Rating: 
Summary: Notes Section is a Nice Touch
Review: Robert Gordon has the subject of a lifetime in telling the tale of an illiterate sharecropper born McKinley Morganfield. Morganfield's story starts with him working sun to sun in the Mississippi cotton fields and playing fish fries with an acoustic box. It eventually ends with Muddy Waters fully electrified on international stages and at the White House (where, according to Calvin Jones, they didn't get paid a dime and were feted with hot dogs). In between are tales of car wrecks, knife fights, dumbheaded attempts at "updating" his rural sound, royalty ripoffs, hired musicians, fired musicians, and rehired musicians. Waters is definitely a problematic individual - fiercely protective of those who cut the trail in front of him (ie Son House), loyal to the paternalistic systems of Stovall and Chess, yet also rampantly adulterous and unable to protect some of his children from the ravages of heroin and street life. In the best of the oral blues tradition, Gordon has used the words of those who lived and played with Waters, including Marshall Chess, James Cotton, Willie Smith, and Jimmy Rogers, to flesh out the portrait. Their stories are the best part of the book. Everyone in the band drank heavily, everyone carried knives and guns, everybody had a pretty girl waiting on them in the next town. The reminiscences of harpist Paul Oscher are particularly amusing, while the perspective of Muddy's granddaughter Cookie reveals there were definitely two men wearing the same shoes - the decent provider and family man Morganfield and the stage persona and adulterer Muddy Waters. In the end, Gordon succeeds, although the topic is so rich it's almost like shooting fish in a barrel..., "Can't be Satisfied" does a fine job of recreating the life and times of Muddy Waters.
Rating:
Summary: Detailed and informative, BUT.......
Review: Robert Gordon's account of Muddy's life encompasses the entire spectrum of a great bluesman's struggles and successes from birth to his death in 1983. The additional notes at the back of the book are great reading and I enjoyed the time I spent learning of Muddy Waters' life.
However....there are two major mistakes in the picture subtitles. One identifies Ron Wood of the Rolling Stones as Mick Taylor. Mick had quit the band years before the 1978 photo was taken. Another photo showing Muddy and Son Sims in 1943 identifies the guitar that Muddy is holding as a National steel guitar, when it is obviously a wood bodied resonator, not a steel bodied guitar. If Mr. Gordon is this free and loose with his checking of the facts on the pictures, it leaves me in doubt as to the quality of his research on all the other data in the book.
Rating: 
Summary: The colorful lifestory of a legendary Bluesman
Review: The Mississippi River Delta and it's diasporal
links, form Muscle Shoals to the music of my mind, has
argurbly been considered the starting point for the
Blues. As such, black American music from Jazz,
Rhythm & Blues, or Popular renderings, and from the
subtle undercurrents of Rock, all owe quite a bit to
the esthetics and influence of Muddy Waters. Now
comes veteran Musicologist Robert Gordon to give
insight and add flavor to the argument that's being
debated from Stovall, Mississippi (Waters'
birthplace), to the south side of Chicago (where most
of his greatest claim to fame is documented),
concerning who is really the progenitor of this
lifestyle. Mr. Roberts makes good on his claim by
producing a well documented case by not only
showcasing this former sharecropper and legendary
bluesman, but giving equal billing to the many sidemen
and adjunct circumstances that feed into the legend.
Fans inquisitive about historical content concerning
how the blues originated, and the progressive life of
Muddy Waters won't be disappointed. Will others have
the patience and perseverance to whether the 379 pages
in this biographical masterpiece?
I've even asked questions about comparisons to
other music mediums myself. How can such music rooted
in impoverished environments, once denigrated and
dismissed by white society become big business ripe
for exploitation? Musicians, painters, and artists
from all walks of life cite how the blues have
influenced them...and without reproach, giving Muddy
Waters credit. To get the gist and understand why
this music was, and is so important to many, I
ensconsed myself in a listening room with several
vintage and quasi-current Muddy Water's compilations.
I wanted to experience and somehow relive the harrow,
harangue, and humbleness of hurt as it's delivered by
this man and his engaging entourage. This book, along
with the aforementioned eased any doubts I may have
had, but more importantly, it justified the author's
laborious narrative juxtaposed with extensive
footnotes offering a plethora of interesting facts and
fascinating stories about the augmented blues scene.
Nonetheless, the portrait of this man is framed
indelibly as an icon, capturing the haunting hubris of
the music and revealing a culture and subculture that
not only capitulated Muddy to stardom...but gave
credence to why the blues is so rich and colorful.
For no other reason than to give credit where it's
due, reading this book will do nothing to dispell
notions that within the African American music lore,
we do have someone who have said that "there's a lot
of feel good about felling bad". The waters are NOT
muddled when words are spoken so eloquently by the man
that started it all! Buy this book where books are
sold.
Rating:
Summary: The colorful lifestory of a legendary Bluesman
Review: The Mississippi River Delta and it's diasporal
links, form Muscle Shoals to the music of my mind, has
argurbly been considered the starting point for the
Blues. As such, black American music from Jazz,
Rhythm & Blues, or Popular renderings, and from the
subtle undercurrents of Rock, all owe quite a bit to
the esthetics and influence of Muddy Waters. Now
comes veteran Musicologist Robert Gordon to give
insight and add flavor to the argument that's being
debated from Stovall, Mississippi (Waters'
birthplace), to the south side of Chicago (where most
of his greatest claim to fame is documented),
concerning who is really the progenitor of this
lifestyle. Mr. Roberts makes good on his claim by
producing a well documented case by not only
showcasing this former sharecropper and legendary
bluesman, but giving equal billing to the many sidemen
and adjunct circumstances that feed into the legend.
Fans inquisitive about historical content concerning
how the blues originated, and the progressive life of
Muddy Waters won't be disappointed. Will others have
the patience and perseverance to whether the 379 pages
in this biographical masterpiece?
I've even asked questions about comparisons to
other music mediums myself. How can such music rooted
in impoverished environments, once denigrated and
dismissed by white society become big business ripe
for exploitation? Musicians, painters, and artists
from all walks of life cite how the blues have
influenced them...and without reproach, giving Muddy
Waters credit. To get the gist and understand why
this music was, and is so important to many, I
ensconsed myself in a listening room with several
vintage and quasi-current Muddy Water's compilations.
I wanted to experience and somehow relive the harrow,
harangue, and humbleness of hurt as it's delivered by
this man and his engaging entourage. This book, along
with the aforementioned eased any doubts I may have
had, but more importantly, it justified the author's
laborious narrative juxtaposed with extensive
footnotes offering a plethora of interesting facts and
fascinating stories about the augmented blues scene.
Nonetheless, the portrait of this man is framed
indelibly as an icon, capturing the haunting hubris of
the music and revealing a culture and subculture that
not only capitulated Muddy to stardom...but gave
credence to why the blues is so rich and colorful.
For no other reason than to give credit where it's
due, reading this book will do nothing to dispell
notions that within the African American music lore,
we do have someone who have said that "there's a lot
of feel good about felling bad". The waters are NOT
muddled when words are spoken so eloquently by the man
that started it all! Buy this book where books are
sold.
Rating: 
Summary: Revealing, Intimate and Unapologetic
Review: This book is a fantastic look at the life and times of McKinley Morganfield, aka Muddy Waters. Gordon has apparently left no stones unturned in his search to find the true history and life of one of the forefathers of American blues.
Morganfield's early life in the segregated south is well-chronicled, along with his rise as a local musician and his contacts with other legends.
The examination of his work in putting Chicago blues on the map is exceptional, including the focus on several of the formative albums.
Waters' personal life was a blues song; many wives, many mistresses, many kids, and yet Gordon makes no apology for nor makes any judgements of the man. That's up for you to decide.
In any case, the book was riveting, and the thoughts and recollections of so many former bandmates and other giants in the blues world make this book a real gem.
|
