On Thu, 16 May 2024 06:50:02 -0400, RWC <
letsrock@opbox.com> wrote:
In Jan 2004, Roger posted:
"Smokestack Lightning", {1956}
"Wang Dang Doodle", {1961}
"Back Door Man" and {1961}
"Spoonful" {1960}
---these are the songs I'd rate my personal favorites by him on Chess.
is anyone else willing to share their HW fave(s) or likes?
this list might have been slightly updated and certainly extended
since, but in Nov 2009 these were the fave Wolf songs for Bruce:
1 - Spoonful
2 - Mr. Highway Man
3 - Who's Been Talking
4 - Evil Is Goin' On
5 - Who Will Be Next
6 - Smokestack Lightnin'
7 - Back Door Man
8 - The Red Rooster
9 - Moaning For My Baby
10 - How Many More Years
Later in Nov 2009, Bruce posted a substantial bio for Wolf
that inter alia highlighted his career achievements:
Everthing below was posted by Bruce:
Since he started recording in 1951, Wolf has NEVER been an "obscure"
artist. His first single was a double sided R&B chart hit. From that
point on he is mentioned all the time in Billboard and Cash Box,
either with a current hit, a new release, or in the R & B notes with
info about his current live shows.
His songs were redone by hundreds of artists, including the Rolling
Stones, Doors, and many other rock groups of the 60s and 70s. His
early albums were legendary with that crowd.
He's been inducted into the rock and roll hall of fame. They don't
induct "obscure" artists.
His record of "Smokestack Lightnin'" was inducted into the grammy hall
of fame.
His 1971 album, "London Sessions" was on the Billboard POP album
charts for 15 weeks. "Obscure" artists don't put an album on the pop
charts.
If you want to use "Howlin' Wolf" to represent that hard core R & B
sound that geeks like you and Sharx don't "get," that's fine, we are
honored that you guys don't appreciate Wolf. But to use him as an
example of an obscure artist is preposterous.
We talk about plenty of legitmitally obscure artists around here, if
you want some names.
How about "Schoolboy Cleve" or maybe "Buddy Covelle?"
Obscure people don't have entries on Wikipedia (except for maybe Mike Pendragon, but he doesn't really count, because he wrote up his own
entry).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howlin'_Wolf
Chester Arthur Burnett (June 10, 1910 – January 10, 1976), better
known as Howlin' Wolf, was an influential American blues singer,
guitarist and harmonica player.
With a booming voice and looming physical presence, Burnett is
commonly ranked among the leading performers in electric blues;
musician and critic Cub Koda declared, "no one could match [Howlin'
Wolf] for the singular ability to rock the house down to the
foundation while simultaneously scaring its patrons out of its
wits."[1] Many songs popularized by Burnett—such as "Smokestack
Lightnin'," "Back Door Man" and "Spoonful"—have become standards of
blues and blues rock.
At 6 feet, 6 inches (198 cm) and close to 300 pounds (136 kg), he was
an imposing presence with one of the loudest and most memorable voices
of all the "classic" 1950s Chicago blues singers. Howlin' Wolf's voice
has been compared to "the sound of heavy machinery operating on a
gravel road". Although the two were reportedly not that different in
actual personality, this rough edged, slightly fearsome musical style
is often contrasted with the less crude but still powerful
presentation of his contemporary and professional rival, Muddy Waters,
to describe the two pillars of the Chicago Blues representing the
music.
Howlin' Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson (Rice Miller), Little Walter Jacobs
and Muddy Waters are usually regarded in retrospect as the greatest
blues artists who recorded for Chess in Chicago. Sam Phillips once
remarked of Chester Arthur Burnett, "When I heard Howlin' Wolf, I
said, 'This is for me. This is where the soul of man never dies.' "
In 2004, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked him #51 on their list of the
100 Greatest Artists of All Time
In 2004, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked him #51 on their list of the
100 Greatest Artists of All Time
In 2004, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked him #51 on their list of the
100 Greatest Artists of All Time
(An artist who ranks in the top 100 of all time on a significant list
like this cannot possible be "obscure.")
Born in White Station, Mississippi, near West Point, he was named
after Chester A. Arthur, the 21st President of the United States, and
was nicknamed Big Foot Chester and Bull Cow in his early years because
of his massive size. He explained the origin of the name Howlin' Wolf
thus: "I got that from my grandfather [John Jones]." He used to tell
him stories about the wolves in that part of the country and warn him
that if he misbehaved, they would "get him". According to the
documentary film The Howlin' Wolf Story, Howlin' Wolf's parents broke
up when he was young. His very religious mother Gertrude threw him out
of the house while he was still a child for refusing to work around
the farm; he then moved in with his uncle, Will Young, who treated him
badly. When he was 13, he ran away and claimed to have walked 85 miles
(137 km) barefoot to join his father, where he finally found a happy
home within his father's large family. During the peak of his success,
he returned from Chicago to his home town to see his mother again, but
was driven to tears when she rebuffed him and refused to take any
money he offered her, saying it was from his playing the "Devil's
music".
As a young man in the late 1920s and early 1930s, Howlin' Wolf was
fascinated by Charley Patton, the most popular bluesman in the Delta
at the time. Wolf would listen to Patton play nightly from outside of
a nearby juke joint. There he remembered Patton playing "Pony Blues,"
"High Water Everywhere," "A Spoonful Blues," and "Banty Rooster
Blues." The two became acquainted and soon Patton was teaching him
guitar. "The first piece I ever played in my life was ... a tune about
hook up my pony and saddle up my black mare" (Patton's "Pony Blues").
[3] Wolf also learned about showmanship from Patton: "When he played
his guitar, he would turn it over backwards and forwards, and throw it
around over his shoulders, between his legs, throw it up in the
sky."[3] "Chester [Wolf] could perform the guitar tricks he learned
from Patton for the rest of his life."[3] "Chester learned his lessons
well and played with Patton often [in small Delta communities]."[4]
Howlin' Wolf was also inspired by other popular blues performers of
the time, including the Mississippi Sheiks, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Ma
Rainey, Lonnie Johnson, Tampa Red, Blind Blake, and Tommy Johnson (two
of the earliest songs he mastered were Jefferson's "Match Box Blues"
and Leroy Carr's "How Long, How Long Blues"). Country singer Jimmie
Rodgers, who was Wolf's childhood idol, was also an influence. Wolf
tried to emulate Rodgers' "blue yodel," but found that his efforts
sounded more like a growl or a howl. "I couldn't do no yodelin',"
Barry Gifford quoted him as saying in Rolling Stone, "so I turned to
howlin'. And it's done me just fine."[5] His harmonica playing was
modeled after that of Rice Miller (also known as Sonny Boy Williamson
II), who had lived with his sister for a time and taught him how to
play.
During the 1930s, Wolf performed in the South as a solo performer and
with a number of blues musicians, including Floyd Jones, Johnny
Shines, Honeyboy Edwards, Sonny Boy Williamson II, Robert Johnson,
Robert Jr. Lockwood, Willie Brown, Son House, Willie Johnson. In
between his "ramblings" he would help his father with farming chores.
On April 9, 1941, at age thirty, he was inducted into the U.S. Army
and was stationed at several army bases. Finding it difficult to
adjust to military life, Wolf was discharged November 3, 1943, during
the middle of World War II, without ever being sent overseas. Wolf
returned to his family and helped with farming, while performing as he
had done in the 1930s with Floyd Jones and others. In 1948 he moved to
West Memphis, Arkansas and formed a band which included guitarists
Willie Johnson and M. T. Murphy, harmonica player Junior Parker, a
pianist remembered only as "Destruction" and drummer Willie Steele. He
began broadcasting on KWEM in West Memphis, alternating between
performing and pitching farm equipment, and auditioned for Sam
Phillips's Memphis Recording Service in 1951.
[edit] Career
[edit] 1950s
Howlin' Wolf quickly became a local celebrity, and soon began working
with a band that included Willie Johnson, and guitarist Pat Hare. His
first recordings came in 1951, when he recorded sessions for both the
Bihari brothers at Modern Records and Leonard Chess' Chess Records.
Chess issued Howlin' Wolf's "How Many More Years" in August 1951; Wolf
also recorded sides for Modern, with Ike Turner, in late 1951 and
early 1952. Chess eventually won the war over the singer, and Wolf
settled in Chicago, Illinois c. 1953. arriving in Chicago, he
assembled a new band, recruiting Chicagoan Joseph Leon "Jody" Williams
from Memphis Slim's band as his first guitarist. Within a year Wolf
enticed guitarist Hubert Sumlin to leave Memphis and join him in
Chicago; Sumlin's terse, curlicued solos perfectly complemented
Burnett's huge voice and surprisingly subtle phrasing. Although the
line-up of Wolf's band would change regularly over the years,
employing many different guitarists both on recordings and in live
performance including Willie Johnson, Jody Williams, Lee Cooper, L.D.
McGhee, Otis "Big Smokey" Smothers, his brother Abe "Little Smokey"
Smothers, Jimmy Rogers, Freddie "Abu Talib" Robinson, and Buddy Guy,
among others, with the exception of a couple of brief absences in the
late '50s Sumlin remained a member of the band for the rest of Wolf's
career, and is the guitarist most often associated with the Chicago
Howlin' Wolf sound.
In the 1950s Wolf had four songs that qualified as "hits" on the
Billboard national R&B charts: "How Many More Years", his first and
biggest hit, made it to #4 in 1951; its flip side, "Moanin' at
Midnight", made it to #10 the same year; "Smoke Stack Lightning"
charted for three weeks in 1956, peaking at #8; and "I Asked For
Water" appeared on the charts for one week in 1956, in the #8
position. In 1959, Wolf's first album, Moanin' in the Moonlight, a
compilation of previously released singles, was released.
[edit] 1960s
His 1962 album Howlin' Wolf is a famous and influential blues album,
often referred to as "The Rocking Chair album" because of its cover illustration depicting an acoustic guitar leaning against a rocking
chair. This album contained "Wang Dang Doodle", "Goin' Down Slow",
"Spoonful", and "Little Red Rooster", songs which found their way into
the repertoires of British and American bands infatuated with Chicago
blues. In 1964 he toured Europe as part of the American Folk Blues
Festival tour produced by German promoters Horst Lippmann and FriIn
1965 he appeared on the television show Shindig at the insistence of
The Rolling Stones, who were scheduled to appear on the same program
and who had covered "Little Red Rooster" on an early album. He was
often backed on records by bassist and songwriter Willie Dixon who is
credited with such Howlin' Wolf standards as "Spoonful", "I Ain't Superstitious", "Little Red Rooster", "Back Door Man", "Evil", "Wang
Dang Doodle" (later recorded by Koko Taylor), and others.
In September, 1967, he joined forces with Bo Diddley and Muddy Waters
for The Super Super Blues Band album of Chess blues standards,
including "The Red Rooster" and "Spoonful".
[edit] 1970s
In May 1970, Howlin' Wolf, his long-time guitarist Hubert Sumlin, and
the young Chicago blues harmonica player Jeff Carp traveled to London
along with Chess Records producer Norman Dayron to record the Howlin'
Wolf London Sessions LP, accompanied by British blues/rock musicians
Eric Clapton, Steve Winwood, Ian Stewart, Bill Wyman, Charlie Watts
and others. He recorded his last album for Chess, The Back Door Wolf,
in 1973.
[edit] Later personal life
Unlike many other blues musicians, after he left his impoverished
childhood to begin a musical career, Howlin' Wolf was always
financially successful. Having already achieved a measure of success
in Memphis, he described himself as "the onliest one to drive himself
up from the Delta" to Chicago, which he did, in his own car on the
Blues Highway and with four thousand dollars in his pocket, a rare
distinction for a black blues man of the time. In his early career,
this was the result of his musical popularity and his ability to avoid
the pitfalls of alcohol, gambling and the various dangers inherent in
what are vaguely described as "loose women", to which so many of his
peers fell prey. Though functionally illiterate into his 40s, Burnett eventually returned to school, first to earn a G.E.D., and later to
study accounting and other business courses aimed to help his business
career.
Wolf met his future wife, Lillie, when she attended one of his
performances in a Chicago club. She and her family were urban and
educated, and not involved in what was generally seen as the unsavory
world of blues musicians. Nonetheless, immediately attracted when he
saw her in the audience as Wolf says he was, he pursued her and won
her over. According to those who knew them, the couple remained deeply
in love until his death. Together they raised Lillie's two daughters
from an earlier relationship, Bettye and Barbara.
After he married Lillie, who was able to manage his professional
finances, Wolf was so financially successful that he was able to offer
band members not only a decent salary, but benefits such as health
insurance; this in turn enabled him to hire his pick of the available musicians, and keep his band one of the best around. According to his daughters, he was never financially extravagant, for instance driving
a Pontiac station wagon rather than a more expensive and flashy car.
Wolf's health declined in the late 1960s through 1970s. He suffered
several heart attacks and in 1970 his kidneys were severely damaged in
an automobile accident. He died in 1976 from complications of kidney
disease.
[edit] Legacy
Burnett died at Hines VA Hospital in Hines, Illinois on January 10,
1976 and was buried in Oak Ridge Cemetery, Hillside, Cook County,
Illinois in a plot in Section 18, on the east side of the road. His
large gravestone, allegedly purchased by Eric Clapton, has an image of
a guitar and harmonica etched into it.
The Howlin' Wolf Memorial Blues Festival is held each year in West
Point, Mississippi. Wolf's Juke Joint Jam is another annual Howlin'
Wolf tribute festival held in West Point. Some of the artists who have
played 'Wolf Jam' include Wolf's lead guitarist Hubert Sumlin, Muddy
Waters' back band of Willie "Big Eyes" Smith, Calvin "Fuzz" Jones and
"Steady Rollin" Bob Margolin, Willie King, Blind Mississippi Morris,
Kenny Brown, Burnside Exploration, etc. The festival is held at the
500-acre (2.0 km2) festival grounds know as Waverly Waters Resort.
Burnett was portrayed by Eamonn Walker in the 2008 motion picture
Cadillac Records.
[edit] Selective awards and recognitions
[edit] Grammy Hall of Fame
A recording of Howlin' Wolf was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame,
which is a special Grammy award established in 1973 to honor
recordings that are at least twenty-five years old, and that have
"qualitative or historical significance."
Howlin' Wolf Grammy Award History[6]
Year Title Genre Label Year Inducted
1956 Smokestack Lightning Blues (Single) Chess 1999
[edit] Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame listed three songs by Howlin' Wolf of
the 500 songs that shaped rock and roll.[7]
Year Recorded Title
1956 Smokestack Lightning
1960 Spoonful
1962 The Red Rooster
[edit] The Blues Foundation Awards
Howlin' Wolf: Blues Music Awards[8]
Year Category Title Result
2004 Historical Blues Album of the Year The London Howlin' Wolf
Sessions Nominated
1995 Reissue Album of the Year Ain't Gonna Be Your Dog Nominated
1992 Vintage or Reissue Blues Album--US or Foreign The Chess Box--
Howlin' Wolf Winner
1990 Vintage/Reissue (Foreign) Memphis Days Nominated
1989 Vintage/Reissue Album (US) Cadillac Daddy Nominated
1988 Vintage/Reissue Album (Foreign) Killing Floor: Masterworks Vol. 5
Winner
1987 Vintage/Reissue Album (US) Moanin' in the Moonlight Winner
1981 Vintage or Reissue Album (Foreign) More Real Folk Blues
Nominated
[edit] Honors and Inductions
On September 17, 1994 the U.S. Post Office issued a Howlin' Wolf 29
cents commemorative postage stamp.
Howlin' Wolf Inductions
Year Category Result Notes
2003 Mississippi Musicians Hall of Fame Inducted
1991 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inducted Early Influences
1980 Blues Hall of Fame Inducted
[edit] Discography
1959: Moanin' in the Moonlight
1962: Howlin' Wolf Sings the Blues; Howlin' Wolf
1969: The Howlin' Wolf Album
1971: Message to the Young
1971: The London Howlin' Wolf Sessions
1972: Live and Cookin' (At Alice's Revisited)
1973: The Back Door Wolf
[edit] Covers
Countless artists have recorded cover versions of Howlin' Wolf songs;
listed below are some of the recordings:
Jeff Beck covered "I Ain't Superstitious" in his album "Truth".
Savoy Brown, known then as the Savoy Brown Blues Band, covered "I
Ain't Superstitious" to launch their debut album, Shake Down, in
1967.
Megadeth also covered "I Ain't Superstitious" on their album Peace
Sells... But Who's Buying? in the same form as Jeff Beck's version.
"Little Baby" was covered by the Rolling Stones
"Who's Been Talkin'" was covered by Robert Cray on the album of the
same name.
"Goin' Down Slow" was covered by Mike Finnigan on Dave Mason's live
album "Certified Live"
"Little Red Rooster" was covered by Sam Cooke in 1963, The Doors
(which appears on their live album Alive, She Cried), and by The
Rolling Stones in 1964, The Grateful Dead frequently included this
song in live shows.
Both The Yardbirds and The Animals covered "Smokestack Lightning" in
1964 and 1966 respectively.
Little Feat covered "Forty-Four Blues / How Many More Years" for their
first, self titled album, Little Feat
"Smokestack Lightning" served as the basis for The Kinks song "Last of
the Steam Powered Trains" on their 1968 album The Kinks Are the
Village Green Preservation Society.
Led Zeppelin covered "Killing Floor" in 1968-69 concerts and used the
song as the basis for "The Lemon Song" on Led Zeppelin II. "Smokestack Lightning" and "How Many More Years" served as partial blueprints for
"How Many More Times" on their 1969 debut album.
The Doors covered "Back Door Man" for their first, self titled album,
The Doors
The Electric Prunes regularly covered "Smokestack Lightnin'" in their
live shows, a recording of which can be found on their Stockholm '67
LP.
The Electric Flag recorded "Killing Floor" on their first album, with
Buddy Miles and Michael Bloomfield, both students of Wolf.
The Jimi Hendrix Experience covered "Killing Floor" at a BBC Saturday
Club radio session in 1967, a recording of which is available on their
1998 BBC Sessions compilation, and opened with it at the Monterey Pop
Festival (also in 1967). This song also served as the first jam
between Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton with the Cream when they first
met at The Polytechnic in London in 1966.
Guitar legend Mike Bloomfield used a brassy, driving arrangement of
"Killing Floor" to launch the debut album by his Electric Flag, A Long
Time Comin'. This track began with a brief excerpt from a speech by
then-U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson, then recorded applause and
laughter, before the group began to play the introduction to their
version. The Electric Flag also included a second Wolf cover, "Goin'
Down Slow," on the same album.
Cream also covered one of his songs on their double-album Wheels of
Fire. (They also covered his song, "Spoonful", on their Fresh Cream
debut album; an extended concert version appears on Wheels.) On the
first (studio) disc, Cream covered "Sitting on Top of the World". This
song has also been covered by Bob Dylan in the 1992 album Good as I
been to you. Howlin' Wolf's own version was a cover of the 1930
classic original by the Mississippi Sheiks.
Eric Clapton's subsequent band, Derek and the Dominos, included a
cover of Wolf's "Evil" as part of a planned second album that was
never completed before the quartet split up. "Evil" was one of the
surviving tracks from that project that turned up on the Clapton box
set, Crossroads, in 1988.
Soundgarden covered "Smokestack Lightning" on their first album
Ultramega OK.
Clutch covered "Who's Been Talking" on their 2005 release Robot Hive/
Exodus.
Stevie Ray Vaughan covered three Howlin' Wolf songs on his studio
albums: "Tell Me" appears on Texas Flood; "You'll be mine" (written by
Willie Dixon) on Soul to Soul and "Love Me Darlin'" on In Step.
Vaughan also played "Shake for me" (written by W.Dixon) on the live
album In the Beginning, even copying the original guitar solo, played
by Hubert Sumlin and "I'm Leaving You (Commit a Crime)" can be found
from Live-Alive album. Vaughan also covers the song "Tail Dragger" on
a few live bootlegs.
George Thorogood covered "Highway 49" and "Smokestack Lightning" on
Born to be Bad in 1988. He also covered "Howlin' for My Baby" in 1993
on Haircut.
On The Crossroads Guitar Festival DVD, "Killing Floor" was performed
by Hubert Sumlin, Eric Clapton, Robert Cray and Jimmie Vaughan. It is
quite possible that the guitar riff from the song was written by
Sumlin.
"Little Red Rooster" was covered by British alternative band The Jesus
and Mary Chain on their Sound of Speed album
PJ Harvey covered "Wang Dang Doodle" in her early years and was
released on a 2002 b-sides & rarities album
Tom Waits has covered "Who's Been Talking?" several times during live performances.
Iron & Wine released a live cover of "Smokestack Lightning" on a
compilation CD entitled Hope Isn't a Word that came with issue 15 of
the magazine Comes With a Smile.
Smokestack Lightning was a staple of early Grateful Dead shows during
the Pigpen era, and was revived by the band (with Bob Weir on vocals)
during the 1990s. The Dead also performed "Little Red Rooster," "Wang
Dang Doodle," "I Ain't Superstitious," "Meet Me In The Bottom" and
"Sitting on Top of the World" at various points in their career.
Cactus recorded their version of the song "Evil" on their 1971 album Restrictions. It also appeared on their best-of album entitled
Cactology.
Monster Magnet performed Cactus' arrangement of "Evil" on their 1993
album, Superjudge
The Who often included a fragment of Smokestack Lightning in a medley
with their cover of Johnny Kidd's Shakin' All Over. The "Smokestack
Lightning" extract was edited out of the version of "Shakin' All Over"
that appeared on the album Live At Leeds . . . but a medley of
"Shakin'" with an extract from "Spoonful" turned up on The Who Live at
the Isle of Wight.
The Radiators recorded "Sittin' On Top Of The World" on their live
double CD Earth vs. The Radiators: the First 25. They have covered
many Howlin' Wolf songs in their 4200 known live performances. "Forty-
Four Blues" and "Sittin' On Top Of The World" are long-time staples of
their live shows, having been performed over 100 times each. Other
Howlin' Wolf songs performed live by the Radiators include: "Built For Comfort", "Back Door Man", "Down In The Bottom", "Howlin' For My
Baby", "Killing Floor", "Little Red Rooster", "Shake For Me",
"Smokestack Lightning", "Spoonful", "Wang Dang Doodle" and "Who's Been Talkin'".
The Derek Trucks Band covers "Forty Four" on their 'Out of the
Madness' album and regularly live, and recently have covered "Down In
The Bottom" in their live shows.
Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac cover "No Place To Go" on their 1968 debut
album, Fleetwood Mac.
Ten Years After cover "Spoonful" on their live 1968 album, Undead
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