Celebrating the time of Gemini, with one of the bluesiest of the gemini, Chester Arthur Burnett known as Howlin Wolf, an influential blues singer, guitarist and harmonica player, born June 10, 1910, in White Station, Mississippi. Named after Chester A. Arthur, the 21st President of the United States. His physique garnered him the nicknames of Big Foot Chester and Bull Cow as a young man: he was 6 feet 3 inches tall and often weighed close to 275 pounds. He explained the origin of the name Howlin Wolf: I got that from my grandfather, who would often tell him stories about the wolves in that part of the country and warn him that if he misbehaved then the howling wolves would get him. Paul Oliver wrote that Burnett once claimed to have been given his nickname by his idol Jimmie Rodgers. With a booming voice and looming physical presence, he is one of the best-known Chicago blues artists. Musician and critic Cub Koda noted, no one could match Howlin Wolf for the singular ability to rock the house down to the foundation while simultaneously scaring its patrons out of its wits; producer Sam Phillips added When I heard Howlin Wolf, I said, This is for me. This is where the soul of man never dies. Several of his songs, such as Smokestack Lightnin, Back Door Man, Killing Floor and Spoonful have become blues and blues-rock standards. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked him number 51 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. According to the documentary film The Howlin Wolf Story, Burnetts parents broke up when he was young. His very religious mother, Gertrude, threw him out of the house while he was a child for refusing to work around the farm; he then moved in with his uncle, Will Young, who treated him badly. When he was 13, he ran away and claimed to have walked 85 miles barefoot to join his father, where he finally found a happy home within his fathers large family. During the peak of his success, he returned from Chicago to see his mother in his home town and was driven to tears when she rebuffed him: she refused to take money offered by him, saying it was from his playing of the Devils music. Burnett was influenced by other popular blues performers of the time including the Mississippi Sheiks, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Ma Rainey, Lonnie Johnson, Tampa Red, Blind Blake, and Tommy Johnson. Two of the earliest songs he mastered were Jeffersons Match Box Blues and Leroy Carrs How Long, How Long Blues. Country singer Jimmie Rodgers was also an influence. He tried to emulate Rodgers blue yodel, but found that his efforts sounded more like a growl or a howl: I couldnt do no yodelin, so I turned to howlin. And its done me just fine. His harmonica playing was modeled after that of Sonny Boy Williamson II, who had taught him how to play when Burnett moved to Parkin, Arkansas, in 1933. He was inducted in the Rock and roll Hall of Fame, and Grammy Hall of Fame. He died January 10, 1976, at 65. (bio notes from wikipedia) https://youtube/watch?v=IJ-upxjutX4
Posted on: Mon, 09 Jun 2014 05:41:26 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015