The only man apart from Robert Zimmerman (www.bobdylan.com) to instil such power into the phrase "rolling stone" was McKinley Morganfield, aka Muddy Waters: "I'm a man. I'm a full-grown-man. I'm a man. I'm a natural-born lover's man. I'm a man child. I'm a rolling stone. I'm a man child. I'm a hoochie coochie man..."
No apologies for reproducing the whole of the chorus of Mannish Boy. When Muddy sang this, his whole being seemed to quiver with passion. For a black man in 1950s America to point out that he was not a B - O - Y but an M - A - N was as much a revolutionary political statement as it was a sexual provocation. You don't call me "boy" and you don't kick me around any more... was the sub-text.
I saw Muddy in the 1960s and he was part of my own growing-up process. We weren't going to be kicked around any more, either.
In June this year Russ Payne and the Shark Dentists (www.sharkdentists.co.uk) will play support to Mud Morganfield (www.mudmorganfieldsite.com), eldest M - A - N child of Muddy Waters. The phrase "bringing it all back home" springs to mind...
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