May 22 1954: Blues harmonica star Little Walter Jacobs records I Got To Find My Baby in Chicago, Illinois, USA, for Chess Records…

Little Walter Jacobs, a TRUE Blues Legend…

May 22, 1954:
Blues harmonica star Little Walter Jacobs records I Got To Find My Baby in Chicago, Illinois, USA, for Chess Records…

Little Walter began recording in 1950 with Muddy Waters, first on the Parkway label, and then for Chess, the label he was to stay with for the rest of his short life. With Waters’s "Long Distance Call," Walter became the first to record amplified harmonica...That was ONE reason for his induction into The Rock 'n Roll of Fame...

 

Muddy Waters, featuring Little Walter on harp in 1953…

Muddy’s records did well, but despite his musical success, Jacobs had serious problems. He was prone to heavy drinking, and got into fights. "He was hellacious when he drank," Lazy Lester Johnson" once said, "and he liked the bottle." The only one who could control him, it seemed, was Muddy….

In 1964 he toured Europe with the Rolling Stones, but substance abuse and his hot temper still plagued him. "Little Walter was dead ten years before he died," Muddy Waters told Patrick Day, gesturing to indicate drinking and then shooting dope...

At gigs, as well as offstage, he would sometimes wave a pistol or two around, and had trouble keeping a band together.

 Photos taken towards the end of his life show a scarred, haggard man looking closer to 55 than 35…

On February 14^th, 1968, Walter Jacobs died of injuries sustained in a Chicago street fight. He was only 37 years old...

R.I.P. Little Walter because no matter what,
you are a true blues legend…

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