Customer Reviews
Essential Wolf - By: Laurence Upton, 25 Nov 2004 
This is the most essential single Howlin' Wolf CD there could possibly be & would make an excellent first purchase for a Howlin' Wolf novice. It comprises The Wolf's first two long-player releases, both what we would now regard as compilations, & was put out by Chess/MCAin 1986.
Moanin' In The Moonlight came outin Americain 1959 & was made up of 12 selected A-sides & B-sides from the many 78's he released between 1951 & 1958, all monaural, including such classics as Smokestack Lightnin' & I Asked For Water (She Gave Me Gasoline). The LP kicks off with Moanin' At Midnight & How Many More Years, comprising both sides of his first Chess single, recordedin Memphis by Sam Phillips at what would become the Sun studios, long before Howlin' Wolf moved to Chicago. The songs on this LP are among the most elemental, eerie & powerful pieces of music ever committed to tape.
Equally compelling is the second collection, usually known as the Rocking Chair album, releasedin the USin January 1962, when the genre was presented as the root of "Music Americana". It contained 3 previously unreleased songs recorded between May & December 1961, & 9 that were on 45's releasedin 1960 & 1961 (though two were recordedin 1957), but allin stereo.
Famous songs include The Red Rooster, Wang Dang Doodle, Back Door Man & the Wolf's famous variation of Spoonful (he would have learned the original, fairly dissimilar Spoonful Blues from Charlie Patton) - though all staple fare for a million blues & rock bands ever since, none could match the intensity & darkness of these originals (although the Rolling Stones' Little Red Rooster came close). Most were written by Willie Dixon, who plays bass throughout, though there are a couple credited to Howlin' Wolf & a cover of St Louis Jimmy Oden's Goin' Down Slow, on which, unusually, the recitation is spoken by Willie Dixon.
The division of stereo & mono recordings is not declared anywhere on the CD & seems somewhat arbitrary, especially since Who's Been Talkin' (stereo), Tell Me (stereo) & Somebody In My Home (mono) were all recorded on 24 June 1957.
A notein the sleeve reads, "In our effort to bring you the originals for the cost of a single CD, we have omitted one selection due to the length of the combined original albums." Given the playing time of 66 minutes this is a very irritating message, butin my quest to discover the identity of the missing selection, after consulting several online discographies as far as I can tell it seems that all tracks are present & correct
Awesome - By: Docendo Discimus, 19 Jun 2004 You could say that MCA/Chess' various Wolf compilations ("His Best", "His Best vol. 2", "The Genuine Article") have made this twofer-CD obsolete, but as an introduction to the great Howlin' Wolf it still ranks among the best.
The sound quality is not stellar (no remastering), but the songs certainly are.
"Howlin' Wolf / Moanin' In The Moonlight" brings together Wolf's first two LPs, the self-titled one usually called "The Rockin' Chair ALbum" due to the peaceful-looking picture on the cover of a rocking chair with an acoustic guitar propped up next to it...misleading cover art if I ever saw it!
One song has been omitted due to the lenght of the original albums, the liner notes say. A completely meaningless excuse since this CD only runs for 65 minutes, but what's even more odd is that the material from Wolf's first album comes after the songs from his second one, putting latter-day Willie Dixon-penned material before early Wolf-penned songs (these two albums were not conceived as such, they were merely collections of oreviously issued singles as was customary at the time).
But those are minor quibbles. This certainly isn't everything you could ever want from the Wolf, but it is an excellent place to start. Many of his most accessible "mainstream" blues tunes are here, usually written by Dixon: "The Red Rooster" with its muscular, slinky slide guitar riff, the propulsive "Down In The Bottom", the gleeful "Back Door Man", the catchy hard-rocking "Howlin' For My Darlin'" (erroneously titled "Howlin' For My Baby"), & the slightly-too-cute "Wang Dang Doodle", which became very popular even though Wolf himself didn't like the song.
But Wolf's own songs are here a-plenty as well, & those remain his most powerful: From the Rockin' Chair album comes the swaggering groove of "Tell Me", one of the most underexposed Wolf singles, & the Chicago blues classic "Who's Been Talking", a supremely funky arrangement with some powerful, syncopated drumming from Earl Phillips & a great piano part by Hosea Lee Kennard.
And "Moanin' At Midnight" is almost all Wolf, opening with his first hit single, the monster combination of the smouldering, piano-driven "How Many More Years" & the eerie "Moanin' At Midnight". The classic "Smokestack Lightnin'" is here, one of the pillars of early electric blues singles, & so is the menacing "Forty-Four", Wolf's take on Tommy Johnson's desperate "Cool Drink Of Water Blues" (retitled "I Asked For Water"), & a slew of rough, tough lesser-known songs like "I'm Leavin' You" (later covered by J.B. Hutto), "Somebody In My Home", "Baby How Long", & the wonderful early Dixon-composition "Evil".
Howlin' Wolf didn't carry himself with the statesman-like dignity of Muddy Waters, but his performances were the stuff of legend. A huge, intimidating man with a voice like heavy machinery operating on a gravel road, Wolf's early Chicago sides are some of the most awesome electric blues ever recorded, & no-one culd match the Wolf when it came to rocking the house (and scaring the audience out of its wits at the same time).
Wolf is not for everyone...even if you like a good dose of Muddy Waters, you may still be turned off by Wolf's class-gargling roar of a voice & sometimes bleak - or downright frightening - lyrics. But if you are interestedin classic Chicago blues, Wolf's classic Chess sides are a must-own. Chester Burnettin his prime remains the most overwheling performer the genre has ever seen.
The stuff legends are made of - By: Docendo Discimus, 30 Jun 2003 MCA/Chess' two excellent Howlin' Wolf-compilations, "His Best" & "His Best vol. II", have perhaps made this album a little obsolete, but if you just want one Howlin' Wolf album, or if you are perhaps looking for a place to start your collection, this is an excellent choice.
"Howlin' Wolf / Moanin' In The Moonlight" combine Chester Burnett's first two LPs on one CD, & these classic songs are a truly essential blues purchase.
When these two albums were put together & released as a CDin 1986, the songs from Wolf's second album, the so-called "Rockin' Chair Album" (because of the cover art by Don Bronstein), were mysteriously put before the ones from his debut. But it doesn't really matter - almost every song from both these 1962 releases is a gem, from Willie Dixon's "The Red Rooster" & "Meet Me Downin The Bottom" to Wolf's own "How Many More Years", "Smokestack Lightnin'" & "Forty-Four", & a re-working of Tommy Johnson's menacing "I Asked For Water (she gave me gasoline)".
Wolf had one of the best backing-bandsin the business, originally featuring the raw, blistering lead guitar work of Willie Johnson, but most of these recordings feature the magnificent playing of one of the the most underrated guitaristsin the business, the sublime Hubert Sumlin.
This album is not necessarily a must-ownin itself, since the best songs are also available elsewhere, but the music certainly is, & this is a good way of getting it.
