I Can't Be Satisfied

I Can't Be Satisfied by Muddy Waters - 1957

After leaving Mississippi in 1943 in order to move to Chicago (as many African Americans did in search of freedom and a better life), Muddy Waters had his first hit record in that city in 1948: a recording of his song "I Can't Be Satisfied. " In it, he sings of leaving the north and going back down south, and he imagines his "little old baby" jumping and shouting as she meets him upon his arrival at the train station. ("I Can't Be Satisfied" was so successful that it set Waters on the road to blues stardom.)

Surely, when many African Americans living in Chicago and other northern cities heard that song, they must have identified with Waters's lyrics expressing feelings of being troubled and worried and wanting to return to the south. As I noted in a previous post in this thread (post # 76), although conditions in the north were significantly better than in the south, there was still a good bit of racism in Chicago and other northern cities. Feelings of wanting to return to the south signaled the disappointment that many felt about life in Chicago after having moved there from the south. Chicago had not lived up to their image of it being the "Promised Land" for them.
Jim Hauser, Dec 21, 2024

Social (racial) protest in the blues | Steve Hoffman Music Forums