It\u2019s easy to trace Rod Stewart\u2019s unmistakable legacy through decades of rock history, from the power of ‘Maggie May’ to the emotions of ‘The Killing of Georgie’.<\/p>\n
But rewind far enough, and you\u2019ll find that one of the biggest influences on his career came from a 1960 blues recording by a man he never met – but whom he still speaks of with reverence.<\/p>\n
Muddy Waters\u2019 ‘I Feel So Good’ might not be a household favourite, but for Stewart, it\u2019s right up there with the songs that made him who he is.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was one of the first albums that I bought,\u201d Stewart said in a 2018 \u201cTracks of My Years\u201d interview with BBC Radio 2\u2019s Ken Bruce.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cIt was Live at Monterey, I think, it was a live album. Was also a great influence on the Faces because we used to play this song. I think we recorded it and just lovely – Little Walter on the harmonica, Francis Clay, Willie Dixon on bass – just haunting!\u201d<\/p>\n Muddy Waters, born McKinley Morganfield, was already a legend when Stewart first heard ‘I Feel So Good’. The track, part of the 1960 live sessions that made up albums like At Newport 1960 and Live at Monterey, showed Waters at his best.<\/p>\n But before he was rubbing shoulders with Elton John<\/a> or duetting with Tina Turner, Rod Stewart was a young musician obsessing over American blues imports.<\/p>\n Born in Highgate in 1945, Stewart grew up in a house filled with records and the sounds of the 1950s – and he gravitated early on to rhythm and blues.<\/p>\n By the time he joined the Faces in the late 1960s, Stewart\u2019s love of blues was already cemented. The group, formed from the remnants of the Small Faces, leaned heavily on that early Chicago sound, often covering blues standards in their sweaty, swaggering live sets.<\/p>\n And ‘I Feel So Good’ was right in the mix. Originally written and recorded by Big Bill Broonzy, the version Stewart heard was Muddy Waters\u2019 1960 recording, part of a wave of electrified blues records that reshaped the genre.<\/p>\n With Little Walter\u2019s piercing harmonica and Willie Dixon\u2019s driving bassline, the track became a benchmark for a generation of British musicians discovering blues.<\/p>\n At the end of the radio show, Stewart went on to pick the track as his absolute favourite, between a lineup of his 10 most beloved tunes<\/a> – that included hits by Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra<\/a>, Otis Redding, Bruno Mars, and more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s easy to trace Rod Stewart\u2019s unmistakable legacy through decades of rock history, from the power of ‘Maggie…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":93363,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3936],"tags":[44008,77,44007,40081,269,16208,16207,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-93362","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-blues-influence","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-i-feel-so-good","11":"tag-muddy-waters","12":"tag-music","13":"tag-music-section","14":"tag-rod-stewart","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114490615071092476","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93362"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93362\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}