The Stones – the Rolling Stones,  turned fifty years of age last week. Without Chess records and the founder; Marshall Chess – the Stones would never have hit the scene. Heck – without Muddy Waters, the first ‘star’ of Chess, BrIan Jones’ group would never have had a name …

The year? 1952. The place … ? Chicago, Illinois.

Muddy Waters was the city’s newest citizen. Playing his acoustic guitar on the street corner to earn some money. It was a long way from Mississippi and even further from stardom.

Thanks to the assistance of a ‘ lady friend’,Muddy plugged into an amplifier to ensure his guitar outgrew the traffic noise which circled him like vultures on wheels.

People placed money into his case. People placed adulation into his heart.

The came Little Walter … the biggest harp player the blues will ever know. Along with Jimmy Rogers on guitar- the trio were known as the Headhunters. A name bestowed upon them by Mr. Chess himself following an incident at Marshall’s club; the Mocambo …

Waters, Walter and Rogers were doing their thing when another harp player joined the tune they were playing. Little Walter took exception to the competition and almost blew the terrified harmonica player’s head right off. Walter had a gun – the other harp player had quick feet.

The rest as they say; history with a capital ‘W’ as in Willie Dixon.

Dixon was brought into the studio by Chess to not change Muddy – to enhance him. Dixon was a master songwriter and with Water’s cooperation, a long hit parade took place with Chess himself as the Grand Marshall.

‘Rollin’ Stone’, ‘Hoochie Coochie Man’, ‘ Mannish Boy’, ‘ I just want to make love to you’ and ‘You shook me’. Some of the songs which were covered by the Stones, Led Zeppelin, Foghat and Humble Pie to name a few. The song “Come Together” by The Beatles contains the lyrics; “He roller coaster/he got Muddy Waters.”

His 1958 tour of England marked possibly the first time amplified blues was heard. His backing was provided by Englishman Chris Barber’s trad jazz group. The master of the Blues, Jazz, Country, R and B, Rock n Roll and considered the forefather of heavy metal – Waters did it all …

He penned over sixty songs in a career which spanned forty years. Sixteen were number one hits and these songs influenced Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix and Angus Young of AC / DC among many, many others.

McKinley Morganfield or as he is better known; Muddy Waters, continued playing to his death in 1983 of congestive heart failure. He was seventy years old.