[32] Natural From Our Hearts |
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Fattening Frogs For Snakes
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Wednesday, 28 December 2005 10:54 |
Natural From Our Hearts
for Bill Lynn & Michael Voelker
Late in 1948 Muddy Waters formed his first band with Jimmy Rogers of Ruleville, Mississippi on second guitar
& Little Walter of Marksville, Louisiana by way of New Orleans & Helena, Arkansas, on harmonica--
This holy trinity came together in Chicago & burned up the world until Little Walter left the band in 1952. "We'd do a lot of rehearsin' durin' that time,"
Jimmy Rogers told Robert Palmer, "The three of us. And Walter wanted to learn. His ears were open, but he just didn't have nobody to sit down & really teach him. He was mostly playing
between Rice Miller & that saxophone sound of Louis Jordan; after he came with us we developed him mostly into a harder sound."
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And Muddy says, "He was a good boy but he had that bad, mean temper, that kind of thing, like 'You don't mess with
me too much.' Then, when we got it together, I found out I was the only somebody that could do anything with him when he really got
out of hand. He began acting like I was his daddy. And when we was sitting around the house playing together, or on the bandstand, that's when he worked out
all that stuff that he did on our records later on, all them tricks with harps & so on. He was a man that was always thinking of something. His mind
just kept going, learning more & more & more. But we was all into it. We all wanted to work, & we learned how to play up tight with one another. We would rehearse
& rehearse. It was hard work, man. Hard work. But we had 3 naturals--me, Little Walter, & Jimmy. Natural from our hearts."
Detroit March 22, 1982/ New Orleans November 26, 1995
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