DOCUMENTARY NEEDED TO DIG DEEPER INTO MUDDY WATERS.

Byline: David Kronke Television Critic

EVEN THOSE who don't know Muddy Waters' story probably feel as though they do, woven as it is into the very fabric of contemporary music: Born McKinley A. Morganfield, a sharecropper's son, he left the Mississippi Delta for the big city of Chicago and, with a howling guitar and a commanding growl of a voice, helped invent rock 'n' roll by pioneering its progenitor, the blues.

``Muddy Waters: Can't Be Satisfied'' is an ``American Masters'' documentary from Robert Gordon - whose acclaimed, similarly titled biography of the bluesman forms this production's skeleton - and Morgan Neville. Featuring interviews with Waters' friends, relatives, collaborators and fans such as Bonnie Raitt, who declares him ``the most sexy bluesman ever,'' and Keith Richards, whose band borrowed its name after a Waters tune (you don't need to be told which one, right?), ``Can't Be Satisfied'' is Muddy 101: Muddy for Dummies. Like Waters' song, the documentary has its mojo workin', but not quite hard enough.

After being scolded for not working hard enough in the fields, Morganfield simply walked off the land and caught a train for Chicago, where he reinvented himself as Muddy Waters, befriended Leonard Chess, who signed him to his blues recording label, and yowled his way into history with an overtly sexual brand of music. (His on-stage use of a foaming bottle of beer at the climax of songs has been co-opted by many a less-inventive rock band.) Muddy knew whereof he sang, keeping a mistress or two just around the corner from his wife and children. Ironically, one girlfriend remembers of the womanizing Waters, ``He was very, very jealous.''

The film doesn't try too hard to get inside the mind of Muddy, content simply to note that he didn't offer outward glimpses of the devils his songs celebrated and damned. It skims through his tumultuous years, in which he suffered a debilitating car accident and faced the death of several friends and his wife. There are a handful of performance clips that serve as a greatest-hits collection; a deeper probing of his canon would have been appreciated.

Before you know it, the documentary has buried him, of cancer in 1983. Gordon's book, however, brings him to life. As Richards notes in his introduction to Gordon's biography, ``Muddy is like a very comforting arm around the shoulder.'' This film doesn't let us get that close to the man.

MUDDY WATERS: CAN'T BE SATISFIED - Two and one half stars

What: ``American Masters'' documentary on the blues legend.

Where: KCET.

When: 8 tonight.

In a nutshell: A cursory biography that's fine as far as it goes; it just doesn't go very far.

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Muddy Waters, a sharecropper's son who found musical fame in Chicago and helped create rock 'n' roll, is profiled tonight in an ``American Masters'' documentary.