3 Chicago Blues Standards That Forever Changed Rock History

Few blues musicians who traveled from the Mississippi Delta to Chicago could have imagined how profoundly their songs would reshape popular music. Artists like Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, and Willie Dixon not only electrified the blues but also laid the foundation for the evolution of rock and roll and its subgenres: punk, alternative, grunge, Americana, and more.

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You can hear their influence across generations of artists, from The Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, and Led Zeppelin to Soundgarden, The Black Keys, and The White Stripes. Even when rock music deviates from its bluesy roots, it’s not hard to notice the fingerprints left by groundbreaking Southern musicians who migrated north and forever changed the course of history.

“Hide Away” by Freddie King

Echoes of Freddie King’s guitar style can be heard in everyone from The Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia to Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and The Strokes’ Albert Hammond Jr.

Meanwhile, King’s defining instrumental, “Hide Away”, has been covered by both Clapton and Vaughan. But it also inspired the surf rockers of the 1960s. Born in Gilmer, Texas, King eventually made his way to Chicago. There, the Windy City’s South and West Side blues clubs helped shape his sound. And with it, the future of rock history.

“You Shook Me” by Muddy Waters

Muddy Waters first released “You Shook Me” in 1962. It was written by Willie Dixon and also credited to J. B. Lenoir. Waters’s initial recording features two separate tracks. He had recorded his vocals over an existing instrumental by Earl Hooker called “Blue Guitar”. That itself became a blues standard heard in Chicago clubs at the time. And Hooker’s iconic slide guitar work has inspired many future guitar legends, including Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page, both of whom covered “You Shook Me”. For Page, his heavy blues adaptation with Led Zeppelin became a precursor to both hard rock and heavy metal.

“Smokestack Lightning” by Howlin’ Wolf

Howlin’ Wolf, born Chester Burnett in White Station, Mississippi, was a central figure in transforming the rural acoustic blues of the Mississippi Delta. He helped turn it into its raucous, electrified iteration in Chicago. Aptly named, Wolf is famous for his wailing vocals and “whoo-hoo” interjections. “Smokestack Lightning” and its hypnotic single-chord drone date back to Wolf’s time in the South, watching trains illuminate the night sky with sparks from their smokestacks. When you hear a rock band playing a rumbling groove, you can likely trace it back to Wolf’s locomotive jam.

Photo by David Redfern/Redferns