11. Muddy WatersThe Chess Box
I chose this one because it’s got him and Little Walter the harp player. The early stuff is great, but Little Walter’s harp playing with Muddy Waters is some of the best blues harmonica playing ever recorded I think. With this and Muddy Waters’ incredible voice and playing, it was such a standard. Nobody played like Muddy and nobody sang like Muddy and he came up with all these incredible blues songs. I think that America forgot about this wonderful genre of music, that was as American as jazz was. Growing up in England I think we heard more blues at my age than people the same age in America. For some reason we took to it. That’s why I think that Muddy Waters wasn’t as popular in America before all these British and European players who had cut their teeth on this blues music came to America and played it their way, the British way, influenced by all the great blues players like Muddy, B.B. King, Robert Johnson, Albert. I think B.B. actually said it once, that “if it weren’t for Eric Clapton I wouldn’t have a career! People had forgotten about us and you British guys came over and reintroduced us as your influence,” or something like that. Everyone in Britain was playing Muddy Waters.
