Rolling his eyes toward heaven and shaking his head like a man possessed, Muddy Waters cast a powerful spell. His high cheekbones and Oriental eyes gave him a certain Eastern, inscrutable quality, and at times his face even became angelic. He could easily work audiences into a frenzy, marrying the unmistakable sexual urgency of his lyrics to the vocal slide statements that for 40 years were as much a part of his signature as his voice, which many claim was the best in electric blues.
A native Mississippi Delta bluesman, Muddy instinctively understood the unpretentious beauty and power in simplicity. Time and again, he transformed basic pattern s into blues masterpieces. Decades after their introduction, hypnotic stoptime songs such as "Manish Boy" still electrify audiences. Like the superstitions and voodoo images prominent in Waters' best-known lyrics, the primal earthiness of his rhythms contain a deep, almost subconscious appeal. NTSC all region, 58 minutes.