, Waters’ embodiment of the phrase sounds a lot more in-keeping with what we now know it as.
This track is cool, there is no other way to put it. Waters doesn’t exaggerate too much with it when playing, instead, he’s happy for the guitar to remain relatively straightforward and for his vocals to be quite subdued. However, it’s this effortlessness which really allows some kind of calm authority to creep into the song. The whole thing is an exercise in effortlessness, as Waters makes this calculated approach to the guitar sound borderline second nature.
‘Mannish Boy’
When Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top spoke about the blues, he highlighted how the genre is often simple, but it’s the emotion that comes with said simplicity which makes the music special. You can have a great musician play a simple line, but so long as it’s done right, that simple line will live in the hearts of listeners for decades to come.
We hear that blues technique in practice on Muddy Waters song ‘Mannish Boy’. His guitar line that rings throughout the track is by no means the most complex, and yet it’s a lot of fun to listen to and sticks in your head for hours after you’ve finished listening. Given the track was written before the power of the riff had well and truly being realised, such an approach to guitar work is forward thinking and that of a very gifted guitarist.
‘I Can’t Be Satisfied’
When you look at the date some of these blues songs were written, it’s hard to believe just how ahead of their time a lot of them are. ‘I Can’t Be Satisfied’ was initially released in 1948, and yet, it’s a track whose influence rang true for decades following and that still hits a very important part of people’s hearts today.
This was a pivotal song in Waters career, as not only does it pay homage to the musical legends who have come before him, but it also sees the guitar genius pave the way for that iconic Chicago sound which would later take the world by storm. Waters was more than just a guitarist but an exceptional songwriter, and both of those qualities are on display throughout this track.
