Howlin’ Wolf remembered on his birthday

[GuitarGeek]

There's no missing track but the eponymous 'rocking chair' album is in fake stereo. Ugh. A pity because those old CDs of Chess recordings are usually decent (see The Best Of Muddy Waters, which unlike certain later releases, has the correct take of 'I'm Your Hoochie Coochie Man'!).

Probably the most well known songs not on that twofer CD are 'Killing Floor', 'I Ain't Superstitious' and 'Sitting On Top Of The World'. His Best has all three.

Well, two of them are on The Real Folk Blues, which I have. I Ain't Superstitious is the only one you name that I don't have.

I don't seem to be as bothered by the "fake stereo" phenomenon as a lot of people are. I'm still not sure I understand what it is. Is that when they put the backing track on one side, and the the vocal on the other?

A pity nobody has done no-frills, cheaper reissues of those 80s and early 90s Chess Box sets- 'Wolf, Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry etc.

Well, the boxsets would be nice, and I'm not sure what's been done with Wolf or Muddy, but MCA did put out a nice double Chuck Berry double CD in their Gold series of compilations. It has pretty much everything most people consider essential, including everything that was on The Great Twenty Eight comp (which back in the 70's and 80's was considered the Chuck Bery best of to own).

It's only real downsides are: 1. It doesn't include Blues For Hawaiians (but since I seem to be the only person on the planet who cares about that one, I guess it doesn't matter) and 2. It does include the horrendous My Ding-A-Ling (albeit, and thankfully, in it's single edit form). But if you want to know what's so great about Chuck Berry, Gold is as good a place as any to go to. (sorry for that digression).

As it happens, I was debating spending a bit of my tax refund this year on a copy of the Bear Family Chuck Berry box, which has everything his complete output (well, up to the late 70's, as that was the last time he recorded in the studio before the record he was apparently working on when he passed).

There's a bunch of sets they've put out I'd like to buy, not so much because I'm that gung ho about owning everything by, say Bob Wills or Eddie Cochran or whomever, but all the inexpensive releases seem to get bad reviews vis-a-viz sound quality, lack of liner notes, etc. I may not want to own every single thing Eddie Cochran ever recorded, but it would nice to have some decent biographical/historical info, photos, etc, though now that I think about it, in that example, I do have the December 1983 issue of Guitar Player (of course I do), which had that big cover story on Eddie.

[Mister Triscuits]

I don't seem to be as bothered by the "fake stereo" phenomenon as a lot of people are. I'm still not sure I understand what it is. Is that when they put the backing track on one side, and the the vocal on the other?

No, it's when they take a mono source and split the signal into two channels with the highs boosted on one side and the lows boosted on the other to give the illusion of stereo.

[Jerjo]

Chess had box sets for Muddy, Wolf, and Chuck twenty some years ago but they're long OOP. I picked up Muddy but never got the Wolf set. Woulda, coulda, shoulda... But I do still have my original Wolf vinyls. And no working turntable!

[Steve F.]

Howlin' Wolf? Plagiarism? The words Led Zeppelin immediately spring to mind.

Willie Dixon wrote the tunes that were stolen, not Wolf. Although the performance were definitely to varying degrees modeled on Wolf's performances of the originals.

[Zappathustra]

Willie Dixon wrote the tunes that were stolen, not Wolf. Although the performance were definitely to varying degrees modeled on Wolf's performances of the originals.

Wiki thinks otherwise for Killing Floor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killin...%27_Wolf_song)

[JJ88]

^Indeed, Chester Burnett himself wrote that one.

LZ II had three uncredited Chess songs. They were rightly caught out. Now, all three of Zeppelin's versions have unique riffs that are original within their arrangements, but the songs themselves are clearly covers. 'Bring It On Home' even sees Plant doing an imitation of Sonny Boy Williamson! No excusing that given that Cream, The Rolling Stones etc. all credited who they'd covered.

No, it's when they take a mono source and split the signal into two channels with the highs boosted on one side and the lows boosted on the other to give the illusion of stereo.

This. The Howlin Wolf one isn't the worst but it's still there. The worst is where a delay is added to one of the channels and you end up with this metallic reverb effect. Sonic hell.

[Steve F.]

Wiki thinks otherwise for Killing Floor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killin...%27_Wolf_song)

Yes. Correct. That one is Wolf's.

[chalkpie]

did FZ dig The Wolf? I know he loved other blues cats.

[Mister Triscuits]

did FZ dig The Wolf? I know he loved other blues cats.

Zappa loved the Wolf. "Who Will Be Next" was a particular favorite of his.

[Baribrotzer]

LZ II had three uncredited Chess songs..... No excusing that given that Cream, The Rolling Stones etc. all credited who they'd covered.

Maybe. But Cream and the Stones didn't have Peter Grant managing them - a man who didn't need to hire hard men, who could himself pick up someone by the neck with one hand and smash their head through a wall.

[JJ88]

'You Gonna Wreck My Life' is also believed to be the inspiration for 'How Many More Times' on the Led Zeppelin debut...the same song also had Albert King's 'The Hunter' in there as well.

Chess had box sets for Muddy, Wolf, and Chuck twenty some years ago but they're long OOP. I picked up Muddy but never got the Wolf set. Woulda, coulda, shoulda... But I do still have my original Wolf vinyls. And no working turntable!

AFAIK the audiophiles on Hoffman and the like praised those sets. Amazes me that Universal haven't put out basic, budget versions of these in jewel case packaging, maybe without the booklets or whatever. I think they'd sell well enough. There was also a 2-disc one of Willie Dixon.

(As for Chuck Berry's 2cd Anthology/Gold, yes, that's pretty much spot on. I think 'Run Rudolph Run' and maybe 'Route 66' are the main omissions.)

[progholio]

One of the greats. Someone said that Howlin' Wolf had the roughest voice God ever gave a man and what he did with it was pure heaven.

I totally agree!
Great story on post #1, thanks for sharing.

[Socrates]

Howlin' Wolf? Plagiarism? The words Led Zeppelin immediately spring to mind.

Come on guys. That was a rhetorical question. Just a way of stating the influence. Of course, I didn't think he would actually sue.

[GuitarGeek]

No, it's when they take a mono source and split the signal into two channels with the highs boosted on one side and the lows boosted on the other to give the illusion of stereo.

OK, I've heard of that, but I wasn't sure if I had heard any records where it was actually done. Like I said, if that's what's going on with something like the rocking chair record, it doesn't seem to bother me as much as others do, though you wonder why they couldn't just go back to the mono masters for the CD reissues. I mean, it's like there's a lot of lush orchestration going on or whatever.

[JJ88]

^Fake stereo is not that common on CD, thankfully. I think there was a Steve Hoffman master of the eponymous album in mono on record...they should have used that. Most of these 12 songs were also mixed into true stereo, but I believe the first appearance of those mixes was on his aforementioned Chess Box.

I have heard some of that early 70s London Sessions stuff; despite all the famous names, I wasn't too keen on the arrangements. However I like the bit with 'Wolf and Clapton running through 'Red Rooster'. Chess did a fair amount of those London Sessions albums...'My Ding A Ling' being the most infamous product of these.

[GuitarGeek]

Chess had box sets for Muddy, Wolf, and Chuck twenty some years ago but they're long OOP. I picked up Muddy but never got the Wolf set. Woulda, coulda, shoulda... But I do still have my original Wolf vinyls. And no working turntable!

More like 30 years ago. As I recall they were just two or three CD's each, though. I believe there was also a Bo Diddley set. In the case of the Chuck Berry set, I recall a review in Guitar Player where they indicated that some of the songs were apparently mastered at a slower speed than originally, on the box. Chuck had claimed in GP a few months earlier that Leonard Chess sped some of the records up because they were trying to make him sound like a teenager (Chuck was already in his mid 20's and married by the time he recorded Maybellene). So this appeared to provide proof backing up Chuck's assertion. I suppose whether you want to hear the music as originally released (e.g. faster speed) or how it was played (e.g. slower speed) is a matter of taste.

LZ II had three uncredited Chess songs. They were rightly caught out. Now, all three of Zeppelin's versions have unique riffs that are original within their arrangements, but the songs themselves are clearly covers. 'Bring It On Home' even sees Plant doing an imitation of Sonny Boy Williamson! No excusing that given that Cream, The Rolling Stones etc. all credited who they'd covered.

I remember someone using the justification that it was a common practice in blues circles. For instance, some of the songs that Leadbelly claimed as originals were actually field hollers that were already decades old by the time he was born. Oh, right, because Leadbelly did it, that's supposed to make it alright?

And while there were three songs lifted form the Chess catalog, there were others from other sources that Page boosted. One was an Albert King song called The Hunter, which the misappropriated and incorporated into, I think, How Many More Times.

At least on When The Levee Breaks, they finally had developed the good manners to credit Memphis Minnie.

But Cream and the Stones didn't have Peter Grant managing them - a man who didn't need to hire hard men, who could himself pick up someone by the neck with one hand and smash their head through a wall.

Your point being what? That having an asshole for a manager makes it ok for them to properly credit the songs they were covering?!

And make no mistake, Grant was an asshole. He once beat up a guy because he spotted him with a microphone in the audience of a show (turns out the guy was working for some sort of noise pollution commission, not a bootleg, and asshole Grant believed). Oh and let's not forget that security guy in Oakland and was very nearly beaten to death by Grant and his thugs.

Almost makes the inordinate amount of screen time he has in The Song Remains The Same (with the first 10 minutes or whatever it is devoted to his idiotic mafia wannabe "fantasy") almost excusable.

[Mister Triscuits]

OK, I've heard of that, but I wasn't sure if I had heard any records where it was actually done.

The U.S. versions of the pre-Revolver Beatles albums in stereo include some tracks taken from mono single mixes that Capitol applied the fake stereo process to. The first Procol Harum album was only ever mixed in mono; the standard US version was in fake stereo.

[Steve F.]

^^^^

I have a Complete Howlin’ Wolf Chess from th beginning until about 67 or so from Charly that I’ve had for 20 some years; it’s nearly everything I care about and it’s pretty awesome.

[Zappathustra]

Come on guys. That was a rhetorical question. Just a way of stating the influence. Of course, I didn't think he would actually sue.

Ι never doubted that. I mean about your comment on the Captain. But you have to be prudent - you have to use LOTS of smileys.

[GuitarGeek]

The U.S. versions of the pre-Revolver Beatles albums in stereo include some tracks taken from mono single mixes that Capitol applied the fake stereo process to. The first Procol Harum album was only ever mixed in mono; the standard US version was in fake stereo.

Well, in the case of The Beatles, I only know the UK versions, since I never owned any of their albums on LP (yeah, I was late coming to that particular party, even though I had liked The Beatles since I was like 10). And I still don't have the first Procol Harum.

[Baribrotzer]

Maybe. But Cream and the Stones didn't have Peter Grant managing them - a man who didn't need to hire hard men, who could himself pick up someone by the neck with one hand and smash their head through a wall.

Your point being what? That having an asshole for a manager makes it ok for them to properly credit the songs they were covering?!

And make no mistake, Grant was an asshole. He once beat up a guy because he spotted him with a microphone in the audience of a show (turns out the guy was working for some sort of noise pollution commission, not a bootlegger as asshole Grant believed). Oh and let's not forget that security guy in Oakland who was very nearly beaten to death by Grant and his thugs.

No.

My point about Grant was the same as yours - that Grant was a borderline mobster of enormous size and strength who feared nobody and seems to have thought he could get away with anything. If somebody had complained, sent a letter, or sued, Grant would have paid them a personal visit, then either used his industry connections to keep them from pressing charges, or if they did, gotten an alibi from the whole Zeppelin road crew that he'd been drinking with them all night. And I wouldn't be surprised if Page & Co. had stolen credit for themselves on his specific advice.