Muddy Waters

I’ve been asked to farther explain how I came to meet Muddy Waters, so here you go. Back in the day I used to live on Main Street just off the Plaza here in Midtown. I had just taken on my first roommate who happened to be this chick some years my senior. Back then we were both heavy into the local blues scene and went to all the shows we could find. Stevie Ray Vaughn upstairs at Harlings, Chick Willis at 39th and Jackson, Brown’s on Troost, and Blayney’s in Westport for the Colt 45 jam session. This was before the famous Grand Emporium opened its doors. We lived together for a while before the roommate announced she was moving to Chicago to be closer to the blues scene there. So she moved to the windy city and started fulfilling her lifelong dream of seeing the blues in its rawest form and of flatbackin every blues musician she could put a mattress under. Now excluding the fact that I wasn’t getting any of that ass, one of the better side effects of her hooking up with all these players was that whenever they came thru or played Kansas City, she told em to look me up. I got to meet and hang out with Buddy Guy, Junior Wells, Buddy Miles, Ray Allison, AC Reed, BB King, Albert King and Willie Dixon, just to name a few that I remembered. But one Saturday morning I picked up the phone and on the other end was this real raspy voice. The voice asked me if I was Greg, and when I told em I was he said this is Muddy, and to come down to the Pancake House on Broadway and see em. I hopped in the car and blew down to the Pancake house and went inside. Sitting at some tables eating breakfast was Muddy Waters and his band, including my pal Ray Allison. Ray played on Buddy Guy’s Stone Crazy album, and was drumming for Muddy when I saw em. I’d seen Muddy on TV but never in person so outside of Ray I didn’t recognize anybody, but Ray took me over and introduced me to Muddy Waters who made room for me next to him and after slicing his pancake stack in half, slid em over to me and told me to dig in. You have to understand that I was maybe twenty-two years old and really really into the blues back then. So when Muddy Waters slid his pancakes over and told me dig in, I was in blues heaven. Talking to Muddy was like hanging out with your grandfather at the breakfast table and shit, where he’d talk and you’d just there with your mouth closed out of sheer respect. It was like what do I say to Muddy Waters? Later that night I ended up at the Uptown Theater watching Muddy work the crowd. I remember that night well (besides eating off his plate!) for the way he worked the band. He reminded me of Count Basie in the way he’d direct the direction of the band with a note from his guitar here and there. Very very cool indeed.

"and the monkey flipped the switch"