This Rollin’ Stone clip is extraordinary for several reasons. It gives us a Muddy Waters on film that’s as young as he’ll ever be, dressed to the nines, performing one of his signature tunes before a completely new audience, mostly young and largely white. It’s a warm summer afternoon fifty years ago. As yet there are no Beatles (or Rolling Stones), no Vietnam War, and importantly, no Civil Rights Act. Muddy, his fellow musicians, and the audience inhabit an America that will shortly vanish.
It’s an eerie moment. Muddy’s dignified and understated performance, which some might find lacking in fireworks, I find deeply moving. Chess did not include this performance on their Muddy Waters at Newport lp, which makes this clip all the more invaluable. – John Siscoe
Post script from John – Great cover shot of the lp [at right]. That’s John Lee Hooker’s guitar Muddy is holding, not his own trusty Telecaster. I never got the story as to why! Best, J.
PPS from John – Glad you liked that bit of trivia. Yes, Muddy loved that Telecaster. It (or its duplicate) is in both the Newport 1960 and Mannish Boy 1971 clips. And of course, in scads of others. For all I know he kept it to the end. I last saw him at the Showbox [Seattle] in 1980 and I’d like to believe he was playing it then but
the truth is I can’t remember. Cheers! J.
