Hey folks! I count myself lucky to get to tell the story of American music. Tomorrow the subject is Muddy Waters. I just wrote this companion essay to the lecture, and I thought you might dig it. It’s heavily influenced by three works: Play it Loud (Di Perna & Tolinski), Jordan Peterson’s biblical lecture IX The Call to Abraham, and of course, the Bible. Credit where credit is due, man!
Muddy and Abraham
“Now the Lord said unto Abraham, get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shall be a blessing:” (Genesis 12:1, KJV)
The Blues has a close, if at times uneasy, relationship with religion. Its founding fathers preached the Bible and yet reluctantly played the “Devil's music” (Son House), crossed the River Jordan (Blind Willie McTell), walked with the Dark One (Robert Johnson's Me and the Devil Blues), to name just a few. Sometimes the African American spirituals wandered into the genre, and at other times, these musicians lived out modern versions of the stories and teachings of Scripture.
Our story today follows one McKinley Morganfield, better known as Muddy Waters. He was a man who could make his guitar talk and audiences dance all around the Stovall Plantation. Was he restless, laboring under a blazing Mississippi sun by day, and playing his fierce brand of country blues by night? He was getting older, after all. When Alan Lomax came to call with his giant recording machine, Muddy cut him a song or two. Lomax, sent from the Library of Congress, was there to document the culture. Muddy was there to knock socks off. The shiny record arrived a few weeks later from Washington. The Capital City being God in our story is a strange parallel (although it certainly seem to view itself as such.) But calls come in all forms, and Muddy listened intently to the recording of himself, spinning 'round on the machine at the corner store. Maybe he could be somebody. “Get the out of thy country”. So he did, but instead of Canaan, he went to Chicago. Great things can happen to those who answer the Call to Adventure. In a strange way, as we trace the origins of American music, Muddy is Abraham. People can, and do, make the case that it wasn't a nation he fathered, but a sound. Today we're exploring his adventure – the blend of timing, talent, and technology in the Windy City – that made that happen.
“The Blues had a Baby, and they called it Rock 'n Roll.”
Pull up a chair!