RE: [Harp-L] Howlin Wolf

["Bill Hines" <billhines4@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I like the interview at http://www.howlinwolf.com/songs/songs.htm where Wolf
talks about his friendship and relationship with Muddy Waters, including
when Muddy pulled a gun on him. It's a short but good interview.

-----Original Message-----
From: harp-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx [mailto:harp-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf
Of david j. brown
Sent: Sunday, December 12, 2004 11:20 PM
To: Dan; harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [Harp-L] Howlin Wolf


I love all the Chixago guys (local bias) but for me Wolf was the most "South
side" of 'em all: 1. He was nuts. 2. He put on a show like a maniac.
Creeping onto stage with his eyes bulging out and his face all contorted
like it was going to explode. 3. That voice. Man, that voice sounded like a
train wreck and so it was ....perfect. 4. He had that menace....a little
danger... in his attitude. Muddy was like a statesman but Wolf looked like
you owed him a lot of money and he just found you alone in an alley. There's
a photo of him in Peter Guralnick's book "lost Highway" (p.281). Wolf is
standing on a porch holding a cigarette and looking down at the camera. He's
got that "what the fu**k you lookin' at?"look on his face. And his harp
playing reflected all that attitude too. He had a definite Rice Miller
influenece in his playing which suggested his Southern roots but at times
Wolf would really torture his harps in a way that set his style apart from
Miller's.

 

"Smokestack Lightning" is in my top 5 blues songs of all time and the sound
of his harp fading out with that ghostly reverb at the end gives me chills
every time. 

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