Customer Reviews

Memphis Days: The Definitive Edition Vol. 1

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Sam Phillips was devistated by the news that the Wolf was going to move to Chicago. It just spoiled all his plans to back Howlin' Wolf as the main man from Sun records (Memphis,Ten). After the Wolf left, Sam decided to back the young trucker named Elvis. Howlin' Wolf had a hat full of tunes pooring out of his head years before he ever recorded, some tunes we will never hear. You will find a lot of the available CDs carry the same cuts, except for this one. THUNDERING music from the source. When Sam Phillips said of the Wolf, "this is where the soul of man never dies" these were the recordings he spoke of. The two voices from his throat, the terrible piano runs, the dirty guitar, and the drums like popping balloons. You will be able to listen to these cuts a million times over and always find yourself startled to your foundation.

Great to see this back in print! Nothing more to add to the above, except it is just magnificent in every way, and the documentation is a music course in itself. Save time and grab the other volume while you're at it-you'll want it anyway! The two disks really should have been packaged together because the documentation at times refers to material in the other set. Essential!

The word is that the Memphis tracks are "primitive" compared to Wolf's later work for Chess. This is true and not true. In fact, the sound quality on this release is quite good and the band is cooking. Willie Johnson's guitar work is simultaneously jazzy and distorted. It's actually very compelling and unique, and Wolf's harp work, while basic and limited, is absolutely perfect in this context. He and Johnson compliment each other very well. Bear Family does a great job with the remastering, considering it was done 20 years ago. Many of these tracks were finally released on The Chess Box and Don't Wanna Be Your Dog, but this is still a definitive collection and prime Wolf. He certainly went on to great heights with Chess, and had access to Dixon's songs and Chess's production excellence, but whether he bettered these sides is certainly debatable.

howlin wolf is the man, and he shows you just that on this album there are many of his songs out there, not easy to put em all on every album. but anyhow this is just awsome blues, howlin sure did rock his heart out every time he took the stage and we can clearly see it on here. he is the king. is one of my favorite bluesrockers. stevie ray vaughan howlin wolf and albert king. those boys knew how to rock. and so if you are needing to add to your collection of blues are your howlin wolf albums, this isnt a bad choice take it from me. i love it. a fan of real blues.