| September 26th, 2004 04:37 PM |
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| MarthaMyDear |
Howlin' at the moon
A complex portrait of one of American blues' greatest legends
By Michael Cote, Camera Staff Writer
September 26, 2004
http://www.dailycamera.com/bdc/books/article/0,1713,BDC_2516_3207099,00.html
Sun Records founder Sam Phillips always will be remembered for being the man who discovered Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis. But the late music maverick considered blues legend Howlin' Wolf his greatest find.
The Rolling Stones, who demanded "the Wolf" be allowed to appear with them during their first TV appearance in the'60s, would agree. Chester Arthur Burnett was a 6-foot-3 hulk of a man who weighed more than 300 pounds and had a voice that sounded like he coughed it up from the bottom of a coal mine.
Through both the songs credited to him ("Smokestack Lightning," "Moanin' in the Moonlight") and those written for him by Willie Dixon ("Wang Dang Doodle" "Little Red Rooster"), Wolf put his stamp on a body of music that helped fuse the electric blues with early rock and roll.
James Segrest and Mark Hoffman, who were both contributors to the defunct Boulder-based magazine Blues Access, have given the Wolf his due in a definitive biography culled from interviews with his relatives, friends and musical associates, including his longtime band member, guitarist Hubert Sumlin. "Moanin' at Midnight: The Life and Times of Howlin' Wolf" offers an excellent literary companion to the "The Howlin' Wolf Story" documentary released earlier this year on DVD, which featured narration by Hoffman.
The Wolf was a musical giant in every way, sharing the Chicago blues crown with Muddy Waters in the'50s and influencing dozens of British rock artists in the'60s, including the Kinks, Fleetwood Mac and the Yardbirds. You can also hear Wolf's influence in the singing styles of Taj Mahal and Captain Beefheart and in radio voice of the late Wolfman Jack, the authors note.
Although Segrest and Hoffman never pretend they're detached observers, they don't let their devotion for the blues legend keep them from offering a compelling portrait of a man who could be as irritable and downright mean as he was generous and warm.
The same man who would "fine" one of his musicians for showing up late or arriving drunk also was among the first bandleaders to deduct Social Security and unemployment tax from them, ensuring they had a source of income in their later years. Wolf operated his band like a business — this coming from a man who didn't learn to read until long into adulthood.
Burnett was born in 1910 and worked as a sharecropper in Mississippi. He had been performing music for years at juke joints and house parties before finally getting a chance to record for Sun Records in Memphis when he was in his late 30s. His first single release, "Moanin' at Midnight/How Many More Years," was an instant R&B hit, and soon Wolf was wooed to Chicago by Chess Records, which had been leasing his music from Phillips.
Unlike the glory years for the most popular rock and roll stars, Wolf's greatest fame seldom lifted him from the blues circuit of playing dive clubs for modest pay. He enjoyed the royalty treatment along with some of his blues peers in the mid-'60s thanks to a couple of package tours in Europe, where audiences treated the black musicians with far more reverence than they ever received in their native country.
Wolf's technical skills as a musician were modest. He played guitar on stage but rarely on his records, and his harmonica style was built on a mighty tone rather than virtuosity. He never once altered his style, except when it was forced upon him by his record company. But his primitive blues came from deep inside him.
"Nobody I heard before him or after him has had that fantastic delivery," B.B. King says in his introduction to the book, "that certain something in his voice that seemed like a sword that'd pierce your soul when he'd sing."
[Edited by MarthaMyDear] |
| September 26th, 2004 04:52 PM |
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| J.J.Flash |
Thank you Martha, great article. I was listening to Howlin Wolf a couple of hours ago and coincidentaly enough, I was talking about Wolf in another thread.... |
| September 26th, 2004 09:55 PM |
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| Mr Hess |
Great post!!
I was just listening to the remastered 'Howlin Wolf-The London Sessions' yesterday.
Plus I had the pleasure of seeing him live back in 1975. |
| September 26th, 2004 10:09 PM |
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| MarthaMyDear |
RIGHT ON!!!  Well, then!!! I'll post news
articles more fricking often!!! Thanks for the
positivity!!! It's much appreciated!!!
ROCK ON!!!  PEACE!!!
*** Martha *** |
| September 26th, 2004 10:57 PM |
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| Soldatti |
Great article, thanks for post it. |
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