"Rollin' Stone" | ||||
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Single by Muddy Waters | ||||
B-side | "Walkin' Blues" | |||
Released | 1950 | |||
Recorded | February 1950 [1] [2] | |||
Genre | Blues, electric blues | |||
Length | 3:05 | |||
Label | Chess | |||
Songwriter(s) | Muddy Waters (credited) | |||
Producer(s) | Leonard Chess, Phil Chess | |||
Muddy Waters singles chronology | ||||
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"Rollin' Stone" is a blues song recorded by Muddy Waters in 1950. It is his interpretation of "Catfish Blues", a Delta blues that dates back to 1920s Mississippi. [3] "Still a Fool", recorded by Muddy Waters a year later using the same arrangement and melody, reached number nine on the Billboard R&B chart. "Rollin' Stone" has been recorded by a variety of artists.
In 1928, Jim Jackson recorded "Kansas City Blues Parts 3 and 4", a follow-up to his highly successful "Jim Jackson's Kansas City Blues Parts 1 and 2". Jackson's lyrics included:
I wished I was a catfish swimming down in the sea
I'd have some good woman fishing after me
Several other early songs also explored variations on the catfish and/or fishing theme. In 1941, Tommy McClennan and his sometime partner Robert Petway each recorded versions of the song. Petway's was the first to be titled "Catfish Blues" and is sometimes cited as the basis for Muddy Waters' "Rollin' Stone". [4] However, according to one biographer "They'd been singing "Catfish Blues" for years in the Delta, but it never sounded like "Rollin' Stone". [5]
"Rollin' Stone" has been identified (along with "Walkin' Blues", the single's B-side) as one of the first songs that Muddy Waters learned to play and an early favorite. [6] The words refer to the traditional proverb, "A rolling stone gathers no moss".
Called "a brooding, minor-hued drone piece", [6] "Rollin' Stone" is a mid- to slow-tempo blues notated in 4/4 time in the key of E major. [7] Although the instrumental section uses the IV and V chords, the vocal sections remain on the I chord, [7] giving the song a modal quality often found in Delta blues songs. In addition to the traditional catfish verses, Waters added:
Well my mother told my father just before I was born
'I got a boy child comin', gonna be, gonna be a rollin' stone
Sho' enough he's a rollin' stone
Unlike most of his early recordings which have bass or other instrumental accompaniment, "Rollin' Stone" is a solo performance by Muddy Waters on vocal and electric guitar. It has "much empty space ... imbued with the power of a pause, of letting a note hang in the air, the anticipation of the next one". [5]
"Rollin' Stone" was the first Muddy Waters record released on Chess Records and the second overall for the label (previous releases were on Aristocrat Records). [1] [8] It did not reach the national record charts, but sold about 70,000 copies [8] and allowed Muddy Waters to quit his day job. [5]
In 1951, Muddy Waters used the vocal melody and guitar figure from "Rollin' Stone" for "Still a Fool". [9] The song was more successful, reaching number nine in the Billboard R&B chart. [3] Rather than a solo piece, Little Walter on second guitar and Leonard Chess on bass drum accompanied Muddy on vocal and guitar. Subsequent versions of "Rollin' Stone" or "Catfish Blues" often use some lyrics from "Still a Fool" (sometimes called "Two Trains Running" after the opening verse).
According to music writer Robert Palmer, English blues rock group the Rolling Stones (who recorded their version of the song on their 2023 album Hackney Diamonds as "Rolling Stone Blues") and the music magazine Rolling Stone took their names from the song. [6] However, magazine editor Jann Wenner explained:
The name of it [the magazine] is Rolling Stone, which comes from an old saying: 'A Rolling Stone gathers no moss.' Muddy Waters used the name for a song he wrote; The Rolling Stones took their name from Muddy’s song, and 'Like A Rolling Stone' was the title of Bob Dylan’s first rock and roll record. [10]
In 2000, the song was honored with a Grammy Hall of Fame Award; [11] in 2004, it was included at number 459 by Rolling Stone in its list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time". [12] It was updated to number 465 in 2010. In 2019, the Blues Foundation inducted "Rollin' Stone" into the Blues Hall of Fame as a "Classic of Blues Recording". [13]
In 1967, "Rollin' Stone" (and "Still a Fool") was used as part of Jimi Hendrix's "Catfish Blues", a homage to Muddy Waters, and included on the albums BBC Sessions and Blues . Hendrix's signature songs "Voodoo Chile" and "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" evolved from his "Catfish Blues". [14]
Frank Zappa recorded a version of the song at the Record Plant in 1970. The vocals were later wiped and the backing track was then re-utilized to create the song "Stink-Foot" on Apostrophe (') (1974). A rough mix of the original version was posthumously released in 2023 on Funky Nothingness. [15]
Slide guitar is a technique for playing the guitar that is often used in blues music. It involves playing a guitar while holding a hard object against the strings, creating the opportunity for glissando effects and deep vibratos that reflect characteristics of the human singing voice. It typically involves playing the guitar in the traditional position with the use of a slide fitted on one of the guitarist's fingers. The slide may be a metal or glass tube, such as the neck of a bottle, giving rise to the term bottleneck guitar to describe this type of playing. The strings are typically plucked while the slide is moved over the strings to change the pitch. The guitar may also be placed on the player's lap and played with a hand-held bar.
William James Dixon was an American blues musician, vocalist, songwriter, arranger and record producer. He was proficient in playing both the upright bass and the guitar, and sang with a distinctive voice, but he is perhaps best known as one of the most prolific songwriters of his time. Next to Muddy Waters, Dixon is recognized as the most influential person in shaping the post–World War II sound of the Chicago blues.
McKinley Morganfield, known professionally as Muddy Waters, was an American blues singer and musician who was an important figure in the post-World War II blues scene, and is often cited as the "father of modern Chicago blues". His style of playing has been described as "raining down Delta beatitude".
Jimmy James and the Blue Flames was a short-lived American rock group that was fronted by Jimi Hendrix, who was then going by the name "Jimmy James". The band was Hendrix's first extended foray into the 1966 Greenwich Village music scene and included future Spirit guitarist Randy California. At various New York clubs, they played a mix of rock, blues, and rhythm and blues songs as well as early versions of songs that became part of the Jimi Hendrix Experience repertoire. It was at such a performance that the Animals' bassist Chas Chandler first heard their rendition of "Hey Joe" and decided to invite Hendrix to England and become his producer.
Robert Lockwood Jr. was an American Delta blues guitarist, who recorded for Chess Records and other Chicago labels in the 1950s and 1960s. He was the only guitarist to have learned to play directly from Robert Johnson. Robert Lockwood was one of the first professional black entertainers to appear on radio in the South, on the King Biscuit Time radio show. Lockwood is known for his longtime collaboration with Sonny Boy Williamson II and for his work in the mid-1950s with Little Walter.
Marion Walter Jacobs, known as Little Walter, was an American blues musician, singer, and songwriter, whose revolutionary approach to the harmonica had a strong impact on succeeding generations, earning him comparisons to such seminal artists as Django Reinhardt, Charlie Parker and Jimi Hendrix. His virtuosity and musical innovations fundamentally altered many listeners' expectations of what was possible on blues harmonica. He was inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008, the first and, to date, only artist to be inducted specifically as a harmonica player.
George "Buddy" Guy is an American blues guitarist and singer. He is an exponent of Chicago blues who has influenced generations of guitarists including Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Keith Richards, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jeff Beck, Gary Clark Jr. and John Mayer. In the 1960s, Guy played with Muddy Waters as a session guitarist at Chess Records and began a musical partnership with blues harp virtuoso Junior Wells.
Electric Mud is the fifth studio album by Muddy Waters, with members of Rotary Connection playing as his backing band. Released in 1968, it presents Muddy Waters as a psychedelic musician. Producer Marshall Chess suggested that Muddy Waters record it in an attempt to appeal to a rock audience.
Blues is a compilation album of blues songs recorded by American singer/songwriter/musician Jimi Hendrix. Compiled by interim Hendrix producer Alan Douglas, it was released April 26, 1994, by MCA Records. The album contains eleven songs recorded by Hendrix between 1966 and 1970, six of which were previously unreleased. Hendrix wrote seven of the pieces; other writers include Muddy Waters, Booker T. Jones, and Elmore James. Most are demos, jams, and live recordings, which Hendrix may or may not have completed for release.
"Voodoo Chile" is a song written by Jimi Hendrix and recorded in 1968 for the third Jimi Hendrix Experience album Electric Ladyland. It is based on the Muddy Waters blues song "Rollin' Stone", but with original lyrics and music. At 15 minutes, it is Hendrix's longest studio recording and features additional musicians in what has been described as a studio jam.
Folk Singer is the second studio album and fourth album overall by Muddy Waters, released in January 1964 by Chess Records. The album features Waters on acoustic guitar, backed by Willie Dixon on string bass, Clifton James on drums, and Buddy Guy on acoustic guitar. It is Waters's only all-acoustic album. Numerous reissues of Folk Singer include bonus tracks from two subsequent sessions, in April 1964 and October 1964.
South Saturn Delta is a posthumous compilation album by American rock musician Jimi Hendrix. Released in 1997 by Experience Hendrix, it consists of material such as demo tapes, unfinished takes and alternate mixes, and previously released material, most of which Hendrix had been working on prior to his death in 1970.
The Anthology: 1947–1972 is a double compilation album by Chicago blues singer and guitarist Muddy Waters. It contains many of his best-known songs, including his R&B single chart hits "I'm Your Hoochie Coochie Man", "Just Make Love to Me ", and "I'm Ready". Chess and MCA Records released the set on August 28, 2001.
"Rollin' and Tumblin'" is a blues standard first recorded by American singer-guitarist Hambone Willie Newbern in 1929. Called a "great Delta blues classic", it has been interpreted by hundreds of Delta and Chicago blues artists, including well-known recordings by Muddy Waters. Rock musicians usually follow Waters' versions, with the 1960s group Cream's rendition being perhaps the best known.
Robert Petway was an American blues singer and guitarist. He recorded only 16 songs, but it has been said that he was an influence on many notable blues and rock musicians, including John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, and Jimi Hendrix. There is only one known picture of Petway, a publicity photo from 1941. His birth name may have been Pettyway, Pitway, Petaway, or similar.
"Hoochie Coochie Man" is a blues standard written by Willie Dixon and first recorded by Muddy Waters in 1954. The song makes reference to hoodoo folk magic elements and makes novel use of a stop-time musical arrangement. It became one of Waters' most popular and identifiable songs and helped secure Dixon's role as Chess Records' chief songwriter.
"Got My Mojo Working" is a blues song written by Preston "Red" Foster and first recorded by R&B singer Ann Cole in 1956. Foster's lyrics describe several amulets or talismans, called mojo, which are associated with hoodoo, an early African-American folk-magic belief system.
Paris 1967/San Francisco 1968 is a posthumous live album by the Jimi Hendrix Experience, released on April 24, 2003, by Dagger Records. The album contains songs from the group's performances at the L' Olympia Theatre in Paris on October 9, 1967, and the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco, California, on February 4, 1968. In 2021, an expanded edition focusing on the Paris performance was released by Dagger.
The London Muddy Waters Sessions is a studio album by Muddy Waters, released in 1972 on Chess Records. A follow-up to 1971's The London Howlin' Wolf Sessions, the concept was to combine American bluesmen with British and Irish blues/rock stars. The album was an attempt to capitalise on the increasing popularity of traditional blues music and blues artists in Britain.
McKinley Morganfield A.K.A. Muddy Waters is a compilation album by blues musician Muddy Waters featuring tracks recorded between 1948 and 1953 released by the Chess label in 1971.