Old Songs in New Contexts
Just as I did last summer, yesterday afternoon I attended the annual quasi-reunion of the old Muddy Waters band at the Chicago Blues Festival. It’s become a multi-generational event: Willie “Big Eyes” Smith, Muddy’s former drummer, now plays harmonica, while his son Kenny mans the percussion. Two of Muddy’s sons, Big Bill Morganfield and Mud Morganfield, handled most of the vocals. Bill plays guitar and sings, and he’s clearly inherited his father’s fun, showboating side, while Mud carries on the grave, stately side of the old man’s legacy.
The biggest name in the line up was legendary pianist Pinetop Perkins, looking very fine indeed in his pine green suit and keyboard socks. They closed the set with “Got My Mojo Working.” Pinetop took the first couple of choruses, then the various band members took their turns, and eventually Muddy’s youngest son and widow joined in the proceedings. The context had me wondering, though: what does it mean when 95-year-old Perkins sings “I got my mojo working, but it just don’t work on you”?
Likewise, what happens when Muddy Waters’ classic assertion of black masculine subjectivity, “Mannish Boy,” is sung several decades later by his own sons, who have carved out their own musical careers in their father’s shadow. Context is everything.
We’ll be back at the Blues Festival tomorrow night to see Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings close the joint down. She sings new songs that sound old; we’ll have to see what the context does to them.
