Ain't Gonna Be Your Dog: Chess Collectibles V.2 [Import]

Howlin Wolf, Howlin' Wolf | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 6, 2004)
• Number of Discs: 2
• Format: Import
• Label: Universal
• ASIN: B0002J51QC
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #493,206 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Look-A-Here Baby

2. California Blues # 1

3. Worried All The Time

4. Everybody's In The Mood

5. Color And Kind

6. Dorothy Mae

7. Sweet Woman

8. Decoration Day

9. Oh Red

10. I'm Not Joking

11. Highway My Friend

12. Hold Your Money

13. California Blues # 2

14. Stay Here Til My Baby Comes Back

15. Come To Me Baby

16. So Glad

17. Bluebird

18. My Life

19. You Ought To Know

20. Nature

See all 42 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ****1/2. Finally!, September 2, 2004

By 

Docendo Discimus (Vita scholae) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ain't Gonna Be Your Dog: Chess Collectibles V.2 (Audio CD)

This wonderful double CD has been unavailable for a while. Get it while you can!

"Ain't Gonna Be Your Dog" should be as easily available as any of Wolf's MCA/Chess compilations...it gathers fourteen previously unreleased recordings which Wolf made for Sam Phillips in Memphis, as well as numerous other rare and unissued performances, alternates, and a handful of acoustic solo recordings featuring just Wolf and his guitar.
And these are certainly not bottom-of-the-barrel scrapings. There are so many fine songs here, rough, tough, electric blues, superbly arranged, and featuring musicians like guitarist Willie Johnson, harpist James Cotton, saxists Billy Duncan, Eddie Shaw and J.T. Brown, several powerful yet swinging drummers, and piano players Hosea Lee Kennard and Johnny Jones. And Hubert Sumlin is here too, of course.

There are too many highlights to mention, really, but I'm going to pick a few anyway, like "Poor Wind That Never Change", co-written by Wolf and Alex Atkins, and utilizing the tune of "Careless Love", and one of the few Willie Dixon-songs on this compilation, "Long Green Stuff".
The vast majority of these 42 songs are written by the Wolf himself, and many of them, like "Decoration Day Blues", "Getting Late" and the instrumental "Wolf In The Mood", display Wolf's prowess on the harmonica much better than most of the better-known Chess sides.
Songs like "Color And Kind", "Highway My Friend", the horn-driven "Oh Red", and the late-60s powerhouses "I Had A Dream" and "The Big House" are all among Wolf's best original compositions, and you have to be impressed by the complex slide guitar riff that he plays on the solo performance of "Rollin' And Tumblin'" - while he is singing, that is.

This is not the place to start appreciating the Wolf, but once you've got his classic Chess sides, make sure you grab this one as well. It is a tremendous addition to his legacy.