Skip to main content

A Sweet Tribute to Chicago Blues Legend Muddy Waters


Music would not be what it is today without Chicago blues legend Muddy Waters. He was the first blues musician to use an electric guitar and amplifier, which served as the inspiration for rock n' roll and heavy metal.   

Muddy Waters was born McKinley Morganfield in Clarksdale, Mississippi on April 4 of 1913 or 1915. After World War II, Muddy Waters moved to Chicago at a time when other Black performers from Mississippi including Willie Dixon and Howlin’ Wolf were doing the same.

Muddy recorded his first hit, “I Can’t Be Satisfied,” in 1948 in Chicago. More hits would follow. The Rolling Stones took their name from the Waters song “Rollin’ Stone.”  

Waters first lived in a house on Lake Park Avenue in Kenwood and then moved to suburban Westmont. Musicians like Chuck Berry, Aretha Franklin, Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, and members of The Rolling Stones were known to spend time at both of the Waters homes.

Waters passed away in 1983; he is buried in Restvale Cemetery in Alsip. Waters’ sons, Larry “Mud” Morganfield and Big Bill Morganfield, are also blues musicians. Waters’ youngest son, Joseph “Mojo” Morganfield, also played the blues. Joseph passed away in 2020.

Muddy Waters was known to love Nehi grape soda. He’d sometimes mix it with vanilla or cherry walnut ice cream. He especially enjoyed this treat while watching Chicago White Sox games on TV. Local musician and artist Ed Bloom, who portrays Mick Jagger in the Rolling Stones tribute band Hot Rocks, created a portrait of Muddy Waters in a wooden frame covered with Nehi soda bottle caps. This portrait is part of the Muddy Waters Blues Historical Exhibit in Westmont. (This exhibit of Waters memorabilia features about 60 artifacts and draws visitors from all over the world. Contact Westmont Special Events at wsec@westmontevents.com or 630-829-9378 for more info.)

In October 2021, Waters’ Kenwood home was officially declared a city landmark. Plans are currently in the works to create the Muddy Waters MOJO Museum at this site, which will consist of museum gallery space on the building's first floor, a recording studio/jam session space in the basement, and a community garden on an adjacent lot. In the meantime, you can get your Muddy Waters fix with a Muddy Waters ice cream soda or the Muddy Waters smoothie recipe I made in his honor. 

Muddy Waters Smoothie (makes 2 servings)

1 c. coconut milk

1 c. grapes

½ c. cherries (pitted)

1/8 c. walnuts (optional)

1 sliced banana (optional) 

If you want to use walnuts in the smoothies, grind them up first in a coffee grinder or food processer. Then put all the ingredients in a blender and mix 'em up.

*If coconut milk isn’t your thing, regular milk or yogurt should also work. I have developed a special love for coconut milk ever since my body decided it no longer wanted to digest dairy products. I prefer the canned, unsweetened coconut milk that I often find in the Asian or Mexican sections of my local supermarkets. One thing I’ve noticed is that canned coconut milk with guar gum, which is sometimes added as a thickener, doesn’t taste as good. That’s my coconut milk spiel.

**I also like to add Grape Nuts cereal to this smoothie because I’m a weirdo who actually likes Grape Nuts. Hey, if Muddy Waters liked grape soda, maybe he liked Grape Nuts cereal too. Then again, maybe not. Grape Nuts cereal contains neither grapes nor nuts. I think Jerry Seinfeld did a routine about this back in the day.

Muddy Waters Ice Cream Soda

Add a scoop of vanilla ice cream to a glass or mug of grape soda (preferably Nehi, if you can find it). Sprinkle with chopped walnuts and add a cherry on top if you want to get all fancy. I’m pretty sure Muddy Waters did not write “I Can’t Be Satisfied” after having one of these.

 Sources:               

“Blues Legend Muddy Waters’ Former Home Is Now a Chicago Landmark” by Justin Laurence and Maxwell Evans in Block Club Chicago (Oct. 14, 2021), https://blockclubchicago.org.

“5 Ways Muddy Waters Changed Music: Amplified Blues, Chuck Berry and More (A 100th Birthday Tribute) by Ryan Book in The Music Times (April 4, 2015), www.musictimes.com.

“Musician Honors Memory of Blues Legend Muddy Waters,” by Joseph Ruzich in the Chicago Tribune (Oct. 3, 2012), www.chicagotribune.com.

“Muddy Waters’ Son Has Got His Mojo Workin' as a Musician” by Jack Walton in the South Bend Tribune (July 9, 2019), www.southbendtribune.com.

“Filmmaker Interview: Robert Gordon and Morgan Neville” for PBS.org (American Masters: S17 EP6: ”Muddy Waters: Can’t Be Satisfied”) (May 24, 2006), www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/.

Muddy Waters MOJO Museum website, www.mojomuseum.com

“Muddy Waters Biography,” The Famous People, www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/muddy-waters-4015.php.

“Muddy Waters Exhibit,” Westmont Special Events, https://westmontevents.com/exhibit

Village of Westmont website, “Recent Village History,” https://westmont.illinois.gov/.

“Muddy Waters,” Clarksdale, Mississippi, www.clarksdale.com/muddy_waters.php

Hot Rocks Band website, https://hotrocksband.tripod.com.

“Muddy Waters,” Encyclopedia Britannica, www.britannica.com/biography/Muddy-Waters.

“Muddy Waters,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muddy_Waters.





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Orange Whip? Orange Whip!

There's a scene in the classic Chicago-set 1980 movie The Blues Brothers where an orange whip drink is mentioned seemingly from out of nowhere. It's randomness is why it works, making it a perfect example of the offbeat humor that made the movie a cult classic. Having seen the movie many times, I always wondered: Just what the heck's an orange whip, anyway? Is there a reason why it was mentioned in the movie? And finally, can I make one at home? The Blues Brothers features lots of Chicago scenery and culture, including an exuberant musical number on Maxwell Street and an epic downtown car chase. The plot follows brothers Jake and Elwood Blues (played by John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd) just after Jake's release from prison as they try to raise enough money to save the orphanage where they grew up before getting arrested for various, mostly driving-related violations. The brothers decide to get their old blues band back together, book a show to raise the money, and then p...
Post a Comment
Read more

Malort: The Drink Chicagoans Love to Hate

  Jeppson's Malört was once a niche liqueur consumed mainly within Chicago's Swedish community. Now it's a Chicago favorite that can be found throughout the city and beyond. What caused this change? Turns out all it took was for someone to promote the comedic value of this extremely bitter-tasting drink. Malört is a Swedish liqueur similar to absinthe that is made with wormwood, a bitter herb. It has traditionally been used to treat intestinal parasites and other maladies such as indigestion, hangovers, and nausea. The word malört is Swedish for wormwood .  In the 1920s, Swedish immigrant Carl Jeppson started making his own version of Malört. (He came from a region in Sweden where wormwood grows wild.) Jeppson sold his liqueur door to door in Chicago's Swedish community on the North Side. He got around Prohibition laws by marketing his product as a tonic to cure stomach worms and parasites. Law enforcement concluded that because of its awful taste nobody would drink Mal...
Post a Comment
Read more

Green River: The Chicago-Made Soda with the "Bubbling Snappiness" of Champagne

It has a distinct lime flavor and color. It was once the second most popular soda in the Midwest. There's a rock song named after it. What is it? Green River soda, of course. Chicago-based Schoenhofen Edelweiss Brewing Company, maker of Edelweiss beer, bought the recipe and sales rights for Green River from Davenport, Iowa, businessman Richard C. Jones in 1919. Jones, the owner of a candy store with a soda fountain, had created Green River several years earlier. Jones wanted to create a soft drink with the “bubbling snappiness" of champagne and decided that lime flavor was the way to go. A local teenager was the first to use the name “Green River” when he ordered the drink at Jones's soda fountain and the name stuck.  During the Prohibition years (1920-1933), breweries were turning to manufacturing and selling non-alcoholic goods like soda, yeast, malt syrup, carbonated coffee and tea, and ice cream. Once Schoenhofen Edelweiss started making and distributing Green River, ...
Post a Comment
Read more