Rating: 
Summary: A Great Book about a Great Blues Man.
Review: "Can't Be Satisfied" is a great book about one of the greatest blues men who ever lived. Author Robert Gordon lays out in brilliant and well-researched detail the life and times of Muddy Waters, from his early days on the Stovall, MS plantation and his first "recording session" for Alan Lomax and the Library of Congress, to his rise as the progenator of Chicago blues, to his final days and passing in 1983 and how his life shaped those of virtually everyone close to him. Gordon, in rare interviews with Waters' family members, friends and close associates, also lets the reader into the life of a blues man of Waters' stature at that time: constant touring, heavy drinking and smoking, womanizing, the out-of-wedlock children that he fathered, and how it all affected him personally, professionally and financially. In short, this book honestly tells the story of Muddy Waters the Chicago Blues icon, the player, the man, the human being.This is a must-read for any blues fan.
Rating:
Summary: Wasn't that a man
Review: "Can't Be Satisfied" is a great book about one of the greatest blues men who ever lived. Author Robert Gordon lays out in brilliant and well-researched detail the life and times of Muddy Waters, from his early days on the Stovall, MS plantation and his first "recording session" for Alan Lomax and the Library of Congress, to his rise as the progenator of Chicago blues, to his final days and passing in 1983 and how his life shaped those of virtually everyone close to him. Gordon, in rare interviews with Waters' family members, friends and close associates, also lets the reader into the life of a blues man of Waters' stature at that time: constant touring, heavy drinking and smoking, womanizing, the out-of-wedlock children that he fathered, and how it all affected him personally, professionally and financially. In short, this book honestly tells the story of Muddy Waters the Chicago Blues icon, the player, the man, the human being. This is a must-read for any blues fan.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Book about a Great Blues Man.
Review: "Can't Be Satisfied" is a great book about one of the greatest blues men who ever lived. Author Robert Gordon lays out in brilliant and well-researched detail the life and times of Muddy Waters, from his early days on the Stovall, MS plantation and his first "recording session" for Alan Lomax and the Library of Congress, to his rise as the progenator of Chicago blues, to his final days and passing in 1983 and how his life shaped those of virtually everyone close to him. Gordon, in rare interviews with Waters' family members, friends and close associates, also lets the reader into the life of a blues man of Waters' stature at that time: constant touring, heavy drinking and smoking, womanizing, the out-of-wedlock children that he fathered, and how it all affected him personally, professionally and financially. In short, this book honestly tells the story of Muddy Waters the Chicago Blues icon, the player, the man, the human being. This is a must-read for any blues fan.
Rating:
Summary: Wasn't that a man
Review: ... Such was the power of Muddy Waters, the rollin' stone from Rolling Fork, Mississippi, whose stark, raw songs transformed popular culture. Robert Gordon, who comes from Memphis, an hour or two north of where Waters grew up, has written the first extended biography that captures the elusive character of this hugely influential man. Waters' life was changed when self-aggrandising musicologist Alan Lomax drove up the dirt road, parked outside the shack in the middle of cotton fields, and asked for a guitar player he'd heard about. (Lomax leaves his black assistant out of his biography; Gordon restores his place in history.) Waters - already nearly 30, but still ploughing fields - sang some tunes for Lomax, and hearing his voice on an acetate showed him the possibilities that lay beyond the wide, wide horizon of the Delta. Muddy Waters was illiterate, so Gordon - author of It Came From Memphis, a splendid social and musical history which manages to leave out Elvis - had to reconstruct his life story from interviews with his band members (many just before they died), the Chess family, and his children, legitimate and illegitimate. There are many of the latter; Muddy didn't go far without a "road wife": "[he] went through several wives, and always had women on the side, and women on the other side too." Gordon doesn't shy from the irresponsible, self-absorbed side of Muddy, a man who'd cheat on his wife without conscience, but support a musician in trouble just as casually. This is often a dark story, full of guns, violence, hard liquor and loose living. Success brought fame but not wealth to Muddy, thanks to his umbilical, exploitative relationship with Chess Records, a continuation of the "furnish" support he got from his cotton farmer back in the Delta. This is the work of a Southern storyteller, it's like sitting back on the porch listening to tales tall and true. Gordon evocatively describes the various scenes of Muddy's life: the cotton economy, the early electric blues of Chicago, the endless road trips, the magic of the Chess studios, and the highs and lows of a career that generated more respect than cash. In Chicago, Muddy's "South Side house stayed rocking. Phones ringing, meats frying, and greens boiling, the TV broadcasting a baseball game, a shoot-'em-up. Muddy, in black T-shirt and black boxers. And always there was music." In the basement, his ever-changing band practiced chords that never changed, but changed the world. Wasn't that a man. A full-grown man.
Rating:
Summary: Nicely done
Review: A very nice book, written with obvious care. Nice and informative, great pictures and a great and extensive note section in the back (don't skip over that). A great story of a man that introduced so many and so much into his music. Read it and listen.
Rating: 
Summary: A real disappointment
Review: An admiring though shallow and poorly written account of a unique American genius. Though salted with several good anecdotes, Gordon's book mostly relies on the research and interviews of others and ultimately does little to explain McKinley Morganfield's life and times. For a writer who presumes to account for the life of a musician, Gordon's descriptions of various Waters recordings are especially poor. Far far better is his video documentary of the same name. One suspects the book is the assembled notes of that project.
Rating:
Summary: Book does justice to the King of Chicago Blues
Review: Mmephis writer Robert Gordon has written a gem of blues biography of the legendary Muddy Waters tracing his background in the delta through his emergence as the King of the Chicago blues scene in the fifties to the up and down fortunes of his career as musical tastes shifted and as his music reached new audiences until his death almost two decades ago. Gordon intergates materials from the interviews that Muddy did for various specialist publications (like DownBeat, Living Blues) with his own interviews and other material from Muddy's relatives, bandmembers, managers and others for a book that is one of the better recent musical biographies I have read.
Muddy and his music is brought to life. Unlike the other Muddy biography, Gordon provides some blood and flesh to Muddy as opposed to rendering him simply as some legendary icon and also brings the music to life along with some thoughtful commentary on the music.
Anyone seriously into blues will need to have this. This books sets a high standard for biographies on Little Walter and Elmore james that are scheduled to be issued in the upcoming months
Rating:
Summary: Waters Run Deep
Review: Muddy Waters is arguably the most influential guitarist of all time. He influenced many guitarists, ranging from Keith Richards to BB King to Eric Clapton. He started out with a makeshift guitar made from a box and listening to country blues greats such as Son House and the legendary Robert Johnson. A sharecropper in the Mississippi Delta, Muddy's life operated on the schedule of King Cotton until a fateful day in 1941 that changed everything. Muddy Waters (then Muddy Water) was discovered. After establishing a name for himself in the South by way of house parties and juke joints, Muddy headed north to Chicago. Once there, Muddy worked many short-lived jobs by day and hit the clubs at night. He eventually hooked up with Leonard Chess, owner of the prominent blues label Chess Records. At the Chess studios Muddy brought his electric blues to the world with records like Hoochie Coochie Man, Rollin' and Tumblin' and I Just Wanna Make Love to You. His music was reminiscent of the country blues with his bottleneck slide while he wove an urbanely electrified flair. The Delta was always in Muddy, and he never forgot where he came from. Robert Gordon, acclaimed blues musicologist, brings all the pieces of research about Muddy together in a fascinating chronology. The book leans more toward textbook style than to narrative due to the multitude of sources Gordon used, but his asides add an insight that few textbooks are able to render. His most prominent sources come from the oral histories of Muddy's friends, family, and associates. I recommend this book to all lovers of things Muddy and all music lovers. Every guitarist or blues connoisseur should have this book in his or her collection. Reviewed by Candace K
Rating: 
Summary: Muddy was The Man
Review: Muddy Waters' tale makes for a bittersweet read as many biographies of our musical heroes can be. Robert Gordon reveals Muddy as a man in all his glory and foibles, strengths and weaknesses. Mostly, it firmly places Muddy in the pantheon of the great blues artists of all time.
Rating:
Summary: Author had done his homework
Review: Robert Gordon had done a good job in reconstructing the life of McKinley Morganfield (BKA Muddy Waters). This is not an esay task, as Muddy had no education and could not write his memoirs. Thus we have remaining a few videos, plenty of recordings, and a handful of interviews. But there are a lot of surviving friends and family members, so Gordon has made good use of them in telling the tale of Mr. Morganfield.
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