''The Howlin' Wolf Album'' is a studio album by

Howlin' Wolf Chester Arthur Burnett (June 10, 1910January 10, 1976), better known by his stage name Howlin' Wolf, was an American blues singer, guitarist and harmonica player. He was at the forefront of transforming acoustic Delta blues into electric Chica ...

, released in 1969. It features members of Rotary Connection as his backing band. The album mixed

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...

with

psychedelic rock Psychedelic rock is a rock music Music genre, genre that is inspired, influenced, or representative of psychedelia, psychedelic culture, which is centered on perception-altering hallucinogenic drugs. The music incorporated new electronic sound ...

arrangements of several of Wolf's classic songs. Howlin' Wolf strongly disliked the album, which is noted on the album's cover art. The album peaked at number 69 on ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' magazine's " Black Albums" chart.

Production

In 1967, Marshall Chess formed Cadet Concept Records as a subsidiary of

Chess Records Chess Records was an American record company established in 1950 in Chicago, specializing in blues and rhythm and blues. It was the successor to Aristocrat Records, founded in 1947. It expanded into soul music, gospel music, early rock an ...

. The label's first release was the self-titled debut album of the psychedelic band Rotary Connection, whose members Chess described as "the hottest, most

avant garde In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...

guys in Chicago". As a result of the album's success, Chess felt that he could revive the career of bluesmen Muddy Waters and

by recording two albums of experimental, psychedelic

with members of Rotary Connection as the backing band for the singers, producing the albums '' Electric Mud'' and ''The Howlin' Wolf Album''. Chess hoped the new albums would sell well among fans of

bands influenced by Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf. In place of Howlin' Wolf's regular musicians were Gene Barge, Pete Cosey, Roland Faulkner, Morris Jennings,

Louis Satterfield Louis Edward Satterfield (April 3, 1937 – September 27, 2004) was an American bassist and trombonist. Satterfield was a member of both The Pharaohs and the Phenix Horns. He also collaborated with prominent artists such as Earth, Wind & Fire, Mu ...

, Charles Stepney and Phil Upchurch. Cosey, Upchurch and Jennings joked about calling the group "The Electric Niggers". Marshall Chess liked the suggestion, but

Leonard Chess Leonard Samuel Chess (born Lejzor Szmuel Czyż; March 12, 1917 – October 16, 1969) was a Polish-American record company executive and the founder of Chess Records alongside his brother Phil. He was influential in the development of the recor ...

refused to allow the name. The album incorporates use of

wah-wah pedal A wah-wah pedal, or simply wah pedal, is a type of effects pedal designed for electric guitar that alters the timbre of the input signal to create a distinctive sound, mimicking the human voice saying the onomatopoeic name "wah-wah". The peda ...

and fuzzbox. Marshall Chess augmented the rhythm of Howlin Wolf's live band with the use of electronic organ and saxophone. Blues purists criticized the album's psychedelic sound. Howlin' Wolf disliked the sound, which he did not consider to be blues. According to guitarist Pete Cosey, during the recording sessions, Howlin' Wolf "looked at me and he said 'Why don't you take them wah-wahs and all that other shit and go throw it off in the lake – on your way to the barber shop?'"

Release and reception

Marshall Chess referred to Howlin' Wolf's dislike of the arrangements on the album's cover. Howlin' Wolf took exception to the blurb, as he had enthusiastically adopted the use of electric guitar, and had led the first entirely electric blues combo in West Memphis in the early 1950s. Howlin' Wolf stated that the album was "dog shit". According to Chess, the album's cover hurt its sales. Chess states that "I used negativity in the title, and it was a big lesson: You can't say on the cover that the artist didn't like the album. It didn't really sell that well. But it was just an attempt. They were just experiments." ''The Howlin' Wolf Album'' did not sell as well as '' Electric Mud''. ''The Howlin' Wolf Album'' peaked at number 69 on ''

'' magazine's Black Albums chart. The album's single, "

Evil Evil, as a concept, is usually defined as profoundly immoral behavior, and it is related to acts that cause unnecessary pain and suffering to others. Evil is commonly seen as the opposite, or sometimes absence, of good. It can be an extreme ...

", peaked at number 43 on the R&B Singles chart. In 2007, a digitally remastered compact disc edition was released as a limited edition in Japan. Because of an error in remastering, the CD version cut 34 seconds from the last song, "Back-Door Man". Instead of a fade out, the song ends abruptly at 6:31. On March 22, 2011, Get On Down Records reissued the CD in the US with the same mastering error. The reason for the error is that the printed time for "Back-Door Man" printed on the back cover is 6:17, but this excludes the spoken intro. The correct timing for the full song with the spoken intro is 6:51. The album has never been released on CD in its complete form. The singer Bilal names it among his 25 favorite albums. In 1998 ''

The Wire ''The Wire'' is an American Crime fiction, crime Drama (film and television), drama television series created and primarily written by the American author and former police reporter David Simon for the cable network HBO. The series premiered o ...

'' included the album in a list of groundbreaking albums, where

Sasha Frere-Jones Alexander Roger Wallace "Sasha" Frere-Jones ( né Jones; born 1967) is an American writer, music critic, and musician. Frere-Jones was pop critic of the ''New Yorker'' from 2004 to 2015. In January 2015, he left the ''New Yorker'' to work for ' ...

wrote of how Chess' wish to put "the greatest shouter of all time" against an electric band to recut several of his early hits unusually resulted in a group that "was capable of outdoing both

Funkadelic Funkadelic was an American funk rock band formed in Plainfield, New Jersey in 1968 and active until 1982. As one of the two flagship groups of George Clinton's P-Funk collective, they helped pioneer the funk music culture of the 1970s.John, ...

and The Meters at their own game, and unafraid to get very foreground and doubly black." He wrote that the same group's albums with Muddy Waters "came close to the majesty" of ''The Howlin' Wolf Album'', but that ultimately "there's no topping Howlin's polytonal bellow. Combine that voice with the rhythm and noise here and you have evidence of the greatest rock group that never was."

Track listing

Titles, writer's credits, and running times are taken from the original Cadet LP record cover and may differ from other releases. All tracks written by

Willie Dixon William James Dixon (July 1, 1915January 29, 1992) was an American blues musician, vocalist, songwriter, arranger and record producer. He was proficient in playing both the upright bass and the guitar, and sang with a distinctive voice, but he ...

, except "Smokestack Lightning" and "Moanin' at Midnight", written by Howlin' Wolf.

Personnel

* Howlin' Wolf – guitar, harmonica, vocals * Gene Barge – horn, electric saxophone * Pete Cosey – guitar, bowed guitar * Hubert Sumlin – guitar * Roland Faulkner – guitar * Morris Jennings – drums *

Don Myrick Donald Myrick (April 6, 1940 – July 30, 1993) was an American saxophonist. A member of the Phenix Horns, he was best known for his work with Earth, Wind & Fire and Phil Collins. He played alto, tenor, and soprano sax as a member of Earth, W ...

– flute *

– bass guitar * Phil Upchurch – bass, guitar ;Technical * Ron Malo – recording engineer * Jeff Leowenthal – photography

Chart positions

References