The Howlin’ Wolf Album is a 1969 album by Howlin’ Wolf, with members of the Rotary Connection as his backing band. It combined blues with psychedelic rock covers of several of Howlin’ Wolf’s classic songs. Howlin’ Wolf did not particularly like the album, a fact noted on the album cover, which instead of a photo has the phrase “This is Howlin’ Wolf’s new album. He doesn’t like it. He didn’t like his electric guitar at first either”. The album reached No. 69 on Billboard magazine’s Black Albums Chart and the album’s single, “Evil”, reached No. 43 on the R&B Singles Chart.
In 1967, Marshall Chess formed Cadet Concept Records as a subsidiary of Chess Records. The label’s first release was the self-titled debut album by psychedelic band Rotary Connection, whose members at Chess described as “the hottest, most innovative rock kids in Chicago”. As a result of the album’s success, Chess felt it could revive the careers of bluesmen Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf by recording two albums of experimental, psychedelic blues with members of Rotary Connection as backing for the singers, releasing the albums Electric Mud and The Howlin’ Wolf Album. Chess hoped that the new albums would sell well among fans of psychedelic rock bands influenced by Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf.
The regular Howlin’ Wolf members were replaced by Gene Barge (saxophone), Pete Cosey (guitar), Roland Faulkner (guitar), Morris Jennings (drums), Louis Satterfield, Charles Stepney (bass) and Phil Upchurch (guitar). Cosey, Upchurch and Jennings jokingly suggested the name The Electric Niggers. Marshall Chess liked the idea, but his father Leonard Chess refused to allow the name.
The album incorporated the use of a wah-wah pedal and a fuzzbox on the guitars. Marshall Chess emphasized the upbeat tempo of this Howlin’ Wolf band with the use of an electric instrument and saxophone. Blues purists criticized the album’s psychedelic sound. Howlin’ Wolf also disliked the sound, which he did not consider to be blues. According to guitarist Pete Cosey, during the recording sessions, Howlin’ Wolf looked at him and said, “Why don’t you take the wah-wahs and all that junk and go throw it in the lake while you’re getting your haircut?”
Marshall Chess referred to Howlin’ Wolf’s opposition to the album cover, except for the back cover, as he had enthusiastically embraced the use of the electric guitar and led the first all-electric blues band in West Memphis in the early 1950s, yet still called the album “dog shit”. However, according to Chess, the album’s cover affected its sales, who later stated that “he used the negativity in the title and that was a big lesson. You can’t say on the cover that the artist didn’t like the album, it’s not selling as well as it should. It was just a trial, an experiment.”
Through this otherwise excellent album I select the cover of Willie Dixon’s song “Back Door Man”.
Tracklist
1. Spoonful 3:48
2. Tail Dragger 4:20
3. Smokestack Lightning 5:54
4. Moanin’ At Midnight 3:13
5. Built For Comfort 5:07
6. The Red Rooster 3:48
7. Evil 4:06
8. Down In The Bottom 2:43
9. Three Hundred Pounds Of Joy 2:34
10. Back Door Man 6:17
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