Downtown Los Angeles, circa 1983

Downtown Los Angeles, circa 1983
STMcC in downtown Los Angeles, circa 1983

Sunday, January 22, 2017

LISTEN, BABY, HAVE YOU EVER BEEN LOVED BY A MAN THEY CALL THE WOLF?

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THE LONDON HOWLIN' WOLF SESSIONS
Howlin' Wolf (with Clapton, Winwood, etc.)
1970
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Don't listen to the so-called Blues purists! 'THE LONDON HOWLIN' WOLF SESSIONS' will rock your socks off. And if you go barefooted, then you'd better hang onto your hat!

I remember when the eponymous 'Van Halen' album was released in 1978, some writer for a music magazine reviewed it and criticized the song 'You Really Got Me' for being spunkless. "Spunkless"?! There's a lot of things one might say about that song, but "spunkless" damn sure ain't one of them. (Idiot writer!)

Similarly, this Howlin' Wolf album has been frequently denigrated by Blues fans who like to appear highbrow and above the "adulterated" late-period Blues that found White wannabes collaborating with the genuine articles. It doesn't seem to matter to these people that the songs here are so damned hot they're smokin'!

In the very early 1980s when I was first considering buying this album (in the vinyl form), I saw a review in which the writer said that the "tepid" playing from the famous English Rock instrumentalists backing Howlin' Wolf (Chester Arthur Burnett, 1910-1976) on this recording suggested that the young White boys were intimidated by the huge, old Black Bluesman (Wolf was over 6 feet and about 300 pounds). I nearly passed on this record because of that asinine comment. (Yeah, the playing is "tepid" exactly like Van Halen's 'You Really Got Me' is "spunkless". Idiot writers!!)

Fortunately, curiosity got the best of me, I purchased the "Licorice Pizza" (I now own it in the CD format), and I've been happily rockin' out to this bad-ass boy for about 33 years now! Aside from the tremendous Wolf, it also features Eric Clapton, Steve Winwood, Bill Wyman, Charlie Watts, and the great Hubert Sumlin. And although I am well-educated in The Blues (I was probably drinking copious amounts of Kahlua late at night to Robert Johnson's, 'King Of The Delta Blues Singers' before you were born), this is still one of my most frequently spun Blues sets -- and when I do spin it, I crank it up LOUD because it scares the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Mormons off of my front porch!

Sure, Wolf was old and ill when these tracks were cut (1970), but can you find a single young, White or Black contemporary rebel singer who sounds even half as ferocious as the Wolf does here? Don't bother answering -- that was a rhetorical question because "NO" is the obvious reply.

From the opening track, 'ROCKIN' DADDY', with its thick rhythm, Eric Clapton's fiery guitar licks, and the Wolf singing enticements to a woman (trying his best not to scare her off), it's clear that this quasi-Blues/Rock amalgamation is going to kick rump. And boy does it ever!

"YES, THEY CALL ME THE ROCKER; I CAN REALLY ROCK YOU ALL NIGHT LONG. I CAN LET YOU DOWN EASY WHEN I THINK YOUR MONEY'S GONE."

'Rockin' Daddy' moves right into the slightly slower, but no less rhythmically chunky and no less ferocious 'I AIN'T SUPERSTITIOUS'. The one-two punch of the piano and horns is enough to frighten the fainthearted, and that's without even mentioning the menace in Wolf's deep howl and the sexual tension throughout.

"WELL, THE DOGS ALL HOWLIN' ALL OVER THE NEIGHBORHOOD. THAT'S A TRUE SIGN THINGS AIN'T NO GOOD... PLAY IT ON! GO 'HEAD AND HOWL UNDER THE MOONLIGHT, 'CAUSE I GOT MY BABY BY MY SIDE. BOYS, SHE THE SWEETEST THING YOU EVER SEEN. YOUR DOGS IS HOWLIN', AND THE HOUNDS. PLAY! LISTEN, BABY, HAVE YOU EVER BEEN LOVED BY A MAN THEY CALL THE WOLF?"

"I'M WORRIED ABOUT YOU, BABY. AND YOU'D BETTER BE WORRIED ABOUT ME!"

"I'M GONNA LEAVE YOU, WOMAN, BEFORE I COMMIT A CRIME."

The dialogue between Wolf and the White Rockers before they launch into 'THE RED ROOSTER' is classic: Trying to get Wolf to play the acoustic guitar on the track, Clapton feigns an inability to grasp his part unless he can follow the Wolf's fingering. After some cajoling, Wolf -- indisputably the alpha in this pack -- puts an end to the discussion when he emphatically says, "Alright, let's get on it!" And do they ever! And borrowing from the Wolf's command, I've been using that phrase, "Let's get on it", for the last 33 years.

"SOME FOLKS BUILT LIKE THIS; SOME FOLKS BUILT LIKE THAT. BUT THE WAY I'M BUILT, DON'TCHA CALL ME FAT. BECAUSE I'M BUILT FOR COMFORT; I AIN'T BUILT FOR SPEED. BUT I GOT EVERYTHING, OH, A GOOD GIRL NEEDS."

"WE GONNA PITCH A WANG DANG DOODLE ALL NIGHT LONG. LET ME HOWL TO YA: WA-OOO! WA-OOO! WA-OOO! ALL NIGHT WA-OOO!"

If you're already a Blues enthusiast, there's no reason for you not to own the Wolf's early, rawest material found on the "twofer", 'Howlin' Wolf / Moanin' In The Moonlight'. That collection includes his standards, 'Spoonful', 'Smokestack Lightnin'', 'Evil', and 'Goin' Down Slow'. But if you're coming straight from the Rock genre, then 'THE LONDON HOWLIN' WOLF SESSIONS' is a perfect place for you to get introduced to this mountain of a man and one of the true giants in Blues.

Either way, this album should be kept within easy reach of everyone who wants a surefire way to answer the door when the proselytizers show up on the porch. At the first knock, crank up 'The London Howlin' Wolf Sessions' and then watch how fast they skedaddle. One time, two women dropped their 'Watchtower' pamphlets and outran their undergarments -- left 'em right there in an indecorous heap on my stoop. And I had one Mormon man bolt so fast that his toupee was still hanging in midair when I opened the door!

No doubt about it, ya simply MUST have this Wolf album in yer collection. "ALRIGHT, LET'S GET ON IT!"
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~ Stephen T. McCarthy
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ADDENDUM:
Do these recordings sound "tepid" to you? (Crank 'em up!)
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Link: ROCKIN' DADDY
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Link: I AIN'T SUPERSTITIOUS
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6 comments:

  1. 3-D. That was a Wang Dang Doodle review.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. "Wang Dang Doodle" review? Well, damn! Too bad. I was actually shooting for "tepid" and "spunkless".

      By the way, the studio version of
      (Link:] 'WANG DANG DOODLE' has always reminded me of The League Of Soul Crusaders at the Bay Street house. Which night? Pick a night -- ANY night. Ha!

      Listen and see if Wolf ain't singin' about us. Even with all the nicknames in the song...

      ~ D-FensDogG
      'Loyal American Underground'

      Delete
  2. Stephen, I like the blues but I don't know much about the various artists. Rockin' Daddy and I Ain't Superstitious are new songs for me. Of the two, I prefer I Ain't Superstitious. I got a chuckle out of the phrase you used..."Wang Dang Doodle". I didn't know if this was part of the lyrics until I Googled it and learned it's actually a name of a song and is apart of the lyrics. Thanks for sharing and giving this CAThy a lesson in mewsic! Have a good week, my friend!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment, CATHY.

      'WANG DANG DOODLE' is a fun song and a state of behavior that I routinely lived in from about 1981-1984. It was a blast... what I can remember of it, anyway.

      ~ D-FensDogG

      Delete
  3. Tepid? Spunkless? Those writers must have been deaf. This is great music, Stephen. Blues and rock are two of my favourite genres. Even better when you combine them! ☺

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. DEBBIE ~
      Yeah, "spunkless" and "tepid" -- UTTERLY PREPOSTEROUS.

      I think those writers were just putting on an act for their readers. The one writing about Van Halen was probably trying to pretend to be highbrow and too sophisticated to promote Van Halen's brand of Rock. So he just wrote whatever bullshit came into his mind at the time.

      And the writer calling 'THE LONDON HOWLIN' WOLF SESSIONS' "tepid" was probably trying to play himself off as a Blues purist for whom Blues played with White English musicians was beneath his "purist" tastes. He was full of crap, too.

      It's ridiculous when people attempt to live an artificial, self-created and self-promoted image rather than just facing facts and living the truth.

      Fortunately, neither of those phony-baloney "music critics" prevented me from discovering and enjoying the music all these years.

      One thing I can guarantee: My reviews will always honestly address the truth as I see it, hear it, and understand it. No "fake", artificial Stephen T. McCarthys here.
      :o)

      ~ D-FensDogG

      Delete

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