The Night I Partied with The Muddy Waters Band AKA The Legendary Blues Band

February 25, 1981, a night I remember well!   It was my sophomore year at the University of Minnesota and one of the all time great blues bands was playing one of our favorite live music haunts, the Union Bar.  Before the night was over I had met and hung out with the band after the show, talked Pinetop into giving me his autograph, shared a smoke with the band's youngster (Willie) and caused my roommate to crash his car into the building site for the HHH Metrodome.  But I am getting ahead of myself.

The Legendary Blues Band was formerly known as the Muddy Waters Band until they quit in 1980 when Muddy refused their request for a raise.  The name came from Muddy himself, who would introduce his band as the "Legendary Blues Band".  After the split, the guitarists, Bob Margolin and Luther "Guitar Jr," Johnson each went their own way and formed their own bands.  This left the rhythm section of Pinetop Perkins on piano, Willie "Big Eyes" Smith on drums and Calvin "Fuzz" Jones on bass to form  the nucleus of the new entity, the Legendary Blues Band.  They recruited Louis Myers on guitar and harmonica and hit the road in early 1981.  Later that year they were joined by fellow ex-Muddy Waters Band member Jerry Portnoy on harmonica with whom they cut their first album "Life of Ease" co-produced by Roomful of Blues founder Duke Robillard.

I was familiar with the Luther Johnson version of the band  that recorded the incredible Jacks and Kings Sessions with the Nighthawks that garnered a Grammy nomination.  If you have never heard the Nighthawks Jacks and Kings featuring Luther "Guitar Jr." Johnson, Pinetop Perkins, Bob Margolin Dave Maxwell, the Rhythm King Horns and the Phantom Horns, do yourself a favor and grab volumes I and II if you can find them.  Simply some of the best contemporary blues performances you will ever hear.

During the band's first break I  cornered Pinetop and gushed my praise of the Jacks and Kings sessions as I pulled out a pen and asked him to autograph the flip side of the bar's music calendar.  As I was wearing my Nighthawks t-shirt I asked him to make it out to a Nighthawks fan.

At first I mistook Pinetop's hesitation for politeness as he would set the pen down and listen to me then I would hand him the pen back and he would just stare at the paper,  After about ten minutes Pinetop, bless his soul, had almost scrawled his name when Calvin or Louis grabbed me and took me aside asking "What in the hell are you doing?  He doesn't read or write very well!"  To say I felt like a complete idiot would be an understatement and why it is even more amazing that these incredibly gracious giants of blues music asked me to hang out after the show for drinks.  My roommate and I returned the courtesy by offering them to partake in a smoke and they chuckled and pointed to Willie saying "we'll leave that to you youngsters".  We went outside by their van and after trying some of ours, Willie pulled out a cigar from his private reserve.

As we drove back to our dorm we were giddy and laughing like hell about how we got out partied by guys three and four times our age.  As we were heading east on Fourth Street as it curves around the construction site for the future HHH Metrodome, I was goofing around knocking shoulders with my roommate who was driving.  Unfortunately the second time I leaned left to knock shoulders we were going a little fast for the curve in the road and I fell over between the driver and steering wheel causing the car to go out of control skidding along the large retaining wall just before the exit to Hiawatha Avenue ending up with the car wedged between the wall and the base for an electric pole.  We couldn't move an inch forward or backward.  

My roommate had worked all through high school at his hometown Dodge dealer to buy that car, which was his pride and joy and wasn't even one year old.  By now I was feeling the effects from partying all night and was not much use as my buddy was trying to figure out how in the hell we could extricate his car.  To get me out of his way he sent me on a snipe hunt to find a board at the construction site that we could use as a base for his jack with the idea maybe we could jack the car up and push it sideways since we couldn't go forward or backward.  

The timing couldn't have been more perfect as just as I disappeared into the construction site a Minneapolis Police squad pulled up and asked my roommate if he needed any assistance which my roommate politely declined.  But before the officer could get back in his squad to leave I emerge from the darkness of the construction site carrying a purloined two by four, staggering and shouting "Look what I found!"  Just then the police radio crackled to life assigning our officer to another call.  We jacked the car up and pushed it sideways and freed the car leaving barely a scratch.

All those guys are gone now, with the final 2, Pinetop and the "youngster" Willie both passing in 2011 but I will always remember the kindness shown me by the Legendary Blues Band.