Howlin' Wolf / Moanin' In The Moonlight

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Product Details

Artist : Howlin' Wolf
Binding : Audio CD
EAN : 0076732590829
Label : Universal
Number of Discs : 1
Product Group : Music
Release Date : 1999-12-23
UPC : 076732590829

ASIN : B000002O3I

Track Listings for

Disc-1
1. Shake for Me
2. Red Rooster
3. You'll Be Mine
4. Who's Been Talking?
5. Wang Dang Doodle
6. Little Baby
7. Spoonful
8. Goin' Down Slow
9. Down in the Bottom
10. Back Door Man
11. Howlin' for My Baby
12. Tell Me
13. Moanin' at Midnight
14. How Many More Years
15. Smokestack Lightning
16. Baby How Long
17. No Place to Go
18. All Night Boogie (All Night Long)
19. Evil
20. I'm Leaving You
21. Moanin' for My Baby
22. I Asked for Water (She Gave Me Gasoline)
23. Forty-Four
24. Somebody in My Home

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Editorial Reviews

From Amazon.com

This package combines blues giant Howlin' Wolf's first two albums, themselves compilations of his singles released between 1951 and 1962. Apart from two tracks cut in Memphis with Ike Turner, these Chess Studios recordings are landmarks in the development of electric Chicago blues. The Mississippi Delta native's gruff persona towers over "Smokestack Lightnin'," "Red Rooster," "Spoonful," "Evil," "Wang Dang Doodle," "Back Door Man," and others that have become standards since being "discovered" by the Rolling Stones, Clapton, The Doors, et al. Almost as influential as Wolf's bottomless growl are the guitar playing of Hubert Sumlin and the writing and direction of Willie Dixon. An exceptional twofer value for such a weighty slice of American musical history. --Ben Edmonds

Customer Reviews

Essential Wolf (2004-11-25)

This is the most essential single Howlin' Wolf CD there could possibly be and would make an excellent first purchase for a Howlin' Wolf novice. It comprises The Wolf's first two long-player releases, both what we would now regard as compilations, and was put out by Chess/MCA in 1986.Moanin' In The Moonlight came out in America in 1959 and was made up of 12 selected A-sides and B-sides from the many 78's he released between 1951 and 1958, all monaural, including such classics as Smokestack Lightnin' and I Asked For Water (She Gave Me Gasoline). The LP kicks off with Moanin' At Midnight and How Many More Years, comprising both sides of his first Chess single, recorded in Memphis by Sam Phillips at what would become the Sun studios, long before Howlin' Wolf moved to Chicago. The songs on this LP are among the most elemental, eerie and powerful pieces of music ever committed to tape.Equally compelling is the second collection, usually known as the Rocking Chair album, released in the US in January 1962, when the genre was presented as the root of "Music Americana". It contained 3 previously unreleased songs recorded between May and December 1961, and 9 that were on 45's released in 1960 and 1961 (though two were recorded in 1957), but all in stereo. Famous songs include The Red Rooster, Wang Dang Doodle, Back Door Man and the Wolf's famous variation of Spoonful (he would have learned the original, fairly dissimilar Spoonful Blues from Charlie Patton) - though all staple fare for a million blues and rock bands ever since, none could match the intensity and darkness of these originals (although the Rolling Stones' Little Red Rooster came close). Most were written by Willie Dixon, who plays bass throughout, though there are a couple credited to Howlin' Wolf and a cover of St Louis Jimmy Oden's Goin' Down Slow, on which, unusually, the recitation is spoken by Willie Dixon.The division of stereo and mono recordings is not declared anywhere on the CD and seems somewhat arbitrary, especially since Who's Been Talkin' (stereo), Tell Me (stereo) and Somebody In My Home (mono) were all recorded on 24 June 1957.A note in the sleeve reads, "In our effort to bring you the originals for the cost of a single CD, we have omitted one selection due to the length of the combined original albums." Given the playing time of 66 minutes this is a very irritating message, but in my quest to discover the identity of the missing selection, after consulting several online discographies as far as I can tell it seems that all tracks are present and correct

Awesome (2004-06-19)

You could say that MCA/Chess' various Wolf compilations ("His Best", "His Best vol. 2", "The Genuine Article") have made this twofer-CD obsolete, but as an introduction to the great Howlin' Wolf it still ranks among the best.

The sound quality is not stellar (no remastering), but the songs certainly are."Howlin' Wolf / Moanin' In The Moonlight" brings together Wolf's first two LPs, the self-titled one usually called "The Rockin' Chair ALbum" due to the peaceful-looking picture on the cover of a rocking chair with an acoustic guitar propped up next to it...misleading cover art if I ever saw it!One song has been omitted due to the lenght of the original albums, the liner notes say. A completely meaningless excuse since this CD only runs for 65 minutes, but what's even more odd is that the material from Wolf's first album comes after the songs from his second one, putting latter-day Willie Dixon-penned material before early Wolf-penned songs (these two albums were not conceived as such, they were merely collections of oreviously issued singles as was customary at the time).

But those are minor quibbles. This certainly isn't everything you could ever want from the Wolf, but it is an excellent place to start. Many of his most accessible "mainstream" blues tunes are here, usually written by Dixon: "The Red Rooster" with its muscular, slinky slide guitar riff, the propulsive "Down In The Bottom", the gleeful "Back Door Man", the catchy hard-rocking "Howlin' For My Darlin'" (erroneously titled "Howlin' For My Baby"), and the slightly-too-cute "Wang Dang Doodle", which became very popular even though Wolf himself didn't like the song.But Wolf's own songs are here a-plenty as well, and those remain his most powerful: From the Rockin' Chair album comes the swaggering groove of "Tell Me", one of the most underexposed Wolf singles, and the Chicago blues classic "Who's Been Talking", a supremely funky arrangement with some powerful, syncopated drumming from Earl Phillips and a great piano part by Hosea Lee Kennard.

And "Moanin' At Midnight" is almost all Wolf, opening with his first hit single, the monster combination of the smouldering, piano-driven "How Many More Years" and the eerie "Moanin' At Midnight". The classic "Smokestack Lightnin'" is here, one of the pillars of early electric blues singles, and so is the menacing "Forty-Four", Wolf's take on Tommy Johnson's desperate "Cool Drink Of Water Blues" (retitled "I Asked For Water"), and a slew of rough, tough lesser-known songs like "I'm Leavin' You" (later covered by J.B. Hutto), "Somebody In My Home", "Baby How Long", and the wonderful early Dixon-composition "Evil".

Howlin' Wolf didn't carry himself with the statesman-like dignity of Muddy Waters, but his performances were the stuff of legend. A huge, intimidating man with a voice like heavy machinery operating on a gravel road, Wolf's early Chicago sides are some of the most awesome electric blues ever recorded, and no-one culd match the Wolf when it came to rocking the house (and scaring the audience out of its wits at the same time).

Wolf is not for everyone...even if you like a good dose of Muddy Waters, you may still be turned off by Wolf's class-gargling roar of a voice and sometimes bleak - or downright frightening - lyrics. But if you are interested in classic Chicago blues, Wolf's classic Chess sides are a must-own. Chester Burnett in his prime remains the most overwheling performer the genre has ever seen.

The stuff legends are made of (2003-06-30)

MCA/Chess' two excellent Howlin' Wolf-compilations, "His Best" and "His Best vol. II", have perhaps made this album a little obsolete, but if you just want one Howlin' Wolf album, or if you are perhaps looking for a place to start your collection, this is an excellent choice.

"Howlin' Wolf / Moanin' In The Moonlight" combine Chester Burnett's first two LPs on one CD, and these classic songs are a truly essential blues purchase.When these two albums were put together and released as a CD in 1986, the songs from Wolf's second album, the so-called "Rockin' Chair Album" (because of the cover art by Don Bronstein), were mysteriously put before the ones from his debut. But it doesn't really matter - almost every song from both these 1962 releases is a gem, from Willie Dixon's "The Red Rooster" and "Meet Me Down in The Bottom" to Wolf's own "How Many More Years", "Smokestack Lightnin'" and "Forty-Four", and a re-working of Tommy Johnson's menacing "I Asked For Water (she gave me gasoline)".

Wolf had one of the best backing-bands in the business, originally featuring the raw, blistering lead guitar work of Willie Johnson, but most of these recordings feature the magnificent playing of one of the the most underrated guitarists in the business, the sublime Hubert Sumlin.

This album is not necessarily a must-own in itself, since the best songs are also available elsewhere, but the music certainly is, and this is a good way of getting it.

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