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Born: - Chester Arthur Burnett, 10
June 1910, West Point, Mississippi, USA.
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Died:- 10 January 1976,
Hines, Illinois, USA.
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Howlin' Wolf was one of the most
important of the southern expatriates who created
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the post-war blues out of their
rural past and moulded it into the tough 'Chicago sound' of the
50s.
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The Rolling Stones and the
Yardbirds did much to publicize Wolf's (and Waters') music,
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both in Europe and white America,
and as the 60s progressed, the newer artists at
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Chess saw their target audience as
the emerging white 'love and peace' culture and
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tried to influence their material
to suit it.
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Wolf's music was a significant
influence on rock and many of his best-known songs -
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'Sitting On Top Of The World', 'I
Ain't Superstitious', 'Killin' Floor', 'Back Door Man' and 'Little Red
Rooster' -
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were recorded by acts as diverse
as the Doors, Cream, the Rolling Stones, the Yardbirds and
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Manfred Mann. Few, however,
rivalled the power or sexual bravura displayed on the
originals
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and only Don Van Vliet ( Captain
Beefheart ) came close to recapturing his aggressive, raucous
voice.
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A compelling appearance on the
teen-oriented Shindig television show (at the behest of the Rolling
Stones)
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was a rare concession to
commerciality. His label's desire for success, akin to the white acts
he
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influenced, resulted in the
lamentable The Howlin' Wolf Album, which the artist described as 'dog
shit'.
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This ill-conceived attempt to
update earlier songs was outshone by The London Howlin' Wolf
Sessions,
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on which Wolf and long-serving
guitarist Hubert Sumlin were joined by an array of guests,
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including Eric Clapton, Steve
Winwood, and Rolling Stones members Bill Wyman and Charlie
Watts.
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Wolf, along with others like Muddy
Waters, resisted this move but were powerless to control it.
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They were, of course, men in their
50s, set in their ways but needing to maintain an audience
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outside the dwindling Chicago
clubs. Fortunately, Wolf outlived this trend, along
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with that for piling well-known
artists together into 'super bands'.
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Wolf continued to tour but his
health was declining.
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After a protracted period of
illness Howlin' Wolf died of cancer in the Veterans
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Administration Hospital in 1976.
His influence has survived the excesses of the
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'swinging 60s' and is to be seen
today in the work of many of the emerging black bluesmen such as Roosevelt
'Booba' Barnes.
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Photograph of Howlin Wolf by John
Robert Rowlands
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