know the blues... Artists
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This month I decided to review a book instead of a CD. I just finished reading the new biography of Muddy Waters called Can't Be Satisfied, the Life and Times of Muddy Waters by Robert Gordon. This has been one of the best books I've read on a blues musician or of any person, for that matter.
It begins with a forward by Keith Richards that talks about how blues is about a feeling and that Muddy was like an arm around your shoulder. We all need that don't we?

The book begins with Muddy being called to play music for Alan Lomax when he was twenty eight years old. Lomax was only twenty six. Muddy's home in Mississippi on the Stovall plantation has become as itinerant as the person that lived in it became. The home in Chicago where he lived has been forgotten. The book takes us from his beginnings until his death in Downer's Grove on April 29, 1983. He was seventy years old.

One of the things that impressed me so much was his generosity in bringing on board other musicians into the band, which began early on. The list of those who played with Muddy is literally too long to include here.

The back of the book has more than one appendix- the itinerary of the Library of Congress Study from 1941 and 1942, a listing of the records in Muddy's collection in 1942 which included two by Arthur Crudup, and one each by Peetie Wheatstraw, Tony Hollins, Sonny Boy Williamson, Jay McShann and Elder Oscar Saunders. Also included is a discography, and more reading suggestions.
Not only will you learn about Muddy but also about many other blues players and their relationship to him.

But this is also a realistic portrayal of the man with all of his faults especially his many relationships and children from many women who were not his wife. But he did try to take care of many of them with the help of his wife Geneva and his daughter Cookie. Muddy really had a thing for young women. In fact, his last wife, Marva was twenty five and Muddy was sixty six when they wed. Included in the festivities were Johnny Winter, Eric Clapton and lots of champagne, Muddy's drink of choice.

There are so many stories in this book that any blues lover would get a clear picture of that I really recommend it to all.

Reviewed by Pat Ippen.