"Mannish Boy" (Muddy Waters)

"Mannish Boy" is built upon the prototypical, stop-time blues riff that people think of when they're poking fun at the blues:

Bah-dah-da-dum
(Insert something about your upbringing.)
Bah-dah-da-dum
(Insert a boast about your sexual prowess.)
Bah-dah-da-dum
(Insert a different boast about your power over the opposite sex.)
Bah-dah-da-dum...

And so on.

In the wrong hands, it can be hellaciously repetitive and boring.  But with a master like McKinley Morganfield (a.k.a. Muddy Waters) at the helm, it's electrifying.
The lineage of the song actually starts with Muddy's own rendition of the Willie Dixon tune "Hoochie Coochie Man" (1954), which fellow Chess Records artist Bo Diddley transformed into the stop-time boast song "I'm a Man" (1955), which Muddy in turn responded to with his irreverent "Mannish Boy" (1955).
Although I like the 1955 version, I prefer the hard-stomp 1977 version, recorded with guitarist Johnny Winter for the note-perfect album Hard Again.  What makes this version so great is the well-oiled machine backing Muddy: Pinetop Perkins on piano, James Cotton on harmonica, Bob Margolin and Winter on guitars, Charles Calmese on bass, and Willie "Big Eyes" Smith on drums.  And it's not so much what they do; it's what they don't do.  They keep things loose and simple, giving Muddy space to do his thing.  Smith holds down the same basic plodding drum pattern (not touching a cymbal until the last note) while the rest of the band riffs and shouts away.  Everyone, especially Muddy, sounds like he's having a ball.
I first heard this version in a jazz music appreciation class in college.  The professor was discussing the foundations of jazz, the blues being a major component, and he had his TA play the cut as an example of a single-chord electric blues.  There were the initial giggles from the classroom of 200 teenagers, who no doubt had visions of Calhoun Tubbs (I wrote a song about it.  Like to hear it?  Here it goes...) somewhat fresh in their minds.  But by the time Muddy sang his first refrain (I'm a man!) with Winter and pals shouting in the background like madmen, the whole class began to tilt in Muddy's favor.  By the end, the entire room was stomping and clapping along like we were in some gritty South Side blues bar.  It was a great moment.