Music |
Howlin’ Wolf
By
Published: May 30, 2023
Category:
Blues
Sex. As the reward for surviving the day. As intimate touch, souls connecting through flesh, a magic communion, maybe the closest we can come to the Divine. Or just rabid pleasure, bodies locked in primal embrace.
The music of Howlin’ Wolf falls into the last category.
He described himself as “300 pounds of muscle and man,” but that was too modest. Howlin’ Wolf’s music is blunt as an unlocked back door — as he sang, “The men don’t know, but the little girls understand.” I trust Bonnie Raitt’s take:
“If I had to pick one person who does everything I loved about the blues, it would be Howlin’ Wolf. It would be the size of his voice, or just the size of him. When you’re a little pre-teenage girl and you imagine what a naked man in full arousal is like, it’s Howlin’ Wolf. When I was a kid, I saw a horse in a field with an erection, and I went, “Holy shit!” That’s how I feel when I hear Howlin’ Wolf — and when I met him, it was the same thing. He was the scariest, most deliciously frightening bit of male testosterone I’ve ever experienced in my life.”
Let’s start with “Dust My Broom.” Watch.
The irony is that Howlin’ Wolf — Chester Arthur Burnett (1910 -1976) — was nothing like his stage persona. Although he was functionally illiterate until he was in his 40s, he left Mississippi in a car he owned with $4,000 in his pocket. In Chicago, he had his pick of musicians because of he paid them top dollar and made Social Security contributions. He had one wife, was a devoted family man. He saved his money, was a volunteer fireman, joined the Masons.
But when he stepped on stage….as one blues critic put it, “If you want to know what stage presence is, just point at Howlin’ Wolf and divide by ten!” [To buy the “Absolutely Essential 3 CD Collection” from Amazon, click here.]
I saw Howlin’ Wolf once, at a deb party in Washington in 1964. The host was with the CIA. He’d worked on the attempted assassination of Fidel Castro; during the Vietnam war, he was involved with a counter-terrorism program that included torture and murder of Vietcong fighters. Of course I knew none of this in 1964. Looking back, though, I can’t help but marvel at the collision of worlds — chic, cynical Washingtonians shaking and thrusting to the music of a black Mississippi farm boy. Only in America!
The CIA potentate would die on a tennis court. Howlin’ Wolf went on to influence and record with the Rolling Stones [How rare is this? Watch.] and Eric Clapton. [Here’s “Spoonful,” recorded long before Cream. Watch.] I’ll bet very few readers know the name of the party host. Wolf is immortal. I love that
BONUS VIDEO
a thrilling recreation of a Howlin’ Wolf recording session in the terrific movie, “Cadillac Records.” Watch.
