|
|
| Ten Thousand Motels |
Howlin' Wolf
By Buddy Guy
That man was the natural stuff. When I first heard Howlin' Wolf's records, I thought that deep, scratchy voice was a fake voice, just the way he sang -- until I met him. He said, "Hello," and I thought, "Uh-oh, this isn't fake. This is for real." Wolf's conversation was the same as his singing. Matter of fact, the first time I met him, I started tapping my feet as he was talking.
His first big records, like "Moanin' at Midnight" and "How Many More Years" -- I'd hear them on the radio when I was still in Louisiana, on WLAC out of Nashville. We had an old battery-powered radio, and we'd listen to this half-hour program that came on at night. I'd hear the man's voice and try to picture what he looked like. I thought he was a big, light-skinned guy. Then I went up to Chicago -- September 25th, 1957. The next year, I was meeting all of the great blues musicians: Muddy Waters, Sonny Boy Williamson, Howlin' Wolf. And when I saw Wolf, yes, he was a big guy. But he wasn't light-skinned at all. Boy, was I wrong.
And he used to put on such a show. He would get down on the floor, crawl like a wolf and sing in that voice: "I'm a tail dragger." They've got some film on him. They taped him when we were doing the American Folk-Blues Festival tours in Europe in the 1960s, and the Rolling Stones got him on the rock & roll television show Shindig [in 1965]. He would do this boogie-woogie thing, around and around -- like the kids used to do with the hula hoops, where you had to go around and around at your waist, to keep the hoop going. That was the kind of shit he was doing. I'd see that and think, "Man, there goes the Wolf."
He was so exciting to be on a show with. Wolf was a big man, but he could really move. It was like when the Chicago Bears had that player the Refrigerator. People think football players can't move when they're that big. And people expected the Wolf, because he was such a big guy, to just sit in a chair and belt it out. No, man, he had all that action. He had everything you wanted to see. He'd crawl around, jump around. His fists were as big as a car tire. And he would ball that fist up. When I started getting calls to come and play on some cuts behind him, I'd think, "Oh, shit, I better play right." I'd heard he was mean. I was told that. But, you know, I never had a cross word with the man the whole time, right up to when he passed away.
The reason I got a chance to play on sessions with him -- on songs like "Killing Floor," "Built for Comfort" and "300 Pounds of Joy," and a lot of musicians better than me didn't get those dates -- was because they would come in thinking, "This is my opportunity to blow the Wolf offstage." There was no way I could say that. This was my opportunity to learn something from the Wolf. But Wolf was not a demanding person. If you played something that made him smile, he would look back at you with that smile. When he did, to me, I was getting paid.
I played with Muddy, too, and it was so great to play with both of them. I heard a rumor that Wolf and Muddy didn't get along -- I never saw that. Jimmy Rogers, who played in Muddy's band, used to laugh and joke about what Wolf had to say about Muddy and what Muddy would say back. But all of them talked bad about each other, calling everyone "motherfucker." That was their thing. With musicians, "motherfucker" was the love word. And when Wolf said, "Motherfucker, you can't play," what he was really saying was, "I'm gonna fire your ass up. If I tell you you can't play, then you're gonna bring it on." This is the way Wolf treated you. That would signify for you to show your shit.
Everything you wanted was right there, touchable to me, in that voice -- even when Wolf wasn't singing. We used to have these Blue Mondays in Chicago that would start at seven o'clock in the morning. That's when we'd all get together after playing and just do a conversation, man. I would sit and listen to Wolf talk. It didn't have to be about music. He loved fishing, he loved sports. To me, it all sounded like music from heaven.
People don't know him the way they should now. When Muddy died, they interviewed me on television, and they asked me, "What should be done?" I said most cities with famous musicians, like Chicago -- they end up naming a street or something after them. And they got the street that Muddy lived on most of his life named after him. But it never happened for Wolf. And the younger generation coming up now -- if you don't talk about the music or the artists, they don't know them. My children didn't know who I was until they were twenty-one and were able to come in the clubs and see me.
We got to go back and do some digging. We have to let people know that Howlin' Wolf -- and Muddy and Little Walter and all these cats -- made Chicago the world capital of the blues. Chess Records is a landmark. But who made Chess Records? What about those people we done forgot about, like Wolf?
(From RS 972, April 21, 2005)
|
|
|
| parmeda |
Thanks 10K
I personally think that if any of you are ever in Chicago during the month of January (when Buddy plays his Club practically every night!), you have to make a pit-stop into Buddy Guy's Legends. He is very accessable and tells the best stories! It's true that "motherfucker" is a 'key word' when best describing any one of the great blues legends...and Buddy holds no prisoners in doing so. |
|
|
| glencar |
The Muddy Waters bio (I Can't Be Satisfied) was all about how Howling & Muddy didn't get along. Interesting article, nonetheless. |
|
|
| PolkSalad |
quote:
parmeda wrote:
Thanks 10K
I personally think that if any of you are ever in Chicago during the month of January (when Buddy plays his Club practically every night!), you have to make a pit-stop into Buddy Guy's Legends. He is very accessable and tells the best stories! It's true that "motherfucker" is a 'key word' when best describing any one of the great blues legends...and Buddy holds no prisoners in doing so.
Once was enough. No desire to see the "I can play, the Hook, Hendrix, SRV" show. Maybe he doesn't do that for the blooze crowd anymore. |
|
|
| FPM C10 |
quote:
PolkSalad wrote:
Once was enough. No desire to see the "I can play, the Hook, Hendrix, SRV" show. Maybe he doesn't do that for the blooze crowd anymore.
I haven't seen Buddy live, but since he INVENTED a lot of the stuff Hendrix and SRV borrowed from him, and was a contemporary of John Lee Hooker, I guess I'd cut him some slack.
I think seeing him on his home turf might be a totally different experience. I read that he does little or no preparation when he plays at his club, just gets up and does what he feels like doing on any given night.
Buddy's not my favorite, but I can't be blase about the first generation Chicago blues legends who are left. They aren't going to be around forever, and when they're gone there's no replacing them. |
|
|
| J.J.Flash |
Absolutely good article Motels!
Man.....I always enjoy reading about the likes of Howlin' Wolf, Sonny Boy, Muddy and Buddy Guy. Man, Buddy Guy is one of the most humble guys in the music scene.....love you muttafucka... |
| April 12th, 2005 04:20 PM |
|
|
| Barney Fife |
quote:
PolkSalad wrote:
Once was enough. No desire to see the "I can play, the Hook, Hendrix, SRV" show. Maybe he doesn't do that for the blooze crowd anymore.
Word. |
| April 12th, 2005 05:18 PM |
|
|
| Riffhard |
quote:
FPM C10 wrote:
I haven't seen Buddy live, but since he INVENTED a lot of the stuff Hendrix and SRV borrowed from him, and was a contemporary of John Lee Hooker, I guess I'd cut him some slack.
...... but I can't be blase about the first generation Chicago blues legends who are left. They aren't going to be around forever, and when they're gone there's no replacing them.
Yo Barney and PolkSalad. Here's the word! Word motherfucker,WORD!!!
Riffhard |
| April 13th, 2005 05:50 AM |
|
|
| Ten Thousand Motels |
Howlin Wolf photos link..
http://www.howlingwolfphotos.com/
[Edited by Ten Thousand Motels] |
| April 13th, 2005 10:32 AM |
|
|
| Ten Thousand Motels |
quote:
FPM C10 wrote:
They aren't going to be around forever, and when they're gone there's no replacing them.
That's for sure, throw in Albert King, John Lee Hooker, Eddie Kirkland and a few others and I'd say that's one hard act to follow. It'll take another billion years to put that much talent on the same table, on the same planet at the same time again. |
| April 13th, 2005 04:35 PM |
|
|
| parmeda |
quote:
Riffhard wrote:
Yo Barney and PolkSalad. Here's the word! Word motherfucker,WORD!!!
Riffhard
I adore you...*bows profusely at Riffy's feet* |
|
CHAT
ROOM aka THE FUN HOUSE] [
RESTROOMS]