Customer Reviews

The London Howlin' Wolf Sessions

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When you take Howlin' Wolf-one of the greatest Chicago bluesmen ever-and put him together with Eric Clapton, Bill Wyman, Charlie Watts and Steve Winwood, what do you get? You get one exciting blues album. I read somewhere that blues purists don't like this album, but I know from listening to it that this is pure, electric, energetic, rockin' blues.

The album starts off strong; the first thing you hear is Clapton's beautiful slide guitar riff on "Rockin' Daddy." On this track, we have Phil Upchurch on bass, Winwood on piano, The Wolf's long time lead guitarist Hubert Sumlin on rhythm guitar, Charlie Watts on drums, and The Wolf himself singing the vocals in his famous growling stlyle. We hear a wonderful solo from Clapton, who plays off the melody of the tune beautifully.

Ringo plays drums on "I Ain't Superstitious" and the results are awesome. With a horn section (Joe Miller, Jordan Sandke, Dennis Lansing) holding the roots of the chords, and Clapton playing a slide riff to back The Wolf's vocals, we get a truly great jam.

The rest of the album is as exciting has the first two songs. We hear Jeffrey M. Carp's soulful harp on "Sittin' On Top Of The World," and The Wolf's vocals are just as astounding. Clapton adds another creative solo, again playing off the beautiful melody of the song. Later in the album, we hear the amusing Willie Dixon tune "Built For Comfort" in which the horn section mentioned before adds its unique touch. "Highway 49" is one of the highlights of the album, with classic guitar riffs and The Wolf's soulful, bluesy singing. You get the feeling that no one could sing this song like The Wolf. Basically, when buying blues, you can't go wrong with Howlin' Wolf. Overall, this album is excellent. It is a beautiful display of classic blues performed by an all-star cast.

After the success of Muddy Waters' Fathers and Sons album, Chess Records decided to do something similar with Howlin' Wolf. So, they got young rock stars like Eric Clapton, Steve Winwood, Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts to record with Wolf. The results were good, although not as good as Wolf's older recordings. Practically all of these songs had been recorded by Wolf before, in better versions. Wolf's voice was not quite as strong as it once was, and the younger musicians didn't quite mesh with Wolf as well as the old bluesmen he usually worked with did. But this is still an enjoyable album that blues fans should enjoy.

Howlin' Wolf sings his classic songs. The Rolling Stones rhythm section of Wyman & Watts. Clapton plays lead guitar & Stevie Winwood handles the keyboards. Really, is there any way this could have gone wrong? Well, it didn't. The band never would have forgiven themselves if they'd screwed it up.

If you had taken Wolf out of the equation, these guys probably could not have fit their swollen heads & bloated egos into the same room. But they did it for Wolf, & they did it the right way.

Clapton's lead lines, fills & solos were creative without getting showy -- he worked to make every song better without making it the Eric Clapton show. Wyman & Watts had it the easiest, since they always checked their egos at the door w/the Stones while pushing the beat. Winwood contented himself to just be a sideman for an entire album, which may have been the biggest surprise of all.

So, is this a Blues album or a Rock album? Either or both. In fact, it is the best evidence available of how little difference there could be between the two, properly approached. OK, it may be just the teensiest bit too antiseptic to be a genuine Blues album. That having been said, it is perfect for what it is. The acolytes giving props to the elder master, helping him to a late career payday that he surely needed, and the master acknowledging that (as we say on the South Side these days) the kids could play. All concerned acquitted themselves honorably.

It sounded great in the '70's, & still does.

This album was my introduction to the Wolf, and I loved it. It was after I had heard some of his other work and then came back to the London Sessions that I found myself disappointed. Howlin' Wolf possessed the most distinctive voice in blues--a genre full of distinct voices. The London Sessions feature a fairly ill, and rather old Howlin' Wolf, and he simply doesn't have the raw power that he possessed on earlier albums. The songs on this album are good as always, and the Rolling Stones' rhythm section, the Eric Clapton guitar work, give Wolf an updated rock feel. If you're looking for classic blues songs with a slightly smoother feel and production, this is definitely a great purchase. But if you want Wolf at his most powerful, check out something earlier, like "Moanin' in the Moonlight".

Don't listen to the so-called Blues purists! 'THE LONDON HOWLIN' WOLF SESSIONS' will rock your socks off. And if you go barefooted, then you'd better hang onto your hat!

I remember when the eponymous 'Van Halen' album was released in 1978, some writer for a music magazine reviewed it and criticized the song 'You Really Got Me' for being spunkless. "Spunkless"? There's a lot of things one might say about that song, but "spunkless" damn sure ain't one of them. Similarly, this Howlin' Wolf album has been frequently denigrated by Blues fans who like to appear highbrow and above the "adulterated" late-period Blues that found White wannabes collaborating with the genuine articles. It doesn't seem to matter to these people that the songs here are so hot they're smokin'!

In the very early 1980s when I was first considering buying this album (in the vinyl form), I saw a review in which the writer said that the tepid playing from the famous English Rock instrumentalists backing Howlin' Wolf (Chester Arthur Burnett, 1910-1976) on this recording suggested that the young White boys were intimidated by the huge, old Black Bluesman (Wolf was over 6 feet and nearly 300 pounds). I nearly passed on this record because of that asinine comment. (Yeah, the playing is tepid just like 'You Really Got Me' is "spunkless"!) Fortunately, curiosity got the best of me, I purchased the "licorice pizza" (now in the CD format), and I've been happily rockin' out to this bad boy for about twenty-one years now. And although I am well-educated in The Blues (I was probably drinking heavily late at night to Robert Johnson's, 'King Of The Delta Blues Singers' before you were born), this is still one of my most frequently spun Blues sets - and when I do spin it, I crank it up LOUD because it scares the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Mormons off of my front porch!

Sure, Wolf was old and ill when these tracks were cut (1970), but can you find a single young, White or Black contemporary rebel singer [sic] who sounds even half as ferocious as the Wolf does here? Don't bother answering - that was a rhetorical question because "NO" is the obvious reply.

From the opening track, 'ROCKIN' DADDY', with its thick rhythm, Eric Clapton's fiery guitar licks, and the Wolf singing enticements to a woman (trying his best not to scare her off), it's clear that this quasi-Blues/Rock amalgamation is going to kick rump. And boy does it ever!

"YES, THEY CALL ME THE ROCKER; I CAN REALLY ROCK YOU ALL NIGHT LONG. I CAN LET YOU DOWN EASY WHEN I THINK YOUR MONEY'S GONE."

'Rockin' Daddy' moves right into the slightly slower, but no less rhythmically chunky and no less ferocious, 'I AIN'T SUPERSTITIOUS.' The one-two punch of the piano and horns is enough to frighten the fainthearted, and that's without mentioning the menace in Wolf's deep howl and the "sekshual" tension throughout.

"WELL, THE DOGS ALL HOWLIN' ALL OVER THE NEIGHBORHOOD. THAT'S A TRUE SIGN THINGS AIN'T NO GOOD...PLAY IT ON! GO 'HEAD AND HOWL UNDER THE MOONLIGHT, 'CAUSE I GOT MY BABY BY MY SIDE; BOYS, SHE THE SWEETEST THING YOU EVER SEEN. YOUR DOGS IS HOWLIN', AND THE HOUNDS. PLAY! LISTEN BABY, HAVE YOU EVER BEEN LOVED BY A MAN THEY CALL THE WOLF?"

"I'M WORRIED ABOUT YOU, BABY. AND YOU'D BETTER BE WORRIED ABOUT ME!"

"I'M GONNA LEAVE YOU, WOMAN, BEFORE I COMMIT A CRIME."

The dialogue between Wolf and the White Rockers before they launch into 'THE RED ROOSTER' is classic: Trying to get Wolf to play the acoustic guitar on the track, Clapton feigns an inability to grasp his part unless he can follow the Wolf's fingering. After some cajoling, Wolf - indisputably the alpha in this pack - puts an end to the discussion when he emphatically says, "Alright, let's get on it!" And do they! And borrowing from the Wolf's command, I've been using that phrase, "let's get on it", for the last twenty-one years.

"SOME FOLKS BUILT LIKE THIS; SOME FOLKS BUILT LIKE THAT. BUT THE WAY I'M BUILT, DON'TCHA CALL ME FAT. BECAUSE I'M BUILT FOR COMFORT; I AIN'T BUILT FOR SPEED. BUT I GOT EVERYTHING, OH, A GOOD GIRL NEEDS."

"WE GONNA PITCH A WANG DANG DOODLE ALL NIGHT LONG. LET ME HOWL TO YA: WA-OOO! WA-OOO! WA-OOO! ALL NIGHT WA-OOO!"

If you're already a Blues enthusiast, there's no reason for you not to own the Wolf's early, rawest material found on the "twofer", 'Howlin' Wolf / Moanin' In The Moonlight'. That collection includes his standards, 'Spoonful'; 'Smokestack Lightnin''; 'Evil'; and 'Goin' Down Slow.' But if you're coming straight from the Rock genre, then 'THE LONDON HOWLIN' WOLF SESSIONS' is a perfect place for you to get introduced to this mountain of a man and one of the true giants in Blues.

Either way, this album should be kept within reach of everyone who wants a surefire way to answer the door when the proselytizers show up on the porch. At the first knock, crank up the Wolf and then watch how fast they skedaddle. One time, two women dropped their 'Watchtower' pamphlets and outran their undergarments - left 'em right there in an indecorous heap on my stoop. And I had one Mormon man bolt so fast that his toupee was still hanging in midair when I opened the door!

No doubt about it, ya simply MUST have this Wolf album in yer collection. "ALRIGHT, LET'S GET ON IT!"

Some collaborations of "superstar" musicians and Blues Legends just don't work out. This one certainly does, though. The impressive list of musicians includes Eric Clapton, Stevie Winwood, Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts. Hubert Sumlin, Howlin' Wolf's lead guitarist is also present, although Clapton takes the lead role here. And on this record, all the musicians demonstrate they know how to play blues. They provide fine backing for Wolf, who never sounded better, and their playing is always loyal to the original recordings. Eric Clapton is particularly impressive, and should be proud he was part of this album. The songs are all re-workings of Wolf classics. "What a Woman" has a thunderous riff - play it loud. "Little Red Rooster" is also outstanding - A rehearsal of this song is also included.

This is an excellent album - essential for fans of Howlin' Wolf, also a good introduction to someone to hasn't heard him before. It was recorded in 1971, five years before Howlin' Wolf's death.

I've read reviews of this that have called it a turkey, blues purists SEEM to hate it. After all, these are white english kids, for cripes sake! Well, a lot of these white english kids helped a lot of American kids learn about stuff they had never heard of.

I bought this album when it first came out. I knew who Clapton was, I knew who Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts were, I knew who Stevie Winwood was. I did NOT know who Howlin Wolf was. So, as a result of this album I learned who Howlin Wolf was and eventually bought more of his albums.

But regardless, this is an album that I enjoy listening too! I believe that the musicianship of the guys playing on this is much better than it's credited as being. Yeah, the Red Rooster intro is one that probably should have been left out. I've never been able to figure out why they left that in.

I've read that Clapton has disparaged this album and his involvement in it. I've never actually heard/read his words on this. It makes me sad. I've heard of lot of other stuff that has been released with the blessing of artists that truly sucks.

Anyway, don't pass on this because some music critic panned it. It's a darn good album.

The gold has a number of bonus tracks from the session and the remastering has really cleaned up the recording. One such bonus track is a studio conversation of the Wolf teachin Clapton the chords to Little Red Rooster. classic! The story goes that in the middle of the night Bill Wyman got a phone call and was asked if he wanted to jam with the Wolf. He showed up in a red hot minute. And what a night, and a testament to the brilliance of the Wolf, he got darn close to getting the best of British rock with Clapton, Wyman, Watts, Winwood, and bunch of others.

I've often heard that "blues purists" have great disdain for this album, which leads me to think the definition of "blues purist" is "someone who tries way too hard to not like good music."

Sure, Wolf was old. Sure, you can tell he wasn't in great health. But he was still perfectly able to get a song over and still had ample power upon which to draw when he needed to. The performances by the backing musicians (particularly Ian Stewart) are generally impeccable, the arrangements are tasteful if at times a bit cluttered, and Eric Clapton manages to walk the fine line between showcasing his own chops and not stepping on the toes of Wolf or his material. I think he pulls it off splendidly.

My only two complaints about this album are A) The Steve Winwood organ solo on "Who's Been Talking" (more '60s psychedelia than Chicago blues, sounds out of place), and the criminal relegation of the great Hubert Sumlin to (barely audible) rhythm guitar duties. This is like asking Michelangelo to paint tract houses, and the album would have benefited if Clapton and Sumlin both played lead guitar.

Aside from those fairly minor gripes, there's not really anything to dislike about this album if you enjoy listening to great musicians play great music. Highly recommended.

Eric Clapton, Stevie Winwood, Charlie Watts and others in the London music scene at the time play Wolf's classic songs with the Wolf holding court on vocals and harmonica...this was a priceless one-shot deal that produced versions of WANG DANG DOODLE, SITTING ON TOP OF THE WORLD, ROCKIN' DADDY and others that I never get tired of listening to. Although it sounds like they were having fun anyone interested in the background ought to read about how scared everyone was of this legend in the studio (see Clapton's bio by M. Schumacher). All in all, not to be missed by blues fans! Chester Burnett raised the stakes here with his contankerousness and everyone responded by playing at the top of their game!