Friday, June 15, 2018

Howlin' Wolf

From July 13, 2012: The second Friday profile.  As one may see, it is slightly more expanded from the first, but not quite there, yet.


Sometimes after a performance the adrenaline is so strong that you can't stop. This is especially true when you have creative synergy with the other musicians.

Above is Howlin' Wolf, one of the great bluesmen to come out of the South as part of the migration that made Chicago the Blues Mecca, after hours in some nightclub where he and his band had been performing.  He was flamboyant, highly energetic, ran a very disciplined combo, encouraged young musicians, and served as an inspiration to many of the founders of progressive rock music.  He provided his players with health insurance before it was fashionable or legally required.

He might have been lost to common history had not The Rolling Stones, when they were asked to appear on the TV show "Shindig", demanded of ABC TV that Wolf also perform on that evening's broadcast.  Howlin' Wolf jumped about, stormed around the stage, played painfully sweet blues from the calluses on his fingers, and performed with such energy that people temporarily forgot about the young soul firebrand, James Brown.  Howlin' Wolf was 55 years old at the time.

I guess he was an overnight sensation, after nearly forty years of performance.

[More about Wolf, The Stones, Shindig, and its creator may be read in this profile.]