damn, son

you watch this performance and then these words about the wolf from LOST HIGHWAY really start to make sense:

More than any other musician…Howlin’ Wolf was determined to present his own music in his own way. His blues continued to reflect the conditions from which they first had sprung – for Howlin’ Wolf there was little distinction between life and art…. He accepted the adulation of the Rolling Stones…and the response of a South Side Chicago audience with equal aplomb. He put every bit of himself into his performance, whether it took place in a jammed concert hall or there were only ten people in the room.

How Many More Years - Howlin Wolf

note: billy preston on piano!

How Many More Years cut
at Sun Studios August 1951 is
one of the greatest sounds ever laid down …….. CLASSIC



ROCKMAN

Quote
Rockman
How Many More Years cut
at Sun Studios August 1951 is
one of the greatest sounds ever laid down …….. CLASSIC

yep - magnifico!

Jim Dickinson 1990 ……………………………..



ROCKMAN

ROCKMAN

Thanks for the great post. I have a bunch of Howlin' Wolf cuts on my Walkman. Used to play the hell out of the Howlin' Wolf London Sessions album. Listening to this made me realize again how lame much of what passes for popular music these days is and how much great music past and present never gets played and/or streamed unless you know/heard about and look for it.

Whenever someones asks me who my favorite bluesman is, the answer has always been Howlin' Wolf without hesitation and as far back as I can remember.
Of course there's hundreds and thousands of other greats I love, but the Wolf is a giant in every sense of the word.



_____________________________________________________________
Rip this joint, gonna save your soul, round and round and round we go......

All the stuff cut at Sun 1951-1952 is Essential.....

Along with all the stuff that Joe Birari RPM Records who
flew down from LA to record Wolf in Memphis 1951-1952 at
KWEM and two sessions at a private house in West Memphis ….Essential ….

Wolf didn't record at Chess till March 1954 …



ROCKMAN

i've always thought that there was NO better demonstration of the racism endemic to american society than the mind-blowing discrepancy of the popularity of brit invasion bands vs the black american musicians they emulated/stole from.

i mean, performances like the ones cited here by wolf, or others by jimmy reed or elmore james or chuck berry or little richard or muddy waters ... well, they are just musically more meaningful, heartfelt, and accomplished than the pale-by-comparison versions by brit bands that rocketed up the charts.

i don't mean to suggest that brit invasion bands themselves were guilty of racism -- in fact, i've always thought the stones' insistence on wolf's appearing on shindig with them was arguably their proudest moment. but, my god, when you look at that wolf shindig clip ... what other conclusion can you come to about its relative unpopularity? the blues music produced by american black artists was/is superior ... america's preference for - relatively speaking, of course - watered-down, safer versions of the same material was all - or mostly - about the skin color of the people making the music.

ROCKMAN

I don't think racism was a factor in the popularity of the British Invasion act over the original blues artists.
First, consider that jazz was one of the most popular forms of American music before the rock era. The polish of jazz was preferred to the rawness of blues. Black artists like Duke Ellington and Louie Armstrong became stars.
Second, what made the British Invasion acts so popular was that there was a huge audience of young people. The Beatles, the Stones, all those acts ... what made them was teen-agers buying their records, and then growing up and continueing to buy their records. Teen-agers weren't going to buy records made by old men. And the lyrical content was beyond their comprehension.
They did buy records by the score from the black artists coming out of the Motown universe.
Those teenagers and their buying habits routed the music of their parents.
And the Stones, Beatles, etc. weren't really playing blues. Even the Stones owed more to Tin Pan Alley than they did to the Mississippi Delta. The Stones are a popular music act that draws on blues, country, folk, even show biz tunes. If the Stones hadn't moved beyond playing blues covers, they wouldn't have made it.

Cadillac Boogie is a good one too

Quote
LazarusSmith
i've always thought that there was NO better demonstration of the racism endemic to american society than the mind-blowing discrepancy of the popularity of brit invasion bands vs the black american musicians they emulated/stole from.

i mean, performances like the ones cited here by wolf, or others by jimmy reed or elmore james or chuck berry or little richard or muddy waters ... well, they are just musically more meaningful, heartfelt, and accomplished than the pale-by-comparison versions by brit bands that rocketed up the charts.

i don't mean to suggest that brit invasion bands themselves were guilty of racism -- in fact, i've always thought the stones' insistence on wolf's appearing on shindig with them was arguably their proudest moment. but, my god, when you look at that wolf shindig clip ... what other conclusion can you come to about its relative unpopularity? the blues music produced by american black artists was/is superior ... america's preference for - relatively speaking, of course - watered-down, safer versions of the same material was all - or mostly - about the skin color of the people making the music.

It is not the fault of Brittons that the USA is so racist by nature. If Americans didn't realize what a huge musical legacy they were sittin their asses on, one cannot blame that some English dudes showing that to them. Anyway, the blues was adult's music, and by the time of British Invasion, as a genre expressing the black American experience, already dying off. The British bands made that pop music, loved by teenagers. The Stones can make "Little Red Rooster" as #1, Wolf can't. For me comparing the British schoolboy version to the real deal has always been stupid. Keith Richards has never been any "blues man". Talk is cheap.

- Doxa



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2019-05-16 17:28 by Doxa.

Decent bio of The Wolf:
[www.youtube.com]

Isn't James Burton (later of Elvis' TCB band) playing guitar on the Shindig version?

Application for membership to the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, signed by Howlin' Wolf, as both Wolf and his legal name, Chester Burnett for his appearance on Shindig.
Note he gives his address as 2120 South Michigan Avenue!




"As we say in England, it can get a bit trainspottery"

that's what I have gear along with Delaney Bramlett. I can't think of the piano play off hand but I used to know that

Quote
Happy Jack
Isn't James Burton (later of Elvis' TCB band) playing guitar on the Shindig version?

Quite possibly. He was in the Shindig house band, along with:

Glen D. Hardin (piano),
Chuck Blackwell (drums),
Joey Cooper (guitar, vocals),
Delaney Bramlett (guitar, vocals, bass)

Apparently, they called themselves The Shindogs! But I'm not sure if it was The Shindogs alone backing up Wolf on that episode, since Billy Preston is clearly seen on keys, so maybe Wolf brought some of his peeps and some of the house guys played too.

It wasn't racism. Even black audiences weren't buying the blues in 1965.

Quote
wonderboy
It wasn't racism. Even black audiences weren't buying the blues in 1965.

Interesting. What evidence is there for that? These guys had careers, right? Somebody must've been buying their records and going to their shows. My point is just that those numbers were miniscule compared to the acceptance of the Brit Invasion bands.

Quote
LazarusSmith

Quote
wonderboy
It wasn't racism. Even black audiences weren't buying the blues in 1965.

Interesting. What evidence is there for that? These guys had careers, right? Somebody must've been buying their records and going to their shows. My point is just that those numbers were miniscule compared to the acceptance of the Brit Invasion bands.

They had careers playing clubs and selling a few records. I'm just saying there was never any kind of mass audience for blues music.
The British Invasion acts were not playing the blues. So the idea that American audiences rejected Howlin' Wolf for the Rolling Stones is just not true.
The British Invasion acts were playing pop-based rock and roll, which had been around for years.

Quote
wonderboy

Quote
LazarusSmith

Quote
wonderboy
It wasn't racism. Even black audiences weren't buying the blues in 1965.

Interesting. What evidence is there for that? These guys had careers, right? Somebody must've been buying their records and going to their shows. My point is just that those numbers were miniscule compared to the acceptance of the Brit Invasion bands.

They had careers playing clubs and selling a few records. I'm just saying there was never any kind of mass audience for blues music.
The British Invasion acts were not playing the blues. So the idea that American audiences rejected Howlin' Wolf for the Rolling Stones is just not true.
The British Invasion acts were playing pop-based rock and roll, which had been around for years.

So who else at the time - early 60's - was playing "pop-based rock and roll"? Little Richard? Chuck Berry? Is it fair to wonder whether the color of their skin had anything to do with their record sales in comparison to the Brits?

Also, just to be clear, I'm not saying that American audiences "rejected Howlin' Wolf for the Rolling Stones." I'm sayin that that white American audiences had already rejected Howlin' Wolf (by ignoring him) long before The Rolling Stones came on the scene ... and then when they did come on the scene those same audiences decided that "blues-based" music was just peachy.

Quote
LazarusSmith

Quote
wonderboy

Quote
LazarusSmith

Quote
wonderboy
It wasn't racism. Even black audiences weren't buying the blues in 1965.

Interesting. What evidence is there for that? These guys had careers, right? Somebody must've been buying their records and going to their shows. My point is just that those numbers were miniscule compared to the acceptance of the Brit Invasion bands.

They had careers playing clubs and selling a few records. I'm just saying there was never any kind of mass audience for blues music.
The British Invasion acts were not playing the blues. So the idea that American audiences rejected Howlin' Wolf for the Rolling Stones is just not true.
The British Invasion acts were playing pop-based rock and roll, which had been around for years.

So who else at the time - early 60's - was playing "pop-based rock and roll"? Little Richard? Chuck Berry? Is it fair to wonder whether the color of their skin had anything to do with their record sales in comparison to the Brits?

Also, just to be clear, I'm not saying that American audiences "rejected Howlin' Wolf for the Rolling Stones." I'm sayin that that white American audiences had already rejected Howlin' Wolf (by ignoring him) long before The Rolling Stones came on the scene ... and then when they did come on the scene those same audiences decided that "blues-based" music was just peachy.

Little Richard and Chuck Berry sold a lot of records. Black acts sold many, many records in the '60s. Marvin Gaye sold a bunch of records; without looking it up, 'What's Going On' probably outsold 'Sticky Fingers in 1971. Motown Acts sold big. The Supremes had more No. 1 hits than the Stones.
I think when you look at the history of music in the '50s and '60s, you see music audiences rejecting racism.
People didn't buy Howlin' Wolf because it's not crossover music, it's too raw and appeals to a narrow audience. It's very limited. And when the Stones, etc., supposedly put the spotlight on Howlin' Wolf, even black people didn't suddenly start buying his records.

Quote
LazarusSmith

Quote
Happy Jack
Isn't James Burton (later of Elvis' TCB band) playing guitar on the Shindig version?

Quite possibly. He was in the Shindig house band, along with:

Glen D. Hardin (piano),
Chuck Blackwell (drums),
Joey Cooper (guitar, vocals),
Delaney Bramlett (guitar, vocals, bass)

Apparently, they called themselves The Shindogs! But I'm not sure if it was The Shindogs alone backing up Wolf on that episode, since Billy Preston is clearly seen on keys, so maybe Wolf brought some of his peeps and some of the house guys played too.

I just love the way Brian is just about hopping with excitement as he introduces Wolf! Fan-bloody-tastic.

--
Captain Corella
60 Years a Fan