Rocktober '70s Song #9: "Mannish Boy" (live) by Muddy Waters (1979)

One of my favorite things about Chicago -- and there many -- is the giant technicolor mural of Muddy Waters on the side of an office building on State Street.  After growing up in the Mississippi Delta, Waters moved to Chicago in 1943 and became the father of Chicago's electric blues that came to define the blues genre pretty much since then.  He added pep, charisma, and energy to blues music, and he became a massive influence on countless musicians since then.  Hell, the Rolling Stones are named Waters's "Rollin' Stone," his reworking of Robert Petway's blues classic, "Catfish Blues."

You're probably thinking, "yeah, but what does this have to do with the '70s, dickface?"  Watch the language, and I'm about to tell you.  After so many British bands in the '60s cited Waters as and influence and/or covered his songs, he saw a resurgence in his career.  During the '70s, he released several Grammy-winning albums, including 1979 live album, Muddy "Mississippi" Waters - Live.  Produced by guitar legend (and giant Muddy Waters fan) Johnny Winter -- who also played guitar on a few tracks -- this album is kind of the live blues album.

And if there is a defining song, both from the album and for Waters in general, it's gotta be "Mannish Boy."  Waters recorded "Mannish Boy" in 1955 as an answer to Bo Diddley's "I'm a Man" -- which makes total sense when you listen to both songs -- and Diddley has a co-songwriting credit on "Mannish Boy."  What you may not realize is that the song has sociopolitical undertones, with Waters saying "I'm a man" and spelling "M-A-N" as a "fuck you" to how black men were pejoratively referred to by white men in the South ("boy").

This version is my favorite, and it's right up there among my favorite blues recordings period.  Waters -- who was in his upper 60s at the time -- commands you with his smooth baritone before the song breaks into that timeless riff.  It's the epitome of the electric blues:  gritty, soulful, sexual.  It just makes you want to bob your head or strut around town.

Sadly, Waters would die a few years later, but his legacy is immeasurable -- or, in the case of his mural, measured at ten stories.