Howlin' Wolf

blues singer; guitarist; harmonica player

Personal Information

Born Chester Arthur Burnett, June 10, 1910, in West Point, MS; died of complications from kidney disease January 10, 1976, in Chicago, IL; son of Dock and Gertrude Burnett (plantation workers); married first wife c. l930s; married wife Lillie, c. 1950s; children (second marriage): Barbara, Betty Jean.
Religion: Southern Baptist.
Military/Wartime Service: U.S. Army, stationed in Seattle, WA.

Career

Blues singer, guitarist, and harmonica player. Toured with fellow bluesmen, including Robert Johnson and Sonny Boy Williamson c. 1930s. Worked as singer, producer, and advertising salesman at KWEM Radio in West Memphis, TN. Released first album in 1951 on Chess Records; toured the U.S. and Europe, with Chicago as his primary venue, 1952-c. 1976. Appeared in short film Wolf, 1971.

Life's Work

Howlin' Wolf, born Chester Arthur Burnett in West Point, Mississippi, was awarded an honorary doctor of arts degree from Chicago's Columbia College in June of 1972; it read: "Premiere man of American Music, you have sung and made songs of hard-time blues and mighty joys that cry to make the world fair." Howlin' Wolf--along with Muddy Waters--revolutionized urban blues in Chicago after World War II.

The raw, rasping, guttural power of Wolf's fierce voice, combined with his imposing physical presence and wild stage abandon, made him unforgettable. His influence stretched far beyond the realm of the blues; British rock performers Eric Clapton, The Rolling Stones, and The Yardbirds merged Wolf's blues with white rock and roll in songs like "Smokestack Lightening," "Ain't Superstitious," "Back Door Man" and "Little Red Rooster." Wolf was an experimental bluesman who formulated a wide range of moods and possibilities for his songs. He was also notably consistent: Throughout his career he retained the style, vigor, and flavor of the Mississippi Delta blues of his early years.

Howlin' Wolf was born June 10, 1910. He grew up one of six children on the Young and Myers cotton plantation, where both of his parents worked. The Delta farmlands were rife with the blues, which were part of most social gatherings. When Wolf was a child his grandfather would tell him stories of wolves in Mississippi. Once, something frightened the young Chester, and he ran howling upstairs, which prompted his family to dub him the Howlin' Wolf. Wolf adopted this name for himself early on, and--at 6' 3" and 300 pounds--lived up to it as an adult.

Wolf's father presented him with his first guitar when the bluesman was 18. With the exception of the World War II years, during which he served in the Army--stationed in Seattle, Washington--Wolf spent most of his adult life, until the age of 38, farming in Arkansas and Mississippi. It wasn't until his father's death in 1949 that he devoted himself entirely to the blues.

Throughout his young life Wolf had his pick of blues greats for mentors: Charlie Patton lived on a nearby plantation and taught Wolf much about showmanship. Sonny Boy Williamson married Wolf's stepsister Mary in the early thirties and showed Wolf the ins and outs of the harmonica during the courtship. Wolf himself was married briefly to Willie Brown's sister. Wolf's childhood idol was singer Jimmie Rodgers, who was noted for his "blues-yodel." Wolf tried to emulate the 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." Wolf met legendary Delta blues singer Robert Johnson in Robinsonville, Mississippi, and they played together briefly. Shortly thereafter Johnson was poisoned--by a jealous girlfriend or husband. "This is all part of the blues," Wolf reportedly remarked on hearing the news of his colleague's demise.

In 1948 Wolf formed his first band in Memphis, Tennessee. "That's where I got my break," he recounted in the New York Times. "Back in the country the people weren't able to pay you too much. Sometimes you'd work all night for a fish sandwich, glad to get it, too." At first Wolf played gigs by himself, often earning only $50 working from 7:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. He decided that it would be better to have some other musicians help take the load off of him. His first band featured Willie Steele on drums, Willie Johnson and M. T. Murphy on guitars, Junior Parker on harmonica, and Destruction on piano. Wolf would alternate between harmonica and guitar--he had taken up electric when he was in the Army--but usually concentrated on singing.

Wolf sold advertising spots at this time for the 30-minute planter's broadcast he had secured for himself on station KWEM in West Memphis. The radio show is what eventually earned him a recording contract as he had gone as far as he could by word-of-mouth reputation. Wolf grabbed the attention of Ike Turner, then a young Artists & Repertoire man for West Coast-based RPM Records. Turner produced the first Howlin' Wolf sides for that label, which in turn were used to secure a contract with Sam Phillips's Sun Records. Wolf's first hits were "How Many More Years" and "Moanin at Midnight." The masters cut for Sun were then sold to Chicago's Chess Records; Wolf went to Chicago in 1952, leaving his band behind in Memphis. He opened a small club there on 13th and Ashland to showcase local blues talent, his own included.

Wolf's animated stage presence was a departure for bluesmen at that time. He writhed, moaned, climbed up draperies, pounded on posts, rolled on the floor and was gruff and blustery in order to hammer his songs home. His vocals were menacing and sounded unnatural at times, as though a primal force propelled them from his throat. He was tremendous in presence and voice and quickly became familiar on the Chicago blues scene. He did not merely sing words: He infused them with life and feeling, transcending the limitations of blues music through the sheer force of his voice and personality.

A legendary rivalry between Howlin' Wolf and fellow Chicago blues giant Muddy Waters soon arose; much of it, however, has been blown out of proportion. Waters got Wolf his first job in Chicago. "I got in touch with him because I didn't know nobody here," Wolf reported to Peter Guralnick, as related in Feel Like Going Home. "He carried me around to the clubs and helped me get started." They shared a grudging admiration for each other. Waters led better bands, but it was Wolf who left a unique mark on everything he touched.

Some obvious evidence of the rivalry does exist: Wolf did stall and stretch out his set at Michigan's Ann Arbor Blues Festival in 1969 in an attempt to prevent Waters from getting onstage. And when Waters's Electric Mud album came out in 1968, Wolf followed with his own "psychedelic" record-- The London Howlin' Wolf Sessions --which never sat too well with Waters and was not perceived as great material. In fact Wolf himself viewed the release as disastrous, dismissed it as "birdshit," and denied having had anything to do with it. The record company maintained that it was initiated at Wolf's insistence after the success of Waters's Electric Mud.

Despite the fracas it generated, Wolf's ill-fated excursion into psychedelics was brief. From then on he continued to evoke his traditional style: the rough vocal tone, the lyrical falsetto, and a slapdash feel. He would act out the drama of "Smokestack Lightning" by sighting the train, hopping on board, and then sadly "going down slow."

Wolf was a fiercely domestic man, a provider, a volunteer within the Chicago community, and an investor in property in his native Delta country. He was a jealous husband, but his diminutive wife Lillie didn't mind one bit: She knew what Wolf was like and it suited her just fine. They had two daughters, Barbara and Betty Jean, and lived simply but comfortably in a house on Chicago's south side. Wolf was a peaceful, pensive, near-sighted man with a pipe when at home; Lillie saw little of the onstage Wolf.

Wolf had a true lust for life and his pragmatic, insightful views frequently were at odds with those trying to make a living off his talent. As a result, Wolf earned a reputation for an unpredictable and sometimes difficult temperament. He was suspicious of everyone--particularly managers--and usually for good reason. Not surprisingly, he was known to howl with rage if a situation warranted it. Wolf's forceful, stubborn personality and solid values garnered quite a lot of respect from the people at Chess Records and from other musicians as well.

Wolf never read music. He would sit on a metal chair in the studio, wearing big horn-rimmed glasses, shirt open, cradling a beat-up guitar, playing according to what sounded right to him. According to Guralnick, Wolf would say to his longtime backup guitarist Hubert Sumlin and the studio man playing lead, "I want you playing against each other, the two parts playing against each other." This usually addled the studio man--almost always a reading musician. Typically Wolf had to demonstrate what he wanted and run through it until his back-up players understood through sheer instinct.

After nearly a quarter century of remarkable performances throughout the U.S. and abroad--not to mention his famed Chicago act--Howling Wolf died peacefully, of complications arising from kidney disease, on January 10, 1976, in a Chicago hospital; he was 65. He had sung the blues almost until the time of his death, despite his illness; his last public appearance was with renowned blues guitarist B. B. King at the Chicago Amphitheater in November of 1975.

While undergoing kidney treatment in the hospital, Wolf frequently had fans smuggle forbidden foods to him. He once escaped to enjoy a full meal of meat and potatoes; no one could find him. Hours later, sated, he arrived back at the hospital licking his lips. Wolf can be heard howling his own fitting epitaph on "Smokestack Lightening"--one of the most beautiful blues songs ever written: "Fare you well, never see me here no more, oh, don't you hear me."

Awards

Honorary doctor of arts degree from Columbia College, Chicago, 1972; Montreux Festival award for album Back Door Wolf, 1975.

Works

Selective Discography

Big City Blues, United, 1966.
The Real Folk Blues (recorded c. 1956-65), Chess, 1966.
(With Hubert Sumlin, Otis Spann, Willie Dixon, and others) More Real Folk Blues (recorded c. 1953-57), Chess, 1967.
The London Howlin' Wolf Sessions (featuring Eric Clapton, Steve Winwood, and The Rolling Stones), Chess, 1971.
Message to the Young, Chess, 1971.
The Back Door Wolf, Chess, 1973.
Change My Way, Chess, 1977.
Moanin' in the Moonlight (recorded 1951-59), Chess, reissue, 1987.
Cadillac Daddy: Memphis Recordings, 1952, Rounder, 1989.
Chicago: 26 Golden Years, Chess.
His Greatest Sides, Vol. 1, Chess.
Howlin' Wolf: Moanin' in the Moonlight, Chess.
Live and Cookin' at Alice's Restaurant, Chess.
Evil, Chess.
Howlin' Wolf: Chess Blues Masters, Chess.
The Legendary Sun Performers: Howlin' Wolf (British import), Charly.
I'm the Wolf, Vogue.
This Is Howlin' Wolf's New Album (British import), Cadet C.
From Early til Late, Blue Night.
Going Back Home (British import), Syndicate Chapter.
Heart Like Railroad Steel: Rare and Unreleased Recordings, Vol. 1, Blues Ball.
Can't Put Me Out: Rare and Unreleased Recordings, Vol. 2, Blues Ball.
Ridin' in the Moonlight, Ace.
(With Funny Papa Smith) Howlin' Wolf & Funny Papa Smith, Yazoo.

Biography

In the history of the blues, there has never been anyone quite like the Howlin' Wolf. Six foot three and close to 300 pounds in his salad days, the Wolf was the primal force of the music spun out to its ultimate conclusion. A Robert Johnson may have possessed more lyrical insight, a Muddy Waters more dignity, and a B.B. King certainly more technical expertise, but no one could match him for the singular ability to rock the house down to the foundation while simultaneously scaring its patrons out of its wits.

He was born in West Point, MS, and named after the 21st President of the United States (Chester Arthur). His father was a farmer and Wolf took to it as well until his 18th birthday, when a chance meeting with Delta blues legend Charley Patton changed his life forever. Though he never came close to learning the subtleties of Patton's complex guitar technique, two of the major components of Wolf's style (Patton's inimitable growl of a voice and his propensity for entertaining) were learned first hand from the Delta blues master. The main source of Wolf's hard-driving, rhythmic style on harmonica came when Aleck "Rice" Miller (Sonny Boy Williamson) married his half-sister Mary and taught him the rudiments of the instrument. He first started playing in the early '30s as a strict Patton imitator, while others recall him at decade's end rocking the juke joints with a neck-rack harmonica and one of the first electric guitars anyone had ever seen. After a four-year stretch in the Army, he settled down as a farmer and weekend player in West Memphis, AR, and it was here that Wolf's career in music began in earnest.

By 1948, he had established himself within the community as a radio personality. As a means of advertising his own local appearances, Wolf had a 15-minute radio show on KWEM in West Memphis, interspersing his down-home blues with farm reports and like-minded advertising that he sold himself. But a change in Wolf's sound that would alter everything that came after was soon in coming because when listeners tuned in for Wolf's show, the sound was up-to-the-minute electric. Wolf had put his first band together, featuring the explosive guitar work of Willie Johnson, whose aggressive style not only perfectly suited Wolf's sound but aurally extended and amplified the violence and nastiness of it as well. In any discussion of Wolf's early success both live, over the airwaves, and on record, the importance of Willie Johnson cannot be overestimated.

Wolf finally started recording in 1951, when he caught the ear of Sam Phillips, who first heard him on his morning radio show. The music Wolf made in the Memphis Recording Service studio was full of passion and zest and Phillips simultaneously leased the results to the Bihari Brothers in Los Angeles and Leonard Chess in Chicago. Suddenly, Howlin' Wolf had two hits at the same time on the R&B charts with two record companies claiming to have him exclusively under contract. Chess finally won him over and as Wolf would proudly relate years later, "I had a 4,000 dollar car and 3,900 dollars in my pocket. I'm the onliest one drove out of the South like a gentleman." It was the winter of 1953 and Chicago would be his new home.

When Wolf entered the Chess studios the next year, the violent aggression of the Memphis sides was being replaced with a Chicago backbeat and, with very little fanfare, a new member in the band. Hubert Sumlin proved himself to be the Wolf's longest-running musical associate. He first appears as a rhythm guitarist on a 1954 session, and within a few years' time his style had fully matured to take over the role of lead guitarist in the band by early 1958. In what can only be described as an "angular attack," Sumlin played almost no chords behind Wolf, sometimes soloing right through his vocals, featuring wild skitterings up and down the fingerboard and biting single notes. If Willie Johnson was Wolf's second voice in his early recording career, then Hubert Sumlin would pick up the gauntlet and run with it right to the end of the howler's life.

By 1956, Wolf was in the R&B charts again, racking up hits with "Evil" and "Smokestack Lightnin'." He remained a top attraction both on the Chicago circuit and on the road. His records, while seldom showing up on the national charts, were still selling in decent numbers down South. But by 1960, Wolf was teamed up with Chess staff writer Willie Dixon, and for the next five years he would record almost nothing but songs written by Dixon. The magic combination of Wolf's voice, Sumlin's guitar, and Dixon's tunes sold a lot of records and brought the 50-year-old bluesman roaring into the next decade with a considerable flourish. The mid-'60s saw him touring Europe regularly with "Smokestack Lightnin'" becoming a hit in England some eight years after its American release. Certainly any list of Wolf's greatest sides would have to include "I Ain't Superstitious," "The Red Rooster," "Shake for Me," "Back Door Man," "Spoonful," and "Wang Dang Doodle," Dixon compositions all. While almost all of them would eventually become Chicago blues standards, their greatest cache occurred when rock bands the world over started mining the Chess catalog for all it was worth. One of these bands was the Rolling Stones, whose cover of "The Red Rooster" became a number-one record in England. At the height of the British Invasion, the Stones came to America in 1965 for an appearance on ABC-TV's rock music show, Shindig. Their main stipulation for appearing on the program was that Howlin' Wolf would be their special guest. With the Stones sitting worshipfully at his feet, the Wolf performed a storming version of "How Many More Years," being seen on his network-TV debut by an audience of a few million. Wolf never forgot the respect the Stones paid him, and he spoke of them highly right up to his final days.

Dixon and Wolf parted company by 1964 and Wolf was back in the studio doing his own songs. One of the classics to emerge from this period was "Killing Floor," featuring a modern backbeat and a incredibly catchy guitar riff from Sumlin. Catchy enough for Led Zeppelin to appropriate it for one of their early albums, cheerfully crediting it to themselves in much the same manner as they had done with numerous other blues standards. By the end of the decade, Wolf's material was being recorded by artists including the Doors, the Electric Flag, the Blues Project, Cream, and Jeff Beck. The result of all these covers brought Wolf the belated acclaim of a young, white audience. Chess' response to this was to bring him into the studio for a "psychedelic" album, truly the most dreadful of his career. His last big payday came when Chess sent him over to England in 1970 to capitalize on the then-current trend of London Session albums, recording with Eric Clapton on lead guitar and other British superstars. Wolf's health was not the best, but the session was miles above the earlier, ill-advised attempt to update Wolf's sound for a younger audience.

As the '70s moved on, the end of the trail started coming closer. By now Wolf was a very sick man; he had survived numerous heart attacks and was suffering kidney damage from an automobile accident that sent him flying through the car's windshield. His bandleader Eddie Shaw firmly rationed Wolf to a meager half-dozen songs per set. Occasionally some of the old fire would come blazing forth from some untapped wellspring, and his final live and studio recordings show that he could still tear the house apart when the spirit moved him. He entered the Veterans Administration Hospital in 1976 to be operated on, but never survived it, finally passing away on January 10th of that year.

But his passing did not go unrecognized. A life-size statue of him was erected shortly after in a Chicago park. Eddie Shaw kept his memory and music alive by keeping his band, the Wolf Gang, together for several years afterward. A child-education center in Chicago was named in his honor and in 1980 he was elected to the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame. In 1991, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. A couple of years later, his face was on a United States postage stamp. Live performance footage of him exists in the CD-ROM computer format. Howlin' Wolf is now a permanent part of American history. ~ Cub Koda, All Music Guide

Discography: Howlin' Wolf

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Moanin' the Blues Buy this CD	Collection Buy this CD	Legendary Masters Series Buy this CD	Rockin' the Blues Live in Germany Buy this CD	Rockin' the Blues Live in Germany Buy this CD
Rockin' the Blues Live in Germany Buy this CD	Smokestack Lightnin': Live in Germany 1964 Buy this CD	Electric Blues Buy this CD	Killing Floor [Magnum] Buy this CD	Demon Drivin' Blues Man Buy this CD
Demon Drivin' Blues Man Buy this CD	Legendary Blues Recordings: Howlin' Wolf Buy this CD	Best of Howlin' Wolf [Master Classic] Buy this CD	Goin' Down Slow Buy this CD	Real Folk Blues/More Real Folk Blues Buy this CD
Bluesmaster Buy this CD	Come Back Home Buy this CD	In Concert Buy this CD	Sings the Blues [Japan] Buy this CD	London Howlin' Wolf Sessions [Deluxe Edition] Buy this CD
1951-1952 Buy this CD	20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection: The Best of Howlin' Wolf Buy this CD	Blues Twinpack Buy this CD	Moanin' at Midnight: The Memphis Recordings Buy this CD	His Best, Vol. 2 Buy this CD
Howlin' the Blues Buy this CD	16 Classic Tracks Buy this CD	Cause of It All Buy this CD	Live at Joe's 1973 Buy this CD	Blues Biography Buy this CD
Highway 49 & Other Classics Buy this CD	Blues Giant Buy this CD	Wolf at Your Door [Arpeggio] Buy this CD	More Real Folk Blues [Japan] Buy this CD	Howlin' at the Sun Buy this CD
1952-1953 Buy this CD	Kings of the Blues Buy this CD	Best of Come Back Home Buy this CD	Sings the Blues [UK] Buy this CD	Anthology Buy this CD
Definitive Collection Buy this CD	His Best Buy this CD	Proper Introduction to Howlin' Wolf: Memphis Days Buy this CD	Howlin' Wolf [Dressed to Kill] Buy this CD	Rockin' the Blues Buy this CD
Killing Floor [Collector's Edition] Buy this CD	Ain't Gonna Be Your Dog Buy this CD	Howlin' Wolf Rides Again Buy this CD	Gold Collection Buy this CD	Chess Box Buy this CD
Memphis Days: Definitive Edition, Vol. 2 Buy this CD	Cadillac Daddy: Memphis Recordings, 1952 Buy this CD	Memphis Days: Definitive Edition, Vol. 1 Buy this CD	I Am the Wolf Buy this CD	Howlin' for My Baby [Charly] Buy this CD
Howlin' Wolf/Moanin' in the Moonlight Buy this CD	Change My Way Buy this CD	Back Door Wolf Buy this CD	Live and Cookin' at Alice's Revisited Buy this CD	London Howlin' Wolf Sessions [Bonus Tracks] Buy this CD
London Howlin' Wolf Sessions [Bonus Tracks] Buy this CD	London Howlin' Wolf Sessions Buy this CD	Howlin' Wolf Album Buy this CD	Super Super Blues Band Buy this CD	More Real Folk Blues Buy this CD
Real Folk Blues Buy this CD	Live in Cambridge, 1966 Buy this CD	Live in Europe 1964 Buy this CD	Rockin' Chair Album Buy this CD	Howlin' Wolf [1962 Chess] Buy this CD
Howlin' Wolf Sings the Blues Buy this CD	Moanin' in the Moonlight [Chess] Buy this CD

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Wikipedia: Howlin' Wolf

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"Chester Burnett" redirects here. For American football player, see Chester Burnett (American football).

Howlin' Wolf

Background information
Birth name	Chester Arthur Burnett
Also known as	Howlin' Wolf
Born	June 10, 1910(1910-06-10) White Station, Mississippi, U.S.
Died	January 10, 1976 (aged 65) Hines, Illinois, U.S.
Genres	Electric blues, Chicago blues
Occupations	Musician, songwriter
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, harmonica
Years active	1951–1976
Labels	Chess
Associated acts	Hubert Sumlin, Willie Dixon

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.^[2]

1 Early life
2 Career
3 Selective awards and recognitions
4 Discography
5 Covers
6 Music samples
7 Notes
8 References
9 Trivia
10 External links

Early life

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.

Career

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.

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".

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.

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.

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, and is sponsored by 2 Brothers Brand barbecue sauce and seasonings.

Burnett was portrayed by Eamonn Walker in the 2008 motion picture Cadillac Records.

Selective awards and recognitions

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."

Year	Title	Genre	Label	Year Inducted
Howlin' Wolf Grammy Award History^[6]
1956	Smokestack Lightning	Blues (Single)	Chess	1999

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

The Blues Foundation Awards

Year	Category	Title	Result
Howlin' Wolf: Blues Music Awards^[8]
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

Honors and Inductions

On September 17, 1994 the U.S. Post Office issued a Howlin' Wolf 29 cents commemorative postage stamp.

Year	Category	Result	Notes
Howlin' Wolf Inductions
2003	Mississippi Musicians Hall of Fame	Inducted
1991	Rock and Roll Hall of Fame	Inducted	Early Influences
1980	Blues Hall of Fame	Inducted

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

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.

Music samples

Moanin' At Midnight

Recorded at Memphis Recording Service, 14 May 1951 with Willie Johnson (guitar) and Willie Steele (drums).

Problems listening to this file? See media help.

Notes

^ allmusic ((( Howlin' Wolf > Biography )))
^ "The Immortals: The First Fifty". Rolling Stone Issue 946. Rolling Stone. http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/5939214/the_immortals_the_first_fifty.
^ ^a ^b ^c Segrest 2004, p. 19.
^ Segrest 2004, p. 20.
^ Taylor, B. Kimberly. "Howlin' Wolf Biography". www.musicianguide.com. http://www.musicianguide.com/biographies/1608000661/Howlin-Wolf.html. Retrieved 2008-12-24.
^ Grammy Hall of Fame Database
^ 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll
^ The Blues Foundation Database

References

Segrest, James; Hoffman, Mark (2004). Moanin' at Midnight, The Life and Times of Howlin' Wolf. Pantheon Books. pp. 397. ISBN 0375422463.
The Howlin' Wolf Story - The Secret History of Rock & Roll, ASIN: B0000DJZ81 (2003)

Trivia

Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (September 2008)

French singer/song writer Francis Cabrel refers to Howlin' Wolf in the song "Cent Ans de Plus" on the 1999 album "Hors-Saison". Cabrel cites the artist as one of a number of blues influences, including Charley Patton, Son House, Blind Lemon, Robert Johnson (musician), Blind Blake, Willie Dixon and Ma Rainey.
In Marvel Comics Presents #65 in 1990, in a story written by Peter Gillis; in it, the superhero Starfox finds Howlin' Wolf alive and playing on an alien planet. Starfox then reveals that he had scooped Wolf off of his deathbed, healed him using alien technology, and given him the ability to transform into a literal werewolf.[1]
Irish Rock band That Petrol Emotion titled the first song on their second album "Babble," "Chester Burnett."
American New Wave act The Knack named their second album "...But the Little Girls Understand," which is a lyric from the Willie Dixon penned Howlin' Wolf hit "Backdoor Man."
American music performer Captain Beefheart (né Don Vliet) has a voice that often seems to be modeled on that of Howlin' Wolf.
In Hey Arnold, a Nikelodeon cartoon, Howlin' Wolf is given reference by the postman in the alias of a fictitious Blues singer known as 'Raspy Wolf' a blues artist who was supposedly known for singing in a raspy voice.
Writer Nathan Singer's time-travel novel, "Chasing the Wolf," has Howlin' Wolf as a primary character. [2]
A song entitled Wolf Like Me by experimental rock band TV on the Radio was a tribute to Howlin' Wolf
Lowell George calls Burnett 'the man who invented rock & roll' in an introduction and dedication to his "Apolitical Blues" which also includes his great story of his experience and awe when he met Burnett.

External links

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Howlin' Wolf

Biography

Contents

Early life

Career

1950s

1960s

1970s

Later personal life

Legacy

Selective awards and recognitions

Grammy Hall of Fame

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

The Blues Foundation Awards

Honors and Inductions

Discography

Covers

Music samples

Notes

References

Trivia

External links