Howling wolf - No bucketmoon

Chester Arthur Burnett is a name of a lawyer. Maybe a traveling salesman. Not really a big blues name. any wonder he is known only a "howling wolf"?

By and large–and in his case, very large–the beginnings of rock ’n’ roll can be traced back to the day in July 1951 when a 6-foot-3, nearly 300-pound black man named Chester Burnett first entered a recording studio in Memphis, Tennessee...." (Moanin’ at Midnight, Segrest / Hoffman)

Chief howling wolf. Howling at the moon. Alone. Brave. Strong. Independent. It is just the perfect name, and it was a time when these things really worked.

I cant realy see any singer these days calling himself anything as interesting as howling wolf, or anything as simple and direct as that name which encompasses everything you need to know about dear old Chester.

I don't play anything but the blues, but now I could never make no money on nothin' but the blues. That's why I wasn't interested in nothin' else."

I love his howling. And I know most blues players and singers share this admiration, as he is widely accepted as the 'this is how it's done' role model for real blues. Not to mention all the rock bands that adopted his songs and made them their own.

He was the blues, and he wrote the blues, so by playing his material, they got not only the recognition but that needed brush with what is the blues.

A lot of people here say, what it the blues? I hear people saying, the blues, the blues, the blues. Well I tell you what the blues is, when you ain’t got no money and you can’t pay your house rent and can’t buy you no food, you damn sure got the blues..."

There is not much else I have to say about the howling wolf. I don’t know his story. I don’t need to. I don’t want to.

All I know is that he is out there, under the full moon, standing on the line of the ridge with his menacing figure holding the guitar close to his chest and howls. Howls like no one has even howled before and probably would never howl again. Howled like a wolf. For us.

Smokestack lightning - http://youtu.be/A1FK620bS7A
Smokestack lightning (the who) http://youtu.be/mahxhAo9SVs
Backdoor man  http://youtu.be/HTAc62476f4
Backdoor man (the doors) http://youtu.be/4-EIi7ToTkA
Wang dang doodle http://youtu.be/nEjUfu9-W-w
Spoonful http://youtu.be/tyfgb9sDT1I