Dig Deep: Howlin’ Wolf – The Howlin’ Wolf Album – Cadet Concept (1969)

Howlin’ Wolf – Built For Comfort
Howlin’ Wolf – Down In The Bottom
Howlin’ Wolf – Howlin’ Wolf Speaks + Moanin’ At Midnight

Though Electric Mud gets all the attention, I’ve always felt that this session, featuring virtually the same backing group, was the stronger set. I can still remember my surprise at hearing it for the first time, back in 1994. Memory is a little fuzzy on all the particulars but I’m pretty sure I got my first copy (this is now the third copy of this record I’ve owned, not including a donated copy to KALX), at the Atlanta Record Show. The simple declaration on the front intrigued me, “why wouldn’t Howlin’ Wolf like this record?” At the time I had recently begun co-hosting a blues show at Album 88 and was beginning to build a vinyl collection. I’d loved the early Chess recordings from Howlin’ Wolf, so picking up this record seemed fairly academic, expecting it to be a solid though straight forward collection of his biggest “hits.” Instead, this record attempts to “update” the venerable Wolf with some of the most righteous Black psychedelic funk music ever laid down.

As soon as you drop the needle on “Spoonful” you immediately understand why Howlin’ Wolf (whose voice on this record decries the “queer” sounds of the electric guitar which, given that it’s 1968 when it’s recorded, means “strange” if you were wondering) and virtually ever single blues purist since 1969 has hated this record. You also can immediately understand how post-Hip-Hop ears would find this sound completely enthralling. From an objective point of view, it doesn’t hold up to Wolf’s seminal recordings, but who cares! This record is so unbelievably funky, it can’t help but be an underground classic. With Fuzzy, wah-wah guitars (3-4 guitars on each track!), poppin’ drums, freaky flute and even some amplified Eddie Harris soundin’ sax, this was a match made in heaven to my ears (all that’s missing is a soul clap). As good as the upbeat and wilder tracks like “Evil,” “Spoonful” and “Taildragger” sound, the best realized tracks seem to be the ones that have a slower tempo, including “Built For Comfort,” “Smokestack Lightning,” “Three Hundred Pounds of Joy,” and “Back Door Man” with the first being one of my all-time favorites. Instead of posting all funked up tracks, I’ve included the downright eerie “Moanin’ At Midnight,” (plus a vocal intro that on the original record precedes “Back Door Man”) mainly because it best represents the otherworldly, slightly ominous feeling I’ve always had about Howlin’ Wolf’s music.

As I was mentioning above, I think Wolf’s voice and style mixes better with this sound than did Muddy Water’s. To my ears, at multiple times on Electric Mud, Muddy seems overmatched and blown away by the craziness (except on Tom Cat, perhaps), conversely Wolf always feels in control, with that massive booming voice. Above all else though, the reason to track this record down is the sound. It’s really a shame that this group, which features Morris Jennings, Louis Satterfield, Pete Cosey, Donald Myrick and Phil Upchurch, all young veterans of the Chicago scene (many of which are featured on this Phil Cohran record), didn’t record as band, though they did contribute to more than a few Cadet Concept recordings. Their brand of Black psychedelica is unmatched in my opinion, truly distinctive and original. Of all the recordings from this period of time, I think I love the sound of the drums on this record the most. So crisp, so tight, so very heavy. Somewhere, I’m absolutely convinced of it, there is an instrumental backing track of this recording and I hope sincerely that they’ll wise up finally and issue it. Until then, be on the look out for this one.

Cheers,

Michael