Rollin' Stone

In February 1950, Leonard Chess stripped away Muddy Waters' usual backing band to record him entirely alone. Muddy sat with just his electric guitar, playing a hypnotic, single-chord adaptation of the traditional Delta song "Catfish Blues." He relied on heavy string-bending and a deep, pulsing rhythm, letting the amplified instrument ring out between his fierce, brooding vocal lines. The stark, menacing track was an influential early release that helped establish the newly minted Chess Records label. More famously, a young Brian Jones would eventually name his upstart British rhythm and blues band "The Rolling Stones" in direct tribute to this exact record.