From:   "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Mon Jun 10, 2002  1:14 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Howlin' Wolf
 
HOWLIN' WOLF (By Shaun Mather)

Born Chester Arthur Burnett, 10 June 1910, White Station, Mississippi
Died 10 January 1976, Chicago, Illinois

If you're unsure as to how good blues singer Howlin' Wolf was, the fact that
Sam Phillips always refers to him as the greatest artist he ever worked with
should put things in perspective. His records for the Sun and Chess labels
in the 50's and 60's have stood the test of time and should still not be
listened to with the lights off. The man was a mountain bear and his
booming voice (if that's the right word!) was ferocious. He was a major
influence on an untold number of groups, none more so than the Rolling
Stones.
Named after the 21st President of the United States (Chester Arthur) he
worked the farm land like his father, until he became aware of blues legend
Charley Patton. Wolf took great inspiration from Patton and harp player
Rice Miller (aka Sonny Boy Williamson) who'd married his half-sister Mary
and gave Wolf his first lessons on the instrument. After serving in the
Army for four years, he went back to the farm and played weekends in West
Memphis, Arkansas, where he began to concentrate on his music.
By 1948, he had become a radio personality on KWEM in West Memphis,
where he formed his first band with the dynamic guitarist Willie Johnson.
In 1951, he started recording in the Memphis Recording Service studio for Sam
Phillips. What Sam heard must have sent shivers down his spine, this was a
city block and a million miles from the big bands he'd heard on the rooftop
of the Peabody Hotel. Phillips leased his records to both the Biharis in LA
and Chess in Chicago. When they both had hits at the same time on the R&B
charts with the same artist they both claimed to have exclusive rights to him.
He wound up on Chess and after cutting more amazingly powerful stuff in
Memphis, moved to Chicago in the winter of 1953.
The Chess sound was less manic with his controlled force matched by some
inspired guitar work from Hubert Sumlin. The Wolf hit the R&B charts with
songs like Smokestack Lightnin' and I Asked For Water (both # 8, 1956) and
started using the songs of Willie Dixon. The deadly line-up resulted in more
classics like I Ain't Superstitious, The Red Rooster, Back Door Man, Spoonful
and Wang Dang Doodle. As with a lot of original bluesmen, their fame became
more widespread after the British Invasion, where bands either covered blues
classics or better still, took them out on tour and introduced them to a new
audience. When the Stones went to America in 1965 for an appearance on
ABC-TV's rock music show, Shindig, they would only do so on the condition
that Howlin' Wolf could be their special guest. After the split from Dixon in
1964
he tried new sounds, but the results were more erratic (not counting Killing
Floor!).
By the late 60's he'd even tried his hand at a disastrously ill-advised
psychedelic
album, but fared better with London Sessions, an album recorded with a crop
of British disciples in 1972.
By the 70's he was in poor health and had suffered heart attacks and kidney
damage from a car smash that had flung him through the car's windshield. He
entered the Veterans Administration Hospital at the start of 1976 but never
survived the operation. A life-size statue of him was erected shortly after
in a Chicago park and a child-education center in Chicago was named in his
honor. In 1980 he was elected to the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame and in
1991, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and he's even been
on a US postage stamp. It was one hell of a life for a poor Mississippi farm
hand.

Recommended listening:
Howlin' At The Sun - Charley.
Ain't Gonna Be Your Dog - MCA Chess (2CD).
Live & Cookin' at Alice's Revisited - Chess.
Cadillac Daddy: Memphis Recordings, 1952 - Rounder.
Memphis Days: Definitive Edition, Vols 1&2 - Bear Family.
Official website: http://www.howlinwolf.com/
Forthcoming biography (probably 2003): James Segrest and Mark Hoffman,
Moanin' at midnight : the life of Howlin' Wolf.