‘The blues had a baby and they named it rock‘n’roll,’ sang Muddy Waters. And he was right, of course. Once he and Howlin’ Wolf started plugging into amps in the clubs of Chicago in the 1950s, the blues became supercharged; a tougher, urban sound that prioritised electric guitar and lascivious lyrics.
Central to Chicago blues was the harmonica. Marion ‘Little Walter’ Jacobs pioneered a new amplified approach, radically transforming it into a powerful lead instrument. Subsequently, the blues became increasingly intertwined with rock’n’roll, with The Yardbirds backing then-unknown harp player Sonny Boy Williamson on a UK tour and releasing the 1963 album Sonny Boy Williamson And The Yardbirds. Not that the notoriously surly Williamson was impressed, observing: “These young English boys wanna play the blues so bad; and they play it – so bad.”
