The Wolf Howls on 'Smokestack Lightning'
By John Kessler
By John Kessler
The Blues Time Machine
The Blues Time Machine
In the span of Howlin’ Wolf’s life and career he saw virtually the entire progression of blues from a rural, acoustic music through the birth of modern rock music. As a young man, he learned guitar from Delta master Charley Patton, and as an elder statesman performed with Eric Clapton and The Rolling Stones. In between he sang some of the most compelling and memorable songs in all of American music, including “Back Door Man”, “Killing Floor” and “Spoonful”.
“Smokestack Lightning” is one of the crowning achievements of Howlin’ Wolf’s massive output of blues. It’s actually not a typical blues song--based around only one chord, it has no verse or chorus, but an almost stream-of-consciousness series of images punctuated by Wolf’s eerie howling falsetto. He had been performing a song for many years called “Crying at Daybreak” that contained many of the same lyrics, but recorded the definitive version in 1956. This amazing film clip of Howlin’ Wolf performing “Smokestack Lightning” live may give you goosebumps:
Source: http://www.kplu.org/post/wolf-howls-smokestack-lightning
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=-wS0-5UMhiM#action=share
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