Howlin' Wolf

My "Top Ten" musings of the other day set me thinking, especially about Tom Waits. So I sat at a computer for a few hours and listened to some of my old T.W. favorites, which triggered thoughts about Captain Beefheart, who surely has to be considered a forerunner or earlier influence for Waits. Somewhere, but where I know not, I have an old vinyl Captain Beefheart down in the basement. Couldn't locate it yet, but that led to thoughts of Howlin' Wolf (one of my possible Top Ten candidates) and how I swear I hear him in Tom Waits. About that time, I happened to be browsing Netflix and spotted a 2003 film, "The Howlin' Wolf Story", which I immediately sent to the top of my queue. (Watch for comments in the near future) In the meantime, I did some digging at YouTube (while watching the third presidential debate) to find something to supplement what I have in my library. Here are some of my favorites, along with some I hadn't heard ...

How Many More Years



Moanin at Midnight



Meet Me At The Bottom



Dust My Broom



Smokestack Lightnin



And here is Little Red Rooster (famously done by the Rolling Stones early in their career):



While we are at it, let's check out the fabulous rendition of Little Red Rooster by legendary Big Mama Thornton:



Another Howlin' Wolf standard, Killing Floor, was performed by the incredible Jimi Hendrix at Monterey in 1967:



Well, this has been a great way to get through the McCain-Obama thing, multi-tasking thanks to the MacBook and headphones!

But I have run out of time before I could put together some Tom Waits/Captain Beefheart/Howlin' Wolf back-to-back. Later, but soon...