Customer Reviews

Moanin in the Moonlight & Howlin Wolf

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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

Here are two classic Howlin' Wolf original albums collected on one CD, and it is some of the best blues music ever recorded. The Rocking Chair album must certainly have been one of Stevie Ray Vaughan's favourite album, because he recorded several songs from this one. I beleive this must be the best chicago blues album of all time. Moanin the Blues is just as great with songs as 'Evil', 'All night boogie' and 'Smokestack Lightning'. I have been a fan of Howlin' Wolf since I started listening to the blues in my teens, and his music continues to thrill and amaze me. I think you get your money's worth and more so if you get this one.

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), and neither is the packaging, but the songs certainly are.
"Howlin' Wolf / Moanin' In The Moonlight" brings together Wolf's first two LPs, one of them being 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 against 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 previously 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, often written by Willie 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 compositions are here as well, and plenty of them, 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 might not have caried 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 could match the Wolf when it came to rocking the house down to its foundations (and scaring the audience out of their 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 glass-gargling roar of a voice and sometimes bleak - or downright frightening - lyrics. But if you are interested in prime time Chicago blues, Wolf's classic Chess sides are a must-own. Chester Burnett in his prime remains the most overwhelming performer the genre has ever seen - alongside Son House, of course.

It's impossible to play favorites with any song performed by Howlin' Wolf and this two for one compilation is no exception. The Wolf's skill on the guitar and his slightly scratchy voice make each song an individual masterpiece. Containing his first two albums, "Howlin' Wolf" and "Moanin' In the Moonlight" this is one Blues album not to be missed.

Required listening for any fan of the Blues from one of its most influential and endearing artists.

Howlin' Wolf was the greatest blues singer of the Memphis/Chicago axis. No hyperbole - fact. He was also the second greatest blues songwriter of the 1950s (Muddy Waters and Willie Dixon, after all, share top billing there). And this package of his first two albums are all the proof you'll need, except for damn near everything else in the man's catalog. What makes these two albums as important as they are is that they also served as one of the basic texts of rock's rediscovery of the blues in the 1960s - particularly for the like of the Yardbirds, their erstwhile lead guitarist Eric Clapton, the Rolling Stones, and Cream, who made "Spoonful" one of their signature pieces from the outset and probably sent a host of folk scurrying to the source. What they discovered, if they were open enough, was perhaps the least reconstructed of the Delta-Memphis bred bluesmen who fed the Chicago blues scene. More than Muddy Waters or Sonny Boy Williamson, Howlin' Wolf kept the balance between the Delta and Chicago even-up and never let his root get too far from his tree. And riding the top, of course, was that singular voice and phrasing style, the one which more than any bluesman to follow Robert Johnson suggested both menace in the light and the sun beneath the darkness. This disc is probably one of the ten absolute requirements for any serious blues library. And it is dated not one bar.

No doubt about it, these are some of the best songs of the 50s blues renaissance, recorded by one of its most important figures, 300 lb., roaring firebrand, Howlin' Wolf. From the old fashioned party anthem, Wang Dang Doodle from the working man's theme, Goin' Down Slow to the low brow poetry of You'll Be Mine true to blues classics of the era's canyon of standards, Spoonful and Back Door Man, this is the blues defined. Out of all the blues CDs I own this is by far the best.

the band rumbles and shuffles, and the songs are brilliant, showing off both wolf's hitmaking talent ("wang dang doodle," "smokestack lightnin'," and the piercing "spoonful") and his devastating nightscapes, like "somebody in my home."

after you listen to this record the first thousand times, you can return to the rest of blues and rock and roll and listen with a knowing ear. this is an encyclopedia of the first ideas.

more than anything, his voice impresses: it towers and sways like a swamp pine. i think of this as a simply indispensable record.

if it was possible, this double album would get six stars out of five. the first half of the album contains most of the wolf's well- known songs, but it is the second half of this album which really sears and soars. wolf's voice is beyond description, and the guitar playing of both willie johnson and hubert sumlin is loud and vicious. it is hard to believe anything this distorted and nasty was recorded in the early fifties. this album shows what a talent the wolf was.

Let's get my only gripes out of the way now--a drunk monkey could've come up with better packaging than what comes with this 2-albums-in-one set. The cover art is sloppily integrated and cheap, the albums are oddly in reverse chronological order (the self-titled album was released in 1962, Moanin' In The Moonlight in 1959), the liner notes are minimal given Chester Burnett A.K.A. Howlin' Wolf's importance to modern blues and the sound quality is so-so (Chess offers a remastered single disc titled His Best, if this bothers you). They even left off a track due to what they claim is CD length limitations, which is B.S. since the whole thing is under 70 minutes and most of the existing tracks are under three. Who are they trying to kid?

Other than that, this is SEMINAL electric blues from one of the best in the business. Wolf is quite simply the finest blues vocalist ever--his gravelly, soulful, cavernous growl is unmistakable and awesome, befitting a man of such huge girth and power (listen to the microphone nearly detonate on the beginning of Moanin' In The Moonlight from trying to handle his voice). His lyrics exude passion and grit, but not without a touch of humor--this is blues to party to. The band behind him is equally potent, with Hubert Sumlin's iconic riffs and Willie Dixon's bass playing and songwriting acumen.

Every song from the self-titled is a classic--the boogie-blues of Shake For Me, innuendo-drenched Little Red Rooster, party stomper Wang Dang Doodle, slow-burning and funny Goin' Down Slow, and the catchy backbeat of Down From The Bottom being my favorites. Moanin' In The Moonlight isn't quite as memorable, but it too has its share of historical blues singles such as How Many More Years, Smokestack Lightnin', Forty Four, and the Dixon-penned Evil.

This is the real stuff, and an essential buy. Let's just hope this package gets updated for a new generation.

I heard "smokestack lightnin'" when I was a kid and never forgot it, it was that haunting. Decades later I remembered it and Howlin Wolf and I'm glad I did. You will be too. This is not over-produced studio blues. This is the real thing, warts and all and it is truly beautiful in its purity. R.L. Burnside has his place and it is fun, but this is the real thing.