Howlin’ Wolf, The Howlin’ Wolf Album (1969)

After closing out last week with Muddy Waters‘ 1968 psych-blues outing, Electric Mud, it seemed only fair to cap this week with Howlin’ Wolf‘s companion piece, The Howlin’ Wolf Album, which arrived a year later also on Chess Records and also with psychedelic rockers Rotary Connection serving as the backing band. Actually, the full title, at least according to the cover, This is Howlin’ Wolf’s New Album. He Doesn’t Like It. He Didn’t Like His Electric Guitar at First Either., which, let’s face it, is a little long. And as with Electric Mud, which was reputed to be hated by the famous bluesman who made it, it may or may not be accurate. Whether or not Howlin’ Wolf thought much of Rotary Connection‘s penchant for flutes, fuzz, wah pedals and heavy bass, it’s probably not the best marketing decision in the world to put on the front cover that the artist involved doesn’t actually stand behind the material on the record. I guess there’s a reason only two of these kinds of albums were made by Cadet Concept/Chess Records. Hard to imagine producer Marshall Chess wouldn’t have gone after John Lee Hooker sooner or later if The Howlin’ Wolf Album and Electric Mud had been commercial or critical successes.

Still, the pair’s longevity and influence on heavy rock and roll is palpable. You can hear it in the jam of “Smokestack Lighting” and the bragging “Tail Dragger,” in the slushed up takes on standards like “Evil” and “Back Door Man,” the latter of which closes the album introduced by Howlin’ Wolf who tells us to sit there and watch him play some real blues. Fair enough, sir. The Howlin’ Wolf Album doesn’t push as far into psychedelic jamming as Electric Mud, but it has plenty of spacious moments anyway in a broader cut like “Built for Comfort” or “Moanin’ at Midnight,” which lives up to its title with sparse backing guitar behind blues harp and Wolf‘s characteristic, name-earning vocals. As an experiment, it’s way easier to call it a success in hindsight than it would’ve been at the time, but its reach proves to be on the right side of history, and whether or not Howlin’ Wolf was actually into it at the time or afterwards, it’s a record that’s had a considerable impact across the lines of genre, and it was a special moment for blues and rock that wouldn’t come again.

Hope you enjoy.

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Wow. What a week. I split out shortly to go see Electric Wizard in Boston. It’ll be Tuesday before I review that, however, because last night I also saw Birch Hill Dam, Wasted Theory, Lord Fowl and Second Grace in Worcester, and that will have to be Monday. Kind of funny to have written 50 reviews — quite literally, 50 reviews — in the span of the last five days and still feel like I’m so far behind, but there you go. File it under “go figure.”

So that’s Monday and Tuesday, right there, and then Tuesday night, I fly out to go to Roadburn and there’s the rest of your week. I’ll have a Mirror Queen track premiere in there somewhere, but basically next week is all about Roadburn coverage and, as ever, that should prove to be plenty. I have some writing to do this weekend both for that and for the Maryland Deathfest program guide (thanks to Kim Kelly for having me involved in that), and I’ll be posting regular updates along the way. You know how it goes. I don’t sleep until the flight home, but it’s always worth it.

I feel like an asshole leaving the dog alone the second night in a row, but she’s got food and water, I’ve “accidentally” left the door to the guest bedroom open so she can go jump on the bed if she wants and I don’t expect it’ll be a late night. The Patient Mrs. has been away at a conference since Wednesday, and as I’ve done nothing since I dropped her off at the airport except review records, feel overwhelmed, eat the same rice and beans leftovers and go to that show in Worcester, it’s probably for the best. If I can, I’m going to try very, very hard to really veg out sometime over the course of Saturday and Sunday, at least for a few hours, in hopes of building up some reserve of energy beyond what caffeine can muster.

Bring ibuprofen. Bring gum. Drink water. Gotta stay hydrated. All these things running through my head already as I start to mentally prepare. Eat salad.

Have a great and safe weekend, and please check out the forum and radio stream.

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Muddy Waters, Electric Mud (1968)

Well over four decades later, it’s kind of hard to separate fact from fiction and fiction from legend when it comes to a record like Muddy Waters‘ 1968 excursion into psychedelia, Electric Mud. A sort of precursor/companion to Howlin’ Wolf‘s The Howlin’ Wolf Album — which was released the next year and also featured psych rockers Rotary Connection backing a famous bluesman who either did or did not hate the resulting collaboration — Electric Mud nonetheless had an impact beyond probably what producer Marshall Chess of Chess Records could have imagined when he brought the involved parties together to record these tracks, influencing two generations of fuzzed-up blues jams from Led Zeppelin on down to any number of revivalist practitioners today.

It wasn’t the birth of blues rock. Close though. The Yardbirds had been kicking around for a couple years by ’68, as had Cream, but Muddy Waters wasn’t a rocker, and whether it was his take on the Rolling Stones‘ “Let’s Spend the Night Together,” or the yowls that topped the jam in “Mannish Boy,” his approach wasn’t a rocker’s approach. Rotary Connection had released their self-titled debut LP in 1967, and their swing and penchant for fuzzy exploration is a big part of the personality of the album, but Electric Mud‘s mismatch turns out to be one of its greatest assets, the rhythm of “I Just Want to Make Love to You” or “Herbert Harper’s Free Press News” not nearly as fluid as its lead guitar, but busy, and swinging, and — what seems today unmistakable, though it’s a hindsight observation for sure — heavy.

To imagine this and Electric Ladyland and The White Album and Blue Cheer‘s Vincebus Eruptum and numerous others from Deep Purple to Sly and the Family Stone being released in the same year, it’s easy to see why the Baby Boomers point to 1968 as the culturally defining moment of their generation — something Gen X has started to do with 1995, fascinatingly; I would’ve thought ’91 or ’92 — but in its style and concept, Electric Mud is an outlier, and that too is part of what makes it seem so historically righteous. Its moments of stretch-out are righteous, Mud himself kills it despite the culture clash, and it’s almost too easy to read the future of heavy and blues rock into its swaying measures. I can’t imagine what the dudes who would soon enough form Cactus must have thought when they heard this for the first time. Ditto that for Budgie, Atomic Rooster and so on.

Hope you enjoy.

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So. You may or may not recall that at the end of last year, I did a five-day feature called Last Licks 2014. The idea was to wrap up the year with a splurge of 50 reviews across those five days, basically wiping the slate more or less clean heading into the New Year. Well, it’s been three months and I’m buried in mail again. I’m NEVER gonna complain about people sending me their music — NEVER. EVER. That said, there’s a fuckton of it and I feel like at this point I’m only able to answer about half of the emails that come in.

Bottom line? Next week — assuming I can get my shit together this weekend, which should be an adventure since The Patient Mrs. and I have our niece and nephew for the next three days — I’ll be doing a Quarterly Review. Once again, taking it all on, 10 reviews a day for five days. I’m gonna get through the stuff in the piles and on my desktop and then the week after that, I’m gonna go to Roadburn without feeling like I’m blowing anything off (other than life, responsibility, and the usual) and it’s going to be awesome. That’s the plan, and again, it depends on how willing the ducks are to get in a row, but I’m hoping it works out and that I can do another one in the summer, fall, end of year, etc. Try it at least for the rest of this year, if not next.

Also, this weekend marks a year since I was last gainfully employed, which I shit you not makes me want to go jump in front of a truck. Unemployment’s almost out, and I have no fucking idea what to do next. I have been losing significant amounts of sleep over it and the tension in my house is palpable. It’s a shitter. It’s been a shitter for the last year. You’d think I’d be used to it by now.

On that note, I hope you have a great and safe weekend. In addition to this maddening amount of reviews, also look out for premieres from All Them Witches (a live video that’s killer), Slow Season, Deaf Proof, Abrahma, and maybe more. Space seems to be in demand the last couple weeks, which I guess is nice. Also might hit a couple shows? Gonna be a hell of a week.

Alright, I’m out. Vacuuming to do. Please check out the forum and radio stream.

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