Coordinates | 55°45′06″N37°37′04″N |
---|---|
name | Howlin' Wolf |
background | solo_singer |
birth name | Chester Arthur Burnett |
alias | Howlin' Wolf |
born | June 10, 1910White Station, Mississippi, United States |
died | January 10, 1976Hines, Illinois, United States |
instrument | Vocals, guitar, harmonica |
genre | Electric blues, Chicago blues |
occupation | Musician, songwriter |
years active | 1951–1976 |
label | Chess |
associated acts | Hubert Sumlin, Willie Dixon |
notable instruments | }} |
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." A number of songs written or popularized by Burnett—such as "Smokestack Lightnin'", "Back Door Man", "Killing Floor" and "Spoonful"—have become blues and blues rock standards.
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. 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. 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, "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".
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." His harmonica playing was modeled after that of Rice Miller (also known as Sonny Boy Williamson II), who had taught him how to play when Howlin Wolf had moved to Parkin, Arkansas, in 1933.
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. 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 formed a band which included guitarists Willie Johnson and Matt "Guitar" Murphy, harmonica player Junior Parker, a pianist remembered only as "Destruction" and drummer Willie Steele. He began broadcasting on KWEM in West Memphis, Arkansas, alternating between performing and pitching equipment on his father's farm after his family's move to this area in the same year. Eventually, Sam Phillips discovered him and ended up signing him for Memphis Recording Service in 1951.Matt "Guitar" Murphy played with Wolf teaching him to play on time. Matt says sometimes he played 13 bars and sometimes 14 and Murphy would cut through to show him how to stay in time, getting it down to 12 bars. Wolf regularly made up lyrics about the band on stage, sometimes in jest and sometimes hurtful. Murphy arranged for Junior Parker to join Wolf's band. Later Parker and Murphy both left to form "The Blue Flames", the name chosen by Murphy.
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; "Smokestack Lightning" charted for three weeks in 1956, peaking at #8; and "I Asked For Water (She Gave Me Gasoline)" 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.
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".
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 Bettye and Barbara, Lillie's two daughters from an earlier relationship.
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.
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 festival grounds known as Waverly Waters Resort.
A popular music venue in New Orleans, Louisiana was named The Howlin' Wolf when it opened in 1988.
Burnett was portrayed by Eamonn Walker in the 2008 motion picture Cadillac Records.
{| class=wikitable |- | colspan=5 align=center | Howlin' Wolf Grammy Award History |- ! Year ! Title ! Genre ! Label ! Year Inducted |- align=center | 1956 | Smokestack Lightning | Blues (Single) | Chess | 1999 |- align=center |}
{| class=wikitable |- ! Year Recorded ! Title |- align=center | 1956 | Smokestack Lightning |- align=center | 1960 | Spoonful |- align=center | 1962 | The Red Rooster |- align=center |}
{| class=wikitable |- | colspan=5 align=center | Howlin' Wolf Inductions |- ! Year ! Category ! Result ! Notes |- align=center | 2003 | Mississippi Musicians Hall of Fame | Inducted |- align=center | 1991 | Rock and Roll Hall of Fame | Inducted | Early Influences |- align=center | 1980 | Blues Hall of Fame | Inducted |- align=center |}
Category:1910 births Category:1976 deaths Category:African American musicians Category:African American singers Category:African American guitarists Category:African American songwriters Category:Country blues singers Category:Blues musicians from Mississippi Category:American buskers Category:American blues musicians Category:American blues guitarists Category:American male singers Category:Songwriters from Mississippi Category:Chicago blues musicians Category:Electric blues musicians Category:Blues Hall of Fame inductees Category:Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Category:Sun Records artists Category:Charly Records artists Category:RPM Records artists Category:Chess Records artists Category:People from Clay County, Mississippi Category:People from Memphis, Tennessee
bg:Хаулин Уулф ca:Howlin' Wolf cs:Howlin' Wolf da:Howlin' Wolf de:Howlin’ Wolf es:Howlin' Wolf fr:Howlin' Wolf it:Howlin' Wolf he:האולין וולף hu:Howlin' Wolf nl:Howlin' Wolf ja:ハウリン・ウルフ no:Howlin' Wolf pl:Howlin' Wolf pt:Howlin' Wolf ru:Хаулин Вулф sr:Хаулин Вулф fi:Howlin' Wolf sv:Howlin' Wolf uk:Хаулін ВульфThis text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
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