Edited by Azizi Powell
Latest revision- August 26, 2016
This post showcases a video and a sound file of Muddy Waters performing his song "Mannish Boy".
The lyrics for this song are also included in this post.
The content of this post is presented for cultural, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to Muddy Waters for his musical legacy and thanks to all those who also performed in these featured songs. Thanks also all those who are quoted in this post and the publishers of these examples on YouTube.
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/10/muddy-waters-hoochie-coochie-man-video.html for a pancocojams post on Muddy Water's "Hoochie Coochie Man".
Also, click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2015/07/bo-diddleys-im-man-information-examples.html for a pancocojams post on Bo Diddley's song "I'm A Man".
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INFORMATION ABOUT MUDDY WATERS' "MANNISH BOY"
From http://www.theglobaldispatches.com/articles/muddy-waters-im-a-man-m-a-n "Muddy Waters – I’m a Man, M-A-N" By Gary Burnett, November 27, 2013
"The song has become something of a blues standard with its raunchy lyrics which nevertheless betray a stronger message about a Jim Crow South where a black man would always be referred to as a "boy", a black "man" was just too much of a threat.
Muddy Waters first recorded Mannish Boy back in 1955. He and Willie Dixon had previously written Hoochie Coochie Man, which had inspired Bo Diddley‘s I’m a Man,and which in turn provided the basis for Mannish Boy. The song is credited to Muddy Water, Mel London and Bo Diddley, and features a repeating lick based on one chord....
Despite the clear sensuality of the song, there’s something more going on in the song. In the Southern states under Jim Crow, including Mississippi where Muddy Waters grew up, a black man was never recognized as anything other than a “boy.”
Fifty years after the Emancipation Proclamation of 1853, Thomas Bailey, a southern educator set forth fifteen major premises of the “common opinion of the South” of black Americans. Two of these said, “The negro* is inferior and will remain so,” and “Let the lowest white man count for more than the highest negro.” African Americans were both demonized and dehumanized. A white student in 1909 – shockingly – wrote, “The negro is more like a mule than anything I can think of…You cannot get the brute out of the negro; therefore he must be kept under subjection.”
Such were the attitudes that Muddy Waters experienced growing up in Mississippi. As a black man, he was considered and treated as less than human, and one of the ways in which this was reinforced was in the way in which he would never be referred to as a man – always as “boy.” Blacks at best were children, to be looked after, provided of course they knew their place, behaved and did not become “uppity.” At worst black men were considered a source of danger to white womanhood, ready at any opportunity to act as crazed, ravishers of pure white women. On this basis, many of the atrocious lynchings...
Muddy Water’s song, then, takes on a new meaning in this context. Now that he’s free of Southern racism and oppression and is a successful musician in Chicago, Muddy can assert his black manhood – “I’m a man, I’m a full grown man,” sings Muddy, “I spell M-A, child, N.” And free from the accusations of sexual misconduct, the sexual bravado of the song becomes at least understandable."...
-snip-
That song- and "Hoochie Coochie Man", "Mannish Boy", "Bad To The Bone" and countless other Blues & R&B songs are self-bragging songs. And what the men are bragging about is their sexual prowess with women.
The men who brag about themselves in those songs are defying at least one American rule- that men (and women) should be monogamous. Isn't it therefore likely, that those men would also be defying other mainstream American rules even though that's not addressed in those songs?
"Stealing chickens from the White man's yard" is an example of a Black man during slavery and immediately post slavery who breaks the rules. While that behavior was illegal and therefore "bad", Black men who could successfully do this helped stave off malnutrition for themselves and their families. It's therefore likely that those actions were considered much more positively by Black folks than by White folks. The "Wild Ni&&er Bill" folk songs are other examples of "a good bad Black man" - and there are many more examples of from "Shine" to "Superfly", and beyond. These men could be considered anti-heroes, although those considering them as such would more likely be Black than non-Black. But it's not just Black Americans who admire anti-heroes.
One trait that those "bad men" who bragged about themselves in "Mannish Boy" and those other songs have in common is their sexual attractiveness to women and their sexual prowess with women. Although "Mannish Boy" and those other sexually bragging songs don't mention any other examples of those men defying other mainstream morals, it seems likely to me that these men were badass in more ways than one.
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Also, for the record (no pun intended), it should be noted that by the 1960s, "Negro" has been retired as a referent for Black Americans. Also, since at least the 1960s, apart from historical quotes, the "n" in the referent "Negro" is always capitalized. A noticeable exception is when African Americans purposely spell "negro" with a small "n" as an insult directed towards a Black person who is acting or speaking in subservient ways or in other ways that benefit non-Black people over Black people.
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LYRICS: MANNISH BOY
(Muddy Waters)
Ooooooh, yeah, ooh, yeah
Everythin', everythin', everythin's gonna be alright this mornin'
Ooh yeah, whoaw
Now when I was a young boy, at the age of five
My mother said I was, gonna be the greatest man alive
But now I'm a man, way past 21
Want you to believe me baby,
I had lot's of fun
I'm a man
I spell mmm, aaa child, nnn
That represents man
No B, O child, Y
That mean mannish boy
I'm a man
I'm a full grown man
I'm a man
I'm a natural born lovers man
I'm a man
I'm a rollin' stone
I'm a man
I'm a hoochie coochie man
Sittin' on the outside, just me and my mate
You know I'm made to move you honey,
Come up two hours late
Wasn't that a man
I spell mmm, aaa child, nnn
That represents man
No B, O child, Y
That mean mannish boy
I'm a man
I'm a full grown man
Man
I'm a natural born lovers man
Man
I'm a rollin' stone
Man-child
I'm a hoochie coochie man
The line I shoot will never miss
When I make love to a woman,
She can't resist
I think I go down,
To old Kansas Stew
I'm gonna bring back my second cousin,
That little Johnny Cocheroo
All you little girls,
Sittin'out at that line
I can make love to you woman,
In five minutes time
Ain't that a man
I spell mmm, aaa child, nnn
That represents man
No B, O child, Y
That mean mannish boy
Man
I'm a full grown man
Man
I'm a natural born lovers man
Man
I'm a rollin' stone
I'm a man-child
I'm a hoochie coochie man
Well, well, well, well
Hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry
Don't hurt me, don't hurt me child
Don't hurt me, don't hurt, don't hurt me child
Well, well, well, well
Yeah
Source: http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/muddywaters/mannishboy.html
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From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mannish_Boy
..."In 1986, Muddy Waters' original "Mannish Boy" was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame "Classics of Blues Recordings" category.[7] It was also included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's list of the "500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll".[8] "Mannish Boy" is ranked #229 in Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time".[9]"...
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SHOWCASE EXAMPLES
Example #1: Muddy Waters plays "Manish Boy"
GtrWorkShp, Uploaded on Nov 16, 2007
In this clip from a 1971 performance, Muddy Waters and his band perform "Manish Boy." From the DVD "Muddy Waters In Concert 1971" produced by TopCat Records.
-snip-
here's a comment from this video's discussion thread:
Mael W (thesnoopyfan711), 2016
"Everything... everthing....everything... gonna be alright this morning... oh yeah.... i love this song from Muddy Waters... no other song can cheer me up, even in the darkest and sadest moments, ... this one SONG " Manish Boy " from Muddy Waters, yes Sir. R.I.P. Muddy Waters..."
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Example #2: Muddy Waters - Mannish Boy
Jeoffrey van Overveld , Published on May 17, 2012
This song is clearly not owned by me.
-snip-
Selected comments from this sound file's discussion thread
Michael Luisi, 2013
"Muddy is a national treasure. He never got the acclaim he truly deserved. The fact that a bunch of English rockers introduced this blues legend to main stream America is a frigging disgrace."
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Reply
bluesatsunset, 2014
"I think it's more of a disgrace American mainstream didn't wake up to Muddy, Wolf, Slim etc, etc until that period of time. It was British blues artists, not "rockers", who shook the American blues scene up & made you open your ears to the genius of these men & women creating what we yearned to play from the deep south.. "
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bluesatsunset, 2014
"Very close, if not THE greatest riff ever written."
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Danny Pembroke, 2016
"The cornerstone of electrified blues. May sound old but Muddy hit this dirty crunchy sound before anyone else! Would love to have been around back in the day to have heard this for the first time. Been playing this riff for thirty years. It still blows me away every time I hear it. There is lots more out there. Dig, people. Keep it alive."
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JacoZawinul, 2016
"That's Johnny Winter's howlin' in the background."
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Reply
Gregory Pickett, 2016
"+JacoZawinul I always wondered that! :)"
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