Howlin’ Wolf

Howlin’ Wolf (born June 10, 1910, White Station [near West Point], Mississippi, U.S.—died January 10, 1976, Hines, Illinois) was an American blues singer and composer noted for his brooding lyrics, his booming, raspy voice, and his earthy, aggressive stage presence. He was one of the principal exponents of the urban blues style of Chicago and a seminal influence on rock-and-roll musicians from the 1960s into the 21st century, including the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Tom Waits, and Keb’ Mo’.

Early life in Mississippi

Named for the 21st president of the United States, Chester Arthur Burnett was brought up on a cotton plantation in Mississippi, and the music he heard was the traditional tunes of the region. His parents, Leon (“Dock”) Burnett, a sharecropper, and Gertrude Jones, a cook and maid, separated when he was one year old. A habit of chasing his maternal grandmother’s baby chicks earned him the nickname “Wolf” at a young age.

As a child he and his mother sang in the choir of their Baptist church, and his mother wrote spirituals that she sang in the streets of Aberdeen and West Point, Mississippi. At some point, however, she cast her son out of her home for reasons that remain unclear. Chester Burnett would give different accounts throughout his life, including claiming that she objected to his blues singing because of her religious beliefs (which was certainly true later in his life, after he became successful). Burnett subsequently walked to the home of his granduncle, who took him in and put him to hard work on the family’s farm.

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Becoming Howlin’ Wolf and move to Chicago

When he was 13, Burnett ran away to live with his father in the Mississippi Delta region. Although his father had remarried, this side of the family welcomed Burnett with the affection he had yearned for in his early childhood. At age 17 he received his first guitar. He started singing professionally and in the 1920s and ’30s performed throughout Mississippi, playing in small clubs. He was influenced by the music of Blind Lemon Jefferson, the second Sonny Boy Williamson (formerly known as Alex or Aleck [“Rice”] Miller), and Charley Patton, the latter of which taught Burnett much of what he knew about playing guitar. Burnett was also influenced by country singer Jimmie Rodgers; in an attempt to imitate Rodgers’s yodel, Burnett developed his signature “howling” singing style, and he began performing as Howlin’ Wolf.

In the 1940s Burnett served in the army and then went to West Memphis, Arkansas, where there was a flourishing blues tradition. He formed his own group, which included James Cotton and Little Junior Parker, both of whom became noted blues performers in their own right. Burnett accompanied himself on guitar and harmonica, but his main instrument was his guttural and emotionally suggestive voice, which gave his songs power and authenticity.

Eventually, he caught the attention of Sam Phillips, a disc jockey who owned a recording studio (soon to become famous as Sun Records) in Memphis, Tennessee. There Burnett recorded several songs for Modern Records (based in Los Angeles) and Chess Records (in Chicago). After his first record, “Moanin’ at Midnight” (1951), became a hit, Burnett moved to Chicago, where he, along with Muddy Waters, made the city a center for the transformation of the acoustic Mississippi Delta blues style into an electrically amplified style for urban audiences.

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Among Howlin’ Wolf’s other notable songs are “I Asked for Water (She Gave Me Gasoline)” (a reworking of Tommy Johnson’s “Cool Drink of Water Blues”), “Smokestack Lightning,” “Dog Me Around,” and “Killing Floor.” His early albums include Moanin’ in the Moonlight (1959) and Howlin’ Wolf (1962; sometimes called The Rocking Chair Album because of its cover image).

Influence and later life and career

Howlin’ Wolf was an electrifying performer, but his work was known only to blues audiences until the Rolling Stones and other British and American rock stars of the 1960s and ’70s acknowledged his influence. His 1956 recording of “Smokestack Lightning” reached the British singles charts in 1964 (the same year he toured Europe for the American Folk Blues Festival), and its impact was substantial. The following year he appeared on the music variety show Shindig! at the insistence of fellow guests the Rolling Stones, who had recently scored a hit with “Little Red Rooster,” an interpretation of “The Red Rooster” from Howlin’ Wolf’s 1962 album. Music journalist Peter Guralnick would later say of this event in a 2010 interview with National Public Radio, “What was so great about seeing Wolf on Shindig! was it was in a sense reality imposing itself on this totally artificial setting.…It was altogether appropriate that [the Stones] would be sitting at Wolf’s feet.…His music was not simply the foundation or the cornerstone; it was the most vital thing you could ever imagine.”

In 1964 Burnett married Lillian (Lillie) Handley, whom he met during one of his performances in Chicago. They had a loving marriage in which she managed his finances and he helped raise her two daughters, Bettye and Barbara. Handley became Burnett’s caregiver after he developed kidney disease, which required dialysis.

Howlin’ Wolf’s later releases (all of which were issued by Chess) include The Real Folk Blues (1966), The Super Super Blues Band (1967), an album of blues standards also featuring Waters and Bo Diddley, and The Back Door Wolf (1973). An especially important album was The London Howlin’ Wolf Sessions (1971), which was recorded in London by producer Norman Dayron and featured Burnett’s longtime guitarist Hubert Sumlin, Chicago-based harmonica player Jeff Carp, Eric Clapton, Steve Winwood, and several members of the Rolling Stones.

In his later years Burnett struggled with other health issues in addition to kidney failure. However, he continued to perform in his typically thrilling, feral manner. His last appearance was a November 1975 concert in Chicago with B.B. King, Albert King, and other blues stars. A highlight was Howlin’ Wolf crawling across the stage during the song “Crawling King Snake.” Burnett died two months later during an operation to treat a brain tumor.

Honors and legacy

Howlin’ Wolf’s influence reverberated among rock and blues musicians for decades after his death. Other performers who recorded versions of his songs or drew from his style include the Doors, Jeff Beck, Led Zeppelin, and Bonnie Raitt (who played alongside him early in her career). His ferocious singing especially inspired Captain Beefheart and Tom Waits. Both artists modeled their own gritty vocal styles on his.

He was inducted into both the Blues Hall of Fame (1980) and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1991). In 2009 the U.S. Library of Congress added “Smokestack Lightning” to the National Recording Registry, a list of audio recordings deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.” The song makes a memorable appearance during two scenes of extreme hedonism and debauchery in Martin Scorsese’s 2013 film The Wolf of Wall Street. Scorsese’s music producer, Robbie Robertson of the Band, explained to Fast Company that the music of Howlin’ Wolf and other Chicago blues legends suited the epically wild movie’s theme of “reckless abandonment.”

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