In many ways this is the atypical blues story: Leaving behind the poverty and the racism of the Jim Crow south for the slightly more "enlightened" North, bluesman makes good only to lose it all again, blah, blah, blah. What isn't so typical, though, is the meteoric rise and subsequent slow decline of a man much imitated, never duplicated and unrivaled at his instrument.
To this day, the ultimate test of a blues harpist's ablilities is still as to how well he can play the tune "Juke". Busting out of the Muddy Waters band in '52 (although he recorded with him in the studio on & off over the next decade) to capitalize on his new found fame and fortune, Walter and his band The Aces racked up an impressive run of over a dozen top-ten hits including the monster smash hit "My Babe" in 1955.
Ill-equipped to handle fame and fortune, LW eventually watched his talents go stagnant, while he sank into a vortex of alcohol, hard-living and self-destruction. To dwell on this aspect may seem pointless to many, but it gives us an insight as to what had always driven the man on to such unforgettable greatness in the first place.
As is real life, this book is alternately sad, funny, terrifying, uplifting & also touching and poignant. Muddy Waters biography "I Can't Be Satisfied" by Robert Gordon offers up some great stories on Little Walter as well and read in tandem with "Blues With A Feeling" gives as clear of an historical accounting of Chicago's Electric Blues history and all it has inspired since, as you could hope for.
Article comments
1 - Eric Olsen
Very deeply felt and well-done, HW. Just by scanning the pics on the Amazon links, you can see the deterioration, but the grat thing about great music is that it stays great no matter what happens to the person. Thanks!
2 - HW Saxton Jr.
Thanks much,Eric.I really do appreciate it.I hadn't noticed the deterioration in
the posted pics until you mentioned it.
Walter had a degree from the school of
hard knocks with a doctorate in the art
of dissapation.By the time of his death
he had been shot,stabbed and beaten on so,so many different occasions that his
body couldn't hold out any longer.You're
right though,that great music will stay
great no matter what.