1. The Great Migration
Southern Blues Move North
and Plug In

2. Causes of the Great Migration
• A push and a pull
• Push
– Social, economic and natural causes that made
the rural South less livable for African Americans
• Pull
– Hopes of work and opportunity in the industrial
urban North
– WWI and WWII

3. The Structure of Sharecropping
(a push)
• After the Civil war
– Government promised “40 Acres and a Mule”
– Never fulfilled
• Economic need for share cropping
• Plantations were divided into 20 to 50 acre plots. Each to be farmed by
individual families.
• Families (given)
– small cabins
– supplies (loaned on credit with interest)
– farm the land
– return half the crop to the owner.
• High interest rates for supplies
– Families in dept
– Dependent
– New form of slavery

4. Other Factors (push)
• Boll Weevil
– A beetle that feeds on cotton
plants
– Destroyed many crops
– Sharecroppers deeper in dept
• Periodic flooding of the
Mississippi Delta region
• Cotton picker
– Available 1944
– Practical by the 1950’s
• Lack of opportunity away from
the plantations

5. Segregation and Prejudice
• Jim Crow
– 1866 – The Federal government created laws making segregation
between blacks and whites illegal
– 1877 Rutherford B. Hayes ended Reconstruction
• Southern states were permitted to do what they wanted
• Lynching
• Chain gangs
• Sharecropping
• Color line – If you had any African blood at all you were subject to the
segregationist laws
– Segregation
• Schools
• Transportation
• Restaurants
• Poll taxes to discourage voting
• Continued well into the 20th Century 60’s 70’s

6. The Urban Pull
• African American workers were not in demand
• Considered a threat to Caucasian workers
• WWI and WWII created a need for industrial
labor
– As laborers left their jobs for war
– Openings for African Americans
• It was perceived that segregation was not as
blatant in the North

7. The Great Migration
• African Americans leave rural
areas for factory jobs in cities.
• Between 1910 and 1930, the
African-American population rose
by about 40% in Northern states,
• Chicago's African American
population grew from 40,000 in
1910 to234,000 in 1930 with an
estimated increase of 50,000
during WWII.

8. The Result
• African Americans alter their rural lifestyles to
adapt to urban life.
• Worked long hours
• Longed for entertainment and escape
• Demand for Southern, African American musical
styles
– Jazz
– Blues (not as in demand as jazz until the style began
to change)
• Musicians from the rural south also migrated
– Not always for musical employment

9. Chicago

10. How this Effected the Music
• Influences from all over the country
– Jump
– BooggieWoogie
– Honky Tonk
– (1930s) Swing
• Challenges of the Delta Blues Musician
– Larger, louder crowds
• Musicians turn to electric guitars to compete with volume
• More demanding dance crowds create the need for harder
steadier beats
• Blues musicians change their music for this new
environment

11. The Magnetic Pickup
• 1924 - Lloyd Loar
designed the first
magnetic pickup
• Converted guitar
string vibrations into
electrical signals
• Amplified through a
speaker system
• Crude technology
• Began the
development of the
electric guitar

12. Electric Guitar
• 1931 Rickenbacker
– E. Hawaiian Guitar
– Frying Pan
• Gibson had been developing e. guitars as well
– Lap Steel EH-150
– Hollow body ES-150 Played like a traditional acoustic guitar
• Late 30’s
– Charlie Christian
• Blues guitarists quickly jumped on board
– Gibson L5
• 1940’s Les Paul and Leo Fender were experimenting with
solid body guitars

13. Electric Guitar
• 1941 Les Paul’s “Log Guitar”
– A solid body prototype
• 1948 – Leo Fender – “Broadcaster”
• 1950 – “Telecaster”
• 1954 – “Stratocaster”
• Many blues players jumped to solid bodies as soon as they came
out.
• Matter of preference
• Amplifiers
– Designers tried to make them “clean”
– Blues men wanted them “dirty”
– This demand led to making amps that could be turned up for tube
distortion

14. Muddy Waters
• The greatest link and the most important transition figure from the
Delta Blues to R&B
• A musical icon for the Great Migration
• Born McKinley Morganfield in Rolling Fork, Mississippi – April
4, 1913
• Grew up on Stovall’s Plantation near Clarksdale
• Sharecropper but, better known as a bootlegger and guitar player
• Inspired by Son House at an early age
• Discovered by Alan Lomax in 1941
– Library of Congress recordings
– Received 20 dollars for the release of these songs
– This was a lot of money for Muddy relatively speaking

15. Muddy Waters
• Migrated to Chicago
• A musical career was not so easy
– Swing
– African American pop singers
• Nat King Cole
• Billy Eckstine
• First job was in a paper factory
• Continued to play music on weekends at
parties or wherever he could

16. Muddy Waters
• His first electric guitar was given to him by his
uncle
• Did not adapt easily at first
• The death of his grandmother awarded him
enough money to buy an old beaten up car
• Landed a gig with Sonny Boy Williamson
– Guitar player/ Driver
– A harmonica player
– The best at the time
– Enjoyed several recording contracts and popularity

17. Muddy Waters
• 1947 Blues pianist – Sunnyland Slim
– Used Muddy and Sunny Boy on his recording date
– Aristocrat Label
• Waters was called from his day job
– A delivery person for a venetian blind company
– An unidentified caller told his boss that his mother was very sick and
that he needed to leave work immediately
– Got home to find Sunnyland Slim ready to take him to his session
• Produced by Leonard Chess
– Future owner of Chess Records
– This launched Muddy’s career with Chess
– The relationship between Muddy, Leonard and his brother, Philip was
a crucial step in the development of what would become “The Chicago
Blues”

18. Muddy Waters
• “I Feel Like Going Home”
– First national R&B hit
• “I Can’t Be Satisfied”
– So popular in Chicago that he could not buy a copy.
– Some believe this to be the inspiration for The Rolling Stones’ “I
can’s Get no Satisfaction”
– The band name “The Rolling Stones” was titled after a Muddy
Waters composition: “Rolling Stone”
• Assembled one of the tightest bands in the history of the
Chicago music scene
• Continued with many more hits
• A huge influence on the Rock and Roll that was to follow

19. Muddy Waters
• Bassist Willie Dixon became a vital collaborator
– Hoochie-Coochie Man
• Followed a common them in most of Muddy’s work
• Bragged about his sexual talents
• I Just Wanna Make Love to You
• Got My MojoWorkin’
• Rollin’ and Tumblin’
• Tiger in your Tank
• Any sexual innuendos you get from these titles is not the result of a
dirty mind
• These innuendos were common in blues and R&B
• Continue to this day in Rock and Roll and urban music
• More blatant now
• Limitations required more creativity

20. Willie Dixon
• Session Bassist for Chess Records
• One of the first to be considered a composer
for the Blues genre
• Composed many hits for a number of Chess
artists
• His compositions were heavily covered by rock
band in the 60’s

21. Chess Records
• The Chess Brothers - Leonard and Philip
– Polish / Jewish immigrants
– Lejzor and FiszelCzyz
– Leonard eventually worked his way up to owning a
liquor store
• African American neighborhood
• Juke box
• Developed an ear for black music
– Macombo Lounge
• Liquor
• Live entertainment
• Many Chicago Blues players

22. Chess Records
• Leonard and Phil Became
partners in Aristocrat records
• Eventually became Chess
Records
• Established their own
recording studio
– 2120 South Michigan Ave.
– 1964 Rolling Stones recorded
their second album there
based on their passion for
Chess recordings
– 2120

23. Chess Records
• Masters at getting airplay for their recordings
– Payola
• Bribing DJs to play their records
– Money
– Sex
– Drugs
– Publishing
– Not the the only independent label to do so
• Atlantic
• King
• Stax
• Many others
• Only way to compete with the majors
• Recruited the talent from the Chicago African American community
• Immigrants of the Great Migration

24. Chess Records
• Other Artists on Chess
– Howlin’ Wolf
– Memphis Slim
– Bo Diddley
– Chuck Berry
• The list above shows a progression from Blues
to R&B to early Rock and Roll
• Chess was vital to the progression