Howlin' Wolf Memphis Days Vol.1 (CD)

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catalog number: BCD15460
weight in Kg 0.115

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1-CD with 12-page booklet, 21 tracks. Playing time approx. 61 min. Hailed by fans and... more

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Howlin' Wolf: Memphis Days Vol.1 (CD)

1-CD with 12-page booklet, 21 tracks. Playing time approx. 61 min.

Hailed by fans and critics as one of the greatest blues CDs ever issued!

For SUN Records founder Sam Phillips, Chester Burnett aka Howlin' Wolf remained the greatest blues discovery for his groundbreaking Memphis label.

In 1989 Richard Weize gained access to the SUN tape archive for Bear Family Records and discovered several previously unknown Howlin' Wolf recordings from 1951 and 1952, including some never released alternative versions of tracks Phillips had sold to Chess Records in Chicago at the time and a few masters with completely unknown songs.
The digital copies from the original(!) tapes were carefully mastered and bring out the often raw sounds of Wolf and his ingenious guitarist Willie Johnson as clear and punchy as you only know it from original 78s! The blues doesn't get any rawer or more powerful than this!

Even more than 30 years after its first release, this CD sounds incredibly brilliant. The almost 70 year old recordings breathe an energy that could only be captured in those days at Phillips' Memphis Recording Service. These master recordings (and the follow-up CD 'Memphis Days Vol. 2' BCD15500) belong in every blues collection! - DH

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Article properties: Howlin' Wolf: Memphis Days Vol.1 (CD)

Interpret: Howlin' Wolf
Album titlle: Memphis Days Vol.1 (CD)
Year of publication 1989
Genre Blues
Label Bear Family Records
Price code AH
Artikelart CD
EAN: 4000127154606
weight in Kg 0.115

Howlin' Wolf - Memphis Days Vol.1 (CD) CD 1
01	Oh Red (take 1)	Howlin' Wolf
02	My Last Affair (take 1)	Howlin' Wolf
03	Come Back Home (take 1)	Howlin' Wolf
04	California Boogie	Howlin' Wolf
05	California Blues	Howlin' Wolf
06	Look-A-Here Baby	Howlin' Wolf
07	Smile At Me	Howlin' Wolf
08	My Baby Walked Off	Howlin' Wolf
09	Drinkin' CV Wine (CV Wine Blues)	Howlin' Wolf
10	My Troubles And Me	Howlin' Wolf
11	Chocolate Drop	Howlin' Wolf
12	Mr. Highway Man (Cadillac Daddy)	Howlin' Wolf
13	Bluebird Blues	Howlin' Wolf
14	Color And Kind	Howlin' Wolf
15	(Everybody's) In The Mood	Howlin' Wolf
16	Dorothy Mae (# 2)	Howlin' Wolf
17	I Got A Woman/Sweet Woman	Howlin' Wolf
18	Decoration Day Blues	Howlin' Wolf
19	(Well) That's All Right	Howlin' Wolf
20	How Many More Years	Howlin' Wolf
21	Baby Ride With Me	Howlin' Wolf

Howlin' Wolf For a guy who didn't see the inside of a recording studio until he was 40... more

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"Howlin' Wolf"

Howlin' Wolf

For a guy who didn't see the inside of a recording studio until he was 40 years old, Chester Arthur Burnett certainly made up for lost time. Of course, the giant known as Howlin' Wolf possessed the most fearsome, feral vocal cords in the annals of electric postwar blues. His wheezing harmonica was as distinctive as his unbeatable flair for showmanship; he routinely rolled around the stage in simulation of sexual ecstasy or climbed the stage curtains like a deranged madman.

"Wolf was the greatest that I've ever known," says his longtime saxist Eddie Shaw. "Wolf was not only a musician, he was an entertainer. That's what I respected him for."

Born June 10, 1910 in White Station, Mississippi (near West Point), Burnett got his stage moniker from his grandfather (the impressively built lad also answered to Big Foot and Bullcow). His family settled in the Delta in 1923, and the great Charley Patton gave him personal tutelage on guitar in '28. Chester picked up harmonica licks from Rice Miller—Sonny Boy Williamson #2—when the harpist was romancing Wolf's sister. He was playing electric guitar on the streets as early as 1938. After returning from an ill-fated Army stint during World War II, the big man got more serious about his music, landing a daily 15-minute program on KWEM in West Memphis in 1949. Sam Phillips caught one of Wolf's broadcasts and was transfixed.

Phillips brought Wolf into his fledgling Memphis Recording Service in the spring of 1951 for a demo date. Sam shipped the results up north to Chess, which requested a full session in either May or August. Accompanying Wolf was his sledgehammer guitarist Willie Johnson, a product of Lake Cormorant, Mississippi (he was born March 4, 1923) who played pretty ninth chords one second and barbed-wire leads the next. Also on hand were drummer Willie Steele and a pianist. How Many More Years and its eerie plattermate Moanin' At Midnight were cut at that first date, and both pierced the R&B charts on Chess, How Many peaking higher at #4.

Meanwhile, Ike Turner had hipped the Bihari brothers to Wolf's talents and they pacted him to RPM, setting up a session at KWEM that September that yielded Morning At Midnight (Moanin' At Midnight in paper-thin disguise), a How Many More Years variant titled Dog Me Around, and two more titles. "The Modern record company would come in, and we would record the same songs for them and get 25 bucks apiece," said Turner. With Wolf now also on RPM, the feud between Leonard Chess and Modern's Bihari brothers ramped up. The battle was ultimately settled the next year when Modern held on to Memphis pianist Rosco Gordon (another Phillips discovery claimed by both labels) while the Wolf went to Chess. Great as Rosco was, looks like Leonard won that round.

Bill Dahl
Chicago, Illinois

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Customer evaluation for "Memphis Days Vol.1 (CD)"

From: The Blues Boy On: 18 May 2017

Howlin' Wolf's early recordings

Recorded in Sam Phillip's legendary 'Sun' studio! Raw and rockin' Blues stuff. What an impressive artist he was! I wish I would have had the chance to see him playing live!

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