Rollin' and Tumblin' - Muddy Waters
Why included: 8th in RYM's Top 10 singles of 1950
A-side & B-side: Rollin' And Tumblin'
To properly understand the frightening level of genius displayed here, one needs to dig way back and hear the previous versions of this staple in blues history. Although Muddy credits himself as the sole songwriter, the song was written and initially performed by Hambone Willie Newbern, a country bluesman in the 20s and 30s. His "Roll and Tumble Blues" was a minor triumph in its own right, featuring deeply-cutting slide work that gave a feeling of concealed danger under its menacing riff. The melody would be later appropriated by Robert Johnson in his classic "If I Had Possession Over Judgement Day", using his superb technique and glass-shard tones to truly animate the violence of Newburn's riff. Even without Muddy's input, this song would still be remembered as another fascinating facet of Johnson's lonesome personality and the moment of glory for Newbern as well.
Yet, Muddy happened to stumble upon this song and proceeded to take it to a whole new level of brutality. If Newburn and Johnson were simply documenting the deadly swarm of a bee colony, Muddy Waters maliciously provoked the whole damn hive. Nothing, and I really mean nothing, has ever truly surpassed the effect of Muddy playing that riff, inflicting a barrage of poisonous bee stings on his listeners as he wrings out the tone of each and every note. Coming right after that fearsome musical statement, the main slicing riff feels even more terrifying, not just played faster but also with a denser, gruffer sound that made all other versions feel tame in comparison. Perhaps it was another of his self-promoting tactics to credit this song to himself, but from one perspective, it was absolutely deserved: while others merely hinted at the compositional greatness of the song, Muddy explored every nook and cranny of its potential to make it a truly powerful musical beast.
Even this single can be said to be the arrival of Muddy as the great electric blues vocalist. On previous classics like "I Can't Be Satisfied" and "Little Geneva", he sings just like his delta blues elders: pained and looking inwards, but hardly sounding evil and devilish. When you are appreciating Charlie Patton or Robert Johnson, you are appreciating their raw expressivity and troubled personas first and foremost. However, he was young enough that the spirit of the blues could be properly mythologized, and many of the pre-war greats like himself were free to take the genre in new, epic directions. When Muddy sings here, he sounds possessed, as if he is awakening an ancient demonic spirit and channeling it through this song. There is way more aggression and pure "bite" to this style of singing than any of his previous influences, which makes sense: electric blues is a much louder, flashier style than acoustic, so naturally the vocalists would have to match these stylistics as well. No wonder it was Muddy's approach that became the standard paradigm in 50s blues, but while many future blues and rock musicians would try to perform this song, none of them could ever surpass the power of this recording (though Elmore James came pretty damn close).
Verdict: Essential Listening
Although Muddy released a series of excellent records in the 1940s, from "Gypsy Woman" and "I Can't Be Satisfied" to "Screaming and Crying", this is undoubtedly the point where Muddy can be said to have truly "found himself," breaking free from his influences and establishing his place as one of the leaders of the burgeoning post-war blues scene. You can already hear how different his perspective on blues would be from his predecessors: louder, heavier, flashier, maybe even more theatrical and cinematic. Yet, the brilliance of Muddy Waters and his Chicago peers is that none of the substance, intensity, and depth of the genre was lost in the process, and over the next six years, Muddy and his band would explore and conquer so many different directions in the genre that he would undoubtedly reign as king of Chicago blues. Perhaps he would not truly acquire his throne until "Hoochie Coochie Man", but this single is already a fairly truthful sign of the greatness to come.
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