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White Chicago blues guitarist Michael Bloomfield got the shock of his young life when he was sitting in a van with Muddy Waters and some members of the Muddy Waters band on the way to a gig, and Waters started talking about how much he loved to suck cock. It took a while for Bloomfield to figure out that Waters was using “cock” to refer to a woman’s vulva, not a man’s penis.[1]
Muddy Waters, a.k.a. McKinley Morganfield, was born in Rolling Fork, Mississippi in 1915. Cock was slang for female genitalia among Southern country African American speakers during the early-to-mid 1900s. A cock opener, therefore, was a penis, as in: “Baby you got a cock. This here is a cock-opener,” from Charles Mingus’ autobiography Beneath the Underdog: His World as Composed by Mingus.[2]
According to Lexicon of Black English, it is likely that in the early 1800s African Americans “picked up a ‘low’ English usage in which cock was a verb meaning ‘to copulate with, but generally in the passive.’ As in ‘to want cocking’ or ‘to get cocked.’ ”[3] In “On the Wall,” Louise Johnson (a.k.a. Bessie Jackson) bragged:
Well, I’m going to Memphis, stop at Church’s Hall
Show these women how to cock it on the wall
As David Evans explained in Blues Revue magazine, “The latter activity [cocking it on the wall] was described to me by a now elderly country bluesman as one of the pleasures he indulged in when going outside for a break at juke houses.”[4]
The use of the word “dick,” which is likely a variant of “prick,” to refer to the penis is still much more common among African American speakers today than “cock.” In contrast, “cock” is the more prevalent term for the penis among white slang users. “Nut” is another term that switches genders in African American slang. It is used most often as slang for the testicles, but can also refer to the clitoris or to having an orgasm, as in “busting a nut” or “getting a nut.”
Michael Bloomfield was one of the first white artists to gain entry into the Chicago blues scene, as a result of Muddy’s mentorship. Bloomfield, who was born in Chicago in 1943, was a passionate blues fan by the time he was in his teens. He soon found his way to the South Side, where he could soak up sets by Little Walter, Howlin’ Wolf, and Waters. Bloomfield made a living playing weddings and parties in Top 40 rock bands, but on his free nights he, Paul Butterfield, Nick Gravenities, and Charlie Musselwhite could be found at clubs like Pepper’s and Sylvio’s, working up the nerve to sit in with the band.
According to Derwyn Powell’s article “Michael Bloomfield,”although all four of the white youngsters “seemed to provide comic relief for the black patrons, Muddy took Michael under his wing because he could see Michael’s interest in the blues was indeed genuine. If you were playing with Muddy, you were OK and not to be messed with.”[5]
Bob Margolin is another white guitarist who showed enough promise and dedication to impress Muddy Waters, and earned a chance to learn from him. Margolin, who played guitar in the Muddy Waters band from 1973 to 1980, confirmed that Waters continued to use the word cock “when he was talking about pussy,” even after Waters had lived up north in Chicago for several decades.[6] Of course, Muddy talked like that only in private, among friends and bandmates, according to Margolin, who has written: “Consistently, interviewers and friends use the word ‘dignity’ to describe Muddy, and it’s appropriate. He understood his accomplishments and was proud of them and conducted himself in public gracefully but with reserve. In situations where he was with family or close friends, or having a particularly good time on the bandstand, though, he displayed a loose, good humor that ranged from playful to downright silly.” [7]
When Margolin first started playing in the band, he struggled with Muddy’s fluid behind-the- beat phrasing. “My music is so simple,” Muddy used to say, “but so few people can play it right.” Margolin struggled to master the subtleties of the music, and eventually succeeded, in spite of the fact that Muddy’s idea of constructive criticism was to say, Margolin recalled, “something like, ‘Don’t ever play that again, it makes my dick sore.’”[8]
Song:
“On The Wall”–Louise Johnson
FOOTNOTES
[1] The author thanks former Blues Revue editor-in-chief Andrew M. Robble for sharing this anecdote about his close friend Mike Bloomfield.
[2]Beneath the Underdog: His World as Composed by Mingus, by Charles Mingus, p. 167, (New York: Vintage, 1991),. from Major, p. 101.
[3]Dillard, p. 33.
[4]“…Ramblin’” by David Evans, p. 13, Blues Revue magazine (May/June 1995).
[5]“Michael Bloomfield” by Derwyn Powell, The Blues News.com.
[6]From author’s interview with Bob Margolin.
[7]From “What Was Muddy Like?” by Bob Margolin on Bob Margolin.com, quoted with permission from Mr. Margolin.
[8]Ibid.
Excerpted from The Language of the Blues by Debra Devi. Published by Guitar International. Reprinted with permission.
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