What better way to cap off 2003, the “Year of the Blues,” than with this eminently watchable documentary about Chester A. Burnett, better known as Howlin’ Wolf? Arguably second only to Muddy Waters among the Mississippi Delta singers who traveled north and pioneered urban electric blues (their supposed rivalry is the subject of one of this DVD’s bonus features), Wolf was a big, imposing man with an inimitable, booming voice and a lasting influence on generations of rock & roller [Read More...]
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Chester Burnett aka Howlin” Wolf was one of the giants of Blues (Literally!). His music set the standard for the whole Blues genre and led the way vis-a-vis the British Invasion for the 1960s Blues Revival that led to Hendrix, Heavy Metal, Jazz-Fusion, Funk, Rap and so on. Wolf’s music was interesting and more varied than any other Bluesman at the time (witness “Evil”, “Spoonful”, “Back Door Man” and “Little Red Rooster”, all are different, unlike most of Muddy’s tunes (except ones like “Walking In The Park”). The Wolf was an innovator and a good writer too. Willie Dixon actually wrote tunes for Wolf like he would have written for himself! Interesting!
I had the pleasure of seeing Wolf live in New York in 1967 at the famous Cafe au Go Go’s Blues Bag. I will never forget it. The band started playing “Smokestack Lightning” and Wolf came out with the spotlight BEHIND him looking like a mountain! He was the standard for all blues singers-rock not gospel like B.B. or soul, like Albert King. He was a great entertainer too.
When the Wolf tribute band (Hubert Sumlin and Mojo Buford) came to Australia in 1991 I saw them. I got to meet Hubert, told him about my seeing Wolf in 1967 and he hugged me!! What a thrill!
Well this DVD is fabulous and historical. It has a lot of extras and a good lenght (90 min). I have to give it four stars because as a 40 year Blues fan I would have expected more film clips of his performances and if you couldn’t find anymore this DVD should have included more bits from his American Folk Blues appearances (there is only one on this DVD). In Scorsese’s “Blues”(Road To Memphis) he has a curious version of Wolf doing “Evil” which is not in this DVD!
The main reason why I gave this four instead of five stars is that there is not any new or complete concert footage or new tunes. The tunes shown in Black and White have all been released on the Vestapol DVD: “Devil Got My Woman” (This footage has already been used a lot e.g. “Lightning in a Bottle” and the “Blues” series by Scorsese) along with rare footage of the great Skip James (get this is it actually better than this DVD!)
I was expecting some newly released footage of Wolf in color from some of his many appearances in the late 1960s and early seventies. Let’s face it, like with the great Albert King-footage of these great Blues Innovators needs to be released in concert format- Like Albert’s Ann Arbor Blues Festival set and Wolf’s many Blues festival appearances like the Chicago Blues Festivals of the late 1960s.
The rest of the film is superb. Sam Lay’s home movies and getting to see where the club was that Muddy and Wolf had played at is great (today it’s a vacant lot!!). The interviews with his daughter’s are also interesting, it seems like Big Wolf was much more a family man than Muddy (see “Can’t be Satisfied” DVD). Overall this a wonderful addition to one’s music library at a reasonable price.