Howlin’ Wolf Interview
âI always make up songs about the way people live and how people act amongst themselves. Ups and downs they have. Some people have ups and downs, and what caused these things. A lot of people come out and sing but they donât never put their sweetening into it. Youâve got to tell the peoples why youâre singing this, and what causing this, and showing them what youâre singing. Youâve got to make your story clear to the peoples if you want to hand it to them. Youâve got to make a story now and make it stick. Youâve got to tell people just like it is. How things go. Youâve got to make everything, every word tailored. Every word fits.â – Howlin’ Wolf (Chester Arthur Burnett, June 10, 1910 – Jan 10, 1976)Â
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Howlin’ Wolf Interview Transcript:
Transcript:
A Note About the Transcriptions: In order to expedite the process of putting these interviews online, we are using a transcription service. Due to the challenges of transcribing speech â especially when it contains regional accents and refers to regional places and names â some of these interview transcriptions may contain errors. Â We have tried to correct as many as possible, but if you discover errors while listening, please send corrections to info@arhoolie.org.Â
This transcript has been kindly reviewed, edited and corrected by Mark Hoffman Co-author of âMoaninâ at Midnight: The Life and Times of Howlinâ Wolfâ
Chris: Wolf, where were you raised?
Howlinâ Wolf: Monroe County. Itâs about 150 miles from Memphis, Tennessee: south.
Chris: That down in the Delta?
Howlinâ Wolf: Itâs in Mississippi in the hills, well, letâs say the prairies.
Chris: Who were some of the people that you heard when you were a kid?
Howlinâ Wolf: Blind Lemon Jefferson.
Chris: Did he come through there?
Howlinâ Wolf: He come through there, but I didnât get to say nothinâ to him. I just seen him on the bandstand, you know? That was Charlie Patton, the blues singer, around Ruleville, Mississippi. Thatâs in Sunflower County. I listened to Lonnie Johnson and Mama Rainey. Also, Tampa Red but Lemon Jefferson was my favorite guitar player because he could play notes clear and I like the clear notes on guitar.
Chris: Yeah, he would pick them.
Howlinâ Wolf: Yeah, he picked them more clearly and you could understand what he was doing.
Chris: Did you see Charlie Patton and them guys in beer joints, neighborhood joints?
Howlinâ Wolf: Well, you see, wasnât no beer joints at that time. It was country houses âŚ
Chris: Road houses.
Howlinâ Wolf: No, just country houses on the plantation. Each in one would play for him maybe for Saturday night, Sunday night, and I would follow them around and try to get them to learn me. Charlie started me out picking the guitar, Charlie Patton. Sonny Boy Rice Miller he started me on the blowing the harmonica.
Unknown voice: How old were you when you started? You play beautiful harp.
Howlinâ Wolf: Well, I reckon I was about Iâd say 17 when I started blowing the harp.
Unknown voice: Did you play really actively when you were young or did you just play around?
Howlinâ Wolf: No, I played around on the plantation, you know/ because I was kinda shy. I had never seen anything. At least anybody come along holler boo!, I was ready to run.
Unknown voice: When did you start on the guitar?
Howlinâ Wolf: I started 1928, the 15th day of January, guitar. I quit about five years playing guitar once, and I quit again in World War II in â41, April in â41.
Unknown voice: Did you serve in the war?
Howlinâ Wolf: Yeah, I spent five years in the service. I lost 10 years of me and my music.
Unknown voice: I bet that was really rough being in the service. You probably donât get a chance to play much.
Howlinâ Wolf: No, no, no. That never happen. Then I was back home about three or four years more before I decided I really wanted to play. So I picked it up again.
Unknown voice: Who did you listen to of the electric guitarists when you started to play?
Howlinâ Wolf: Electric guitarists? Well, at first when I got saw was in Sears and Roebuck books, catalogs, you know. Fact it been, I think I was the first one ever brought electric guitar through the Arkansas side you know, because all the rest of the people had those ordinary guitars.
Unknown voice: Did you get around to hear people in other towns very much at all when you were living down there?
Howlinâ Wolf: No, no.
Unknown voice: You just were pretty much âŚâŚ
Howlinâ Wolf: No, because I was a day hand. I laid around on the farms.
Chris: Where was it near? Near Helena?
Howlinâ Wolf: No, this is âŚ
Chris: Way back in the â30s.
Howlinâ Wolf: No, it was between West Memphis and Forrest City, Arkansas. We stayed in a place they called Parkin, Arkansas, P-A-R-K-I-N.
Chris: I know where that is. Did you work as a one man band ever? Did you go out in the streetsâŚ
Howlinâ Wolf: Yeah, I went out in the street and sung as a one man band, had my harp around my neck like Jimmy Reed, you know? I had me some kind of horn on my knee and had my guitar.
Unknown voice: When did you first move up north?
Howlinâ Wolf: I came up here in â52.
Unknown voice: You worked at a radio station.
Howlinâ Wolf: Yes, in West Memphis. I was a planters disc jockey, speak about the plow tools and cows and grain and stuff like that. It wasnât like the big station over in Memphis. They spoke about a lot of merchandise, but I spoke about a lot of plow tools.
Unknown voice: Like a rural station for rural people.
Howlinâ Wolf: For the rural people, I spoke about the plow tools and the hay and the corn and stuff. So I come to be good and then the peoples want me to take in some of their shopping broadcast.
Unknown voice: Did you ever run into Walter Horton while you were there, the harp man? Big Walter?
Howlinâ Wolf: Walter Horton?
Unknown voice: Yeah. He played harp.
Howlinâ Wolf: Shakey head Walter?
Unknown voice: Yeah.
Howlinâ Wolf: Yeah, I know Walter Horton.
Unknown voice: What about Memphis Minnie
Howlinâ Wolf: She was in Memphis. I donât know. I heard now that she had a stroke and lived awhile and died.
Chris: No, sheâs still alive. Sheâs still living in Memphis.
Howlinâ Wolf: I heard she had a stroke.
Chris: Yeah, she did.
Chris: I was wondering when you got your name of Howlinâ Wolf, did you ever hear the old Howlinâ Wolf on Vocalion Records? A long time ago there was another Howlinâ Wolf. He couldnât really sing like you do, but he called himself. He made the âHowlinâ Wolf Bluesâ?
Howlinâ Wolf: Yes, I heard of him.
Unknown voice: Not as good though.
Chris: Did you get your idea from that?
Howlinâ Wolf: No, no. My grandfather gave me the idea.
Chris: Is that right?
Howlinâ Wolf: They used to tell me stories about the wolves and the animals in the forest, see. The way they told it, I thought the wolf was about the baddest one out there. So Iâd keep up a lot of devilment and theyâd say, Iâm going to put that wolf on you. Heâll be here directly. Every night, when I get ready to go to sleep, Iâd worry them to tell me the story about the wolf. They just kept calling me Wolf and itâd make me mad, you know what I mean?
Chris: Thereâs so little known about Rice Miller, the Sonny Boy that was over in Europe. Did you know him when he was younger man?
Howlinâ Wolf: Mm-hmm.
Chris: What was his real name then? Do you know?
Howlinâ Wolf: Yes, Rice Miller.
Chris: It was Rice Miller.
Howlinâ Wolf: Rice Miller.
Chris: Where was he from? Do you know?
Howlinâ Wolf: Yes.
Unknown voice: âŚâŚÂ 45 miles Sonny Terry and Brownie McGee. That was the St. Louis special âŚâŚâŚ
Chris: No, that was ⌠They came from a different area. They came from a different section. They came from the Carolinas.
Unknown voice: That was the St. Louis Fever.
Howlinâ Wolf: He was raised up around, I come into him, I met him at a place called Sunnyside, Mississippi and Slaughter, Mississippi and Greenwoods, Mississippi. We come to be friends and I taken him home with me and he saw my sister. He married my sister in the â40s, somewhere in there.
Chris: What was her name?
Howlinâ Wolf: Maggie.
Chris: Maggie.
Howlinâ Wolf: Jones.
Chris: Does he sing about her in one song he does about the West Memphis Blues?
Howlinâ Wolf: No, no. He donât sing about her. And so him and her got on bad terms some kind of way, and he left because I didnât think he wanted to work, you know?
Chris: Was he already blowing harp then?
Howlinâ Wolf: Yes, he was blowing harp. Then he left, come to Helena, got on King Biscuit time and they put him over big over there, and so he got to the place he got good in some kind of way, and they messed up over there and had to leave there by night. They taken him away in an ambulance, you know? Sonny Boy was a rough boy in his lifetime. You know, some people, they quickly get carried away with the life. Thatâs like so many young musicians today. They got big heads instead of having a big heart.
Unknown voice: Do you remember a man named Charles Lloyd in one of your groups? He played saxophone.
Howlinâ Wolf: Charles Lloyd?
Unknown voice: Yeah, tall guy?
Unknown voice: Tall fellow.
Unknown voice: Yeah.
Howlinâ Wolf: No, I didnât know him.
Unknown voice: You know what Sonny Boy, his real problem there was? âŚâŚ You know the [XDI 00:10:37] club over there? He owned that.
Howlinâ Wolf: Who?
Unknown voice: He owned it. Sonny Boy.
Chris: Do you remember the other Sonny Boy who recorded for the Bluebird Company.
Howlinâ Wolf: Yeah, Sonny Boy Williams.
Chris: Yeah. Which one do you think got the name first?
Howlinâ Wolf: The one what got killed.
Chris: The one who made a Bluebird record?
Howlinâ Wolf: Yeah.
Howlinâ Wolf: This Rice Miller, he tried to use his name in the south. I think Sonny Boy put a little pressure on him, and he had to change it to Little Boy Blue.
Unknown voice: Is that right?
Howlinâ Wolf: He was on a Helena broadcast station as Little Boy Blue because Sonny Boy, before he died, he put pressure on him about using his name down south because it mixed up a lot of people.
Unknown voice: When did you put your first band together?
Howlinâ Wolf: My first band? Oh, I put my first band together in â48.
Unknown voice: Who did it have in it? Do you remember?
Howlinâ Wolf: I had Willie Johnson on guitar, and I had Ike Turner.
Unknown voice: Ike Turner?
Howlinâ Wolf: Ike Turner used to be my piano player.
Unknown voice: Is that right? I didnât know that. Thatâs great.
Howlinâ Wolf: I had a drummer called Willie Steels.
Unknown voice: Iâve heard of him.
Howlinâ Wolf: Thatâs all we had, piano, guitar, drum and harp.
Unknown voice: When did you start working with horns?
Howlinâ Wolf: Well, after I come to be pretty good, I used a lot of horns around Memphis, different ones. You canât keep them horns, you know, and so I decided I wouldnât fool with any more horns. Just stay with you awhile and they get the big ideas and take off. Them horns want to play jazz. Jazz wonât fit what Iâm doing.
Unknown voice: Yeah, thatâs right.
Howlinâ Wolf: Iâm up there playing for life and death on Smokestack Lightning and he playing hoop bop a dop!
Unknown voice: Thatâs crazy, Wolf.
Unknown voice: Wolf, you know the man that play After Hours. âŚâŚ. Ike Turner. He used to play for you.
Howlinâ Wolf: Yeah, Ike Turner used to play for me.
Unknown voice: Ike Turnerâs good on After HoursâŚ
Howlinâ Wolf: Yeah. I know him before he started playing guitarâŚ
Unknown voice: Do you know his wife?
Howlinâ Wolf: Tina? Yeah.
Unknown voice: Sheâs a knockout Did you hear that?
Unknown voice: Yeah, I went to school with her.
Chris: What do you think about all these kids doing your songs, like âSpoonfulâ? Iâve been hearing that.
Howlinâ Wolf: Well Iâll tell you, thereâs nothing wrong with that. I want all of them to make my records, because I gets money out of it, see.
Unknown voice: Have you ever heard any of the younger groups that you like?
Howlinâ Wolf: Oh yeah, Iâve heard a lot them.
Unknown voice: Who are some of them that you liked?
Howlinâ Wolf: I like The Rolling Stones, Mule Skinners. I like these boys thatâs playing in here tonight. Very much.
Unknown voice: You like Little Rascals?
Howlinâ Wolf: No, I donât know too much about the peoples down here.
Howlinâ Wolf: Go get some more.
It doesnât matter no different who sang your song. They sang because of the way they feel. Donât never take and try to change a musician when he does something. Let him play the chords the way he feel. Just like in a conversation with a bunch of people. You talk the way they talk. Donât try to change nothing, because everything thatâs did, somebody added the background to it.
Unknown voice: Even a record you put out âLouiseâ
Howlinâ Wolf: Yeah. Jimmie Rodgers.
Chris: On yeah, the old Jimmy Rodgers.
Howlinâ Wolf: He used to sing, âHoo da lay dee,â you know what I mean? Well I drop mines a little different from him.
Chris: He was really well known.
Howlinâ Wolf: That was my friend.
Chris: Did you meet him?
Howlinâ Wolf: Oh yeah, I been with him a lot of times.
Chris: Is that right? Oh, thatâs great.
Chris: What sort of shows did you play with him?
Howlinâ Wolf: I didnât play no shows. He just come down through the prairies, you know. He had different friends down through there, you know? On some of those plantations, you know, he had some friend. While heâd been down there, he just taken up with me. It seemed like I had good sound sense. I was a good boy. So when Iâd sit down, heâd be out there on the porch playing to the white people. When he get through playing to the white people, he said, âYou seem like youâre innocent.â âYes,â Iâd say. âI am.â So heâd sit down and yodel to me.
Unknown voice: You two were making history.
Howlinâ Wolf: Yeah. Heâd sit down and yodel to me and then Iâd get out in the field and Iâd yodel. I wouldnât yodel just like him. I brought mine down more different. You know.
Chris: It was just a matter of that âSpoonfulâ being kind of a dirty song, wasnât it, to begin with?
Howlinâ Wolf: Yes, it was a dirty song.
Chris: Kind of like the dirty dozen?
Howlinâ Wolf: Yeah. You see, I really didnât want to sing it but they insist, you know.
Unknown voice: What about the Little Red Rooster, that you had going?
Howlinâ Wolf: That one come from Charlie Patton. That was his title. But I just changed it around a little bit.
Chris: When did you first meet Hubert, your guitar player?
Howlinâ Wolf: I met him in Hughes, Arkansas.
Chris: Did he come to Chicago with you?
Howlinâ Wolf: Yeah, I paid his way.
Chris: What kind of hit you when you first went to Europe, when all these kids went crazy for you? Did you ever experience that before here?
Howlinâ Wolf: No, I had never experienced it before. I donât know who gave me that chance, but I sure appreciate it. Itâs right down my alley. I wondered who give me that chance. It sure was good for me. I really appreciate it. I got a chance to play with the Mule Skinners and Chris Barber. And then I got a chance to go behind the Iron Curtain, East Berlin and Poland. I got a chance to go to Geneva.
Unknown voice: What was it like to play in East Germany?
Howlinâ Wolf: Oh, those people eat that stuff up.
Unknown voice: They really did?
Howlinâ Wolf: Yeah. I was to play just one night but I ended up with about three or four nights there.
Chris: You also went to Warsaw, didnât you?
Howlinâ Wolf: I went to Warsaw.
Chris: Had they ever heard anything quite like that?
Howlinâ Wolf: No.
Unknown voice: Yeah, I bet that hadnât. Did you hear any music over there that you âŚâŚ..
Howlinâ Wolf: Yeah, the first night we got over there, we went to the auditorium. They had a white band playing. They wasnât going to give us about fifteen minutes, but when got in there and put that stuff down, they moved the white band out.
Unknown voice: What about this song that you wrote, âShake For Me?? How did you originate that?
Howlinâ Wolf: I donât know. Whenever I get me a couple of drinks, all my stuff come to me. Heâll tell you he never saw me wasted. I take a few drinks.
Unknown voice: I know that in St. Louis, that âShake For Meâ, that was number one for one month there.
Howlinâ Wolf: Yeah.
Howlinâ Wolf: Hello. I wouldnât try to change nobodyâs pattern.
Unknown voice: Theyâll change it. Theyâll go along with anything you want.
Howlinâ Wolf: I know but I wouldnât do that. Iâd rather try to do the job, but Iâm âŚâŚ.on that light. That light is bad against my eyes. My eyes never been no good.
Unknown voice: Bill Graham will âŚ
Chris: Weâll tell him to turn it down a little bit.
Unknown voice: Graham, the guy that owns the place, is really happy to do it.
Unknown voice: The music is whatâs supposed to be there. The other stuff is just âŚâŚâŚ
Speaker : Yeah, youâre the main attraction.
Unknown voice: Iâll talk to him right away.
Howlinâ Wolf: Not just one of that main light right down on me. If you turn it a little bit away from my face, some kind of way.
Unknown voice: I heard you were really coming on. I just got here because I heard you were coming on tonight. You feel good?
Speaker : Oh, yeah. Are you going to rival your St. Louis shows here?
Howlinâ Wolf: Iâm going to do some of them, yeah.
Unknown voice: I want you to put on one of them lakeside shows.
Howlinâ Wolf: Oh. I donât do them things rough unless Iâve got some competition. Iâm something else when Iâve got somebody to fight against. Iâm not bragging, but Iâm out of sight when Iâve got somebody to fight.
Unknown voice: Whenever youâd get up to a place, youâd be battling the blues, Ike Turner or Muddy Waters or somebody like that, to see whoâs come out on top? I want you to put on one of them shows tonight.
Unknown voice: Like he said, he ainât got no competition here.
Howlinâ Wolf: No competition, man.
Unknown voice: Just pretend you got some competition. What can we do to make you imagine?
Howlinâ Wolf: Oh, no.
Speaker : Weâll moan a little.
Howlinâ Wolf: Iâll do that, but yet and still, I have to have competition if you want me to dig the stuff up.
Unknown voice: You know that song you put out, Howlinâ For My Darling?
Howlinâ Wolf: Mm-hmm.
Unknown voice: You went to St. Louis and shot everybody down there in that. They was going for a competition at who was the best?
Howlinâ Wolf: Well you see, I leave it to the people to call. Iâm kind of like the song. Iâm the wolf. When I drop my tail on the ground and swipe out my tracks, no other wolf can go along then.
Unknown voice: Just like Old Little Milton. Little Milton was that âŚ
Howlinâ Wolf: These young cats donât fool with the old man, you know? They all respects me.
Unknown voice: Even Little Milton?
Howlinâ Wolf: Thatâs right.
Unknown voice: He was out here. He didnât do nothing.
Howlinâ Wolf: Right. You take all these singers out here. You respect me. You might ask them, How you like the Wolf? I donât like him. Well I know how come you donât like him. Itâs a competition when you get to fool with me.
Unknown voice: Did you ever play with B.B. King?
Howlinâ Wolf: Yeah, a wonderful guy. Got a nice personality.
Unknown voice: B.B. just left here about four weeks ago.
Howlinâ Wolf: Really?
Unknown voice: Yeah.
Howlinâ Wolf: Heâs a nice person.
Chris: Where did the Bihari Brothers first hear you when they cut those records?
Howlinâ Wolf: Who? Come out from Belvedere?
Chris: Bihari the fellow who came out from âŚ
Howlinâ Wolf: They came from there. All this stuff was done by Ike Turner. He was a quick thinker. He had a lot of irons and connections. Well you see, what happened are Ike had me to cut this record for RPM first, âRiding in the Moonlight.â The same sound that Junior Parker singing about âOh Baby, Come Onâ? That was my title, you know? I just didnât give him no trouble about it. He give that record to RMP and then he turned around and cut one with Sun label. At that time Sun label was in with Chess. Chess was back and Sun label was this guy in Memphis.
Chris: Yeah, they would buy the masters from him.
Howlinâ Wolf: Mm-hmm.
Chris: Where did you record those first things? Were they in a garage?
Howlinâ Wolf: No, in Memphis.
Chris: Was the studio there?
Howlinâ Wolf: Yes. On the Sun label.
Unknown voice: Both of them were on the Sun label?
Howlinâ Wolf: Mm-hmm.
Unknown voice: What about Smoke? Smokestack Lightning. That had a while record.
Howlinâ Wolf: After that, I uh, they put both of them records out together and they was butting one another. So Chess, he beat RPM to me, and put me under contract. Like the ball team, a contract with RPM.
Unknown voice: Go ahead.
Chris: A lot of people like that song called âDust My Broomâ, but I bet you half these kids donât know what it means. I remember you told me once in Europe. Why donât you tell them what that âŚ
Howlinâ Wolf: Hmm.
Unknown voice: That was Elmore James singing that, wasnât it, Wolf?
Howlinâ Wolf: We all used to play and sing together. Elmore could play my numbers, I could play his. I can play all of them catsâ number.
Chris: What are they talking about when theyâre talking about Dusting My Broom?
Howlinâ Wolf: Get up in the morning if the woman donât do right, and find me another place to go.
Unknown voice: Go ahead, Wolf.
Howlinâ Wolf: You ainât gonna treat me right, I just give you my house and you just take who you in love with and live there and leave me alone. Thatâs right. Thatâs what I mean by âget up in the morning and dust my broom.â
Unknown voice: Tell me, Wolf. Does Elmore put out this song right before he passed away, âThe Sky is Cryingâ ?
Howlinâ Wolf: Mm-hmm.
Unknown voice: What did he mean by that?
Howlinâ Wolf: Well nothing about it, thatâs just the way he felt.
Unknown voice: Thatâs just the way he felt.
Howlinâ Wolf: People donât mean nothing about the song they sing. Itâs just the way if they play music and they want to sing, the first thing come to their mind, thatâs what they sing.
Unknown voice: Are you living in Chicago now?
Howlinâ Wolf: Hmm?
Unknown voice: Are you living in Chicago now? Is that your home?
Howlinâ Wolf: Well, I done bought a home there. I paid $23,000 for it. Modern style. I might just give it to my daughter.
Chris: Are you going to move back?
Howlinâ Wolf: I want to go where I can and fish and hunt and run rabbits.
Chris: Yeah. That sort of stays with you when youâre born and raised in the country. I think that stays with you.
Howlinâ Wolf: Yeah. I like to be where I can hunt and fish, run rabbits, coons, wildcats, bobcats, anything.
Unknown voice: You seem pretty easy going. You donât on stage so much. Youâre all energy there.
Howlinâ Wolf: Yeah.
Chris: Do you think part of that is because that music comes to you natural? You were born and raised with it?
Howlinâ Wolf: I was born and raised with these things, ups and downs. Ups and downs been with every man, every woman, in life. The people all about the blues. The blues is nothing but, if youâre dissatisfied and you donât have the things you want and have no money, no place to stay, and youâre loafing and going from place to place. Youâre looking for something and you donât know what it is until you find it, you know? Conditions. I see a lot of people walking the road, they got conditions. White or Negro, they got conditions. See, thatâs what the blues come from.
See, the blues is a thing that will make you sing. You sing the way you feel. If youâve been misled, you sing it that way. Just like some cowboys on the range. He sang the way he feel. If he said, little doggie, little doggie, thatâs the way he feel. He feel like heâs a little doggie. Thatâs the way he feel, you know what I mean? You sing the way you feel.
Some people sing but they donât put no touch into it. I think a lot of group singers, a lot of musicians, they sing but they donât put no touch to it. If youâre going to go out there, youâve got to put some touch to it. If you donât put no touch to it, you just as well stay at home, you know what I mean? Not hang out.
Unknown voice: You remember the song you sung with Shindig right before you went to Europe? Whatâs the name of that song? Itâs an old song.
Howlinâ Wolf: The words, I mixed them up.
Unknown voice: I like that song.
Howlinâ Wolf: Itâs good, itâs got a good taste to it.
Unknown voice: Yeah, youâve got to work on that.
Unknown voice: See, you got that from Sonny Boy.
Howlinâ Wolf: Part of it.
Unknown voice: The original Sonny Boy.
Howlinâ Wolf: Yeah.
Unknown voice: Actually before you went to England, that was the song that you put on that good show, on Shindig, before Shindig went off the air.
Howlinâ Wolf: Well, I wanted to put on something else, but everybody enquired for me to sing that.
Unknown voice: I enjoyed it, you singing that.
Howlinâ Wolf: In doing things, you have to do as you was told. You donât do what you think you should do. If they want you to do something and they tell you what they want you to do, then if you want your money ⌠Iâm a man who does thing people tell me to do. I donât do what I want to do. That ainât where itâs at. You do as you was told.
Thatâs why I made it as far as I am today, because I do as I was told. They tell me something, I donât try to tell them nothing, because they paying me. Iâm going to do as they say.
Unknown voice: Right.
Howlinâ Wolf: ⌠donât get to be here. You get a great big head. Excuse me. Donât let nobody tell you nothing and you know more than anybody else, they going to knock the props out from under you. Youâre going to come on back down.
Unknown voice: When I first get to listen to, you know they used to wind the old record players up, and my father had the Wolf records.
Howlinâ Wolf: Yes, I write some, and then I buy some from different people. If itâs any meanings to the words. You get a writerâs portion.
Unknown voice: What is Willie Dixon doing? Is he still writing a lot of music?
Howlinâ Wolf: Yes, heâs writing a lot of music. Dixonâs a very nice person. But as far as Iâm concerned, to my opinion, from now on out, Iâll do them myself because some things they give me, I just donât like them. Willie, heâs a nice person but stuff he trying to dish out to me now, I wouldnât even try to sing it, because it donât have no meanings to it, as far as Iâm concerned.
Chris: Did you ever meet Tommy Johnson, that guy who put out The Big Road Blues and all of that?
Howlinâ Wolf: No, I met Lonnie Johnson. I didnât meet Tommy Johnson.
Unknown voice: How about Robert Johnson?
Howlinâ Wolf: Oh I met him. We all just run around together.
Chris: Hey Wolf, have you heard of this disc jockey out here who calls himself The Wolfman Jack? He tries to sound like you?
Howlinâ Wolf: No, I havenât heard of him.
Unknown voice: He sounds like you and Moms Mabley.
Unknown voice: Exactly, except heâs white. Heâs very strange.
Unknown voice: Yeah, he is. Heâs out in L.A.
Unknown voice: Iâd say. Wolf, weâll just get the names of the guys in the band again, and weâll make sure we have it on there.
Howlinâ Wolf: Yeah. On the bass player, his name is Andrew McMahon. His home is in Louisiana. Delhigh, Louisiana. Thatâs Castel Burrows. His home is in Memphis, Tennessee. The drummer. The pianist, Willie Mabon. His home is in Memphis, Tennessee. Hubert Sumlin, lead guitar player. Heâs born and raised around Greenwood, Mississippi. I come into possession of him, he was in Hughes, Arkansas, â52.
Unknown voice: How long has Willie been playing with you?
Howlinâ Wolf: Willie been with me about a little better than two months. I want to get him on some good records. Heâs got a whole lot of talents.
Unknown voice: Are you planning to do a session pretty soon?
Howlinâ Wolf: Yes, if I can find someâŚâŚ..
Chris: Somebody said Chess was going to make an album at the Fillmore Auditorium.
Howlinâ Wolf: Hmm?
Chris: Did old man Chess make a record of you at the Fillmore Auditorium here?
Howlinâ Wolf: I donât know nothing about that. I donât know about that. I ainât even saw nobody from that. Of course it may have been done. They have this guy to do it and send him the tape.
Unknown voice: Where do you usually record when you make the records? In Chicago?
Howlinâ Wolf: Yeah, we got a place.
Unknown voice: Is it Chess Studios? Is that a pretty good place to work?
Howlinâ Wolf: Yes. They treats me all right. You know, everybody you work for, theyâre going to take a little from you. You ainât never seen nobody start nothing that if youâre standing, youâre going to get cut. You break and go to run, theyâre going to shoot you. Iâve been with them so long, but I gets what I want. If I want me 5 or $6,000 I go down there and get it. Nobody talks to me.
Unknown voice: Whatâs the name of the songâŚâŚ..
Howlinâ Wolf: I donât try to be bad about it, I just go down there and ask them for some money. Cause he got it.
Howlinâ Wolf: Me and Muddy Water and Little Walter made the man, you know?
Chris: Yeah, itâs true. You started off with that.
Howlinâ Wolf: Weâll be with him when the dealâs going down, as long as we want to.
Unknown voice: Did you ever work with Little Walter?
Howlinâ Wolf: I worked with him once or twice when he first was hot, in Memphis, Tennessee. I worked with him last year up in Milwaukee.
Unknown voice: He never showed up. I was there. He never came.
Howlinâ Wolf: He did come.
Unknown voice: Right about five minutes before the last thing was over.
Howlinâ Wolf: He did, he did come. But you see, Walter drank so much of this here, âtill it just make him late. I donât know why he drank so much of this here. I drank some of it too, but Iâll never be late.
Unknown voice: I know Walter had put on some good shows at âŚâŚ.
Howlinâ Wolf: Oh yes, wonderful. If you can get him to do it.
Unknown voice: Can he still play?
Howlinâ Wolf: Well, I havenât heard Walter play now in about two years. Well about since last year. About two years.
Unknown voice: Has he ever worked with Muddy in the last five to ten years?
Howlinâ Wolf: Yes, heâs worked with Muddy. In fact heâs beenâŚâŚ.., he should go back to Muddy.
Unknown voice: You think so? You think heâd ever do it?
Howlinâ Wolf: If it was me, Iâd go back and get my old band that I had when I first started out.
Unknown voice: You think he could still put it together?
Howlinâ Wolf: If he could, heâd still be Muddy Water again. These young cats they got now, they play too fast for that old man. You understand? Itâs just a shame.
Unknown voice: Maybe he would like to put together his old band.
Howlinâ Wolf: Iâll tell you, some people get carried away. They wonât stick with one another. âŚâŚmake some money in one another. After a while they go looking over this way and that away, and finally he think he better than he is. He think he better than he is. âŚâŚ. And then ainât nobody making no money. Everybody loafing then. He once had a good band, but somehow or another, something got amongst them and they broke up.
Chris: You ever hear Charlie Patton do that when he was ⌠?
Howlinâ Wolf: No. I hear them do Little Red Rooster. Pony Blues. Back Water Rising, and uh, Spoonful.
Unknown voice: What about Down in the Bottom?
Howlinâ Wolf: Little Red Rooster sang that.
Unknown voice: You know you sung Down in the Bottom. Now what about that?
Howlinâ Wolf: What about it? I donât know what about it?
Unknown voice: âWhoâs Been Talkingâ
Howlinâ Wolf: Whoâs Been Talking? Well I made that one. Thatâs one of mine.
Unknown voice: Yeah, thatâs a good one.
Howlinâ Wolf: Whoâs been telling everything I do? Somebody running my business.
Chris: When you were still playing in the streets as a kind of one man, did you ever make up songs about people in the town?
Howlinâ Wolf: No. I just only sung âŚ
Chris: Did you ever hear songs like that?
Howlinâ Wolf: Yes I love songs like that, but I never make up songs like that. I always make up songs about the way people live and how people act amongst themselves. Ups and downs they have. Some people have ups and downs, and what caused these things. A lot of people come out and sing but they donât never put their sweetening into it. Youâve got to tell the peoples why youâre singing this, and what causing this, and showing them what youâre singing.
A lot of people just get up to the mic, and do the song Rabbit on the Log. Well Rabbit on the Log, what did it do on the log? That it started up on the log? Youâve got to make your story clear to the peoples if you want to hand it to them.
If youâre just up there, âBaby, baby, baby, baby.â Everybody can say baby. I can say baby any time I get ready. I go home and call my wife baby. âCome here, baby.â Youâve got to make a story now and make it stick. Youâve got to tell people just like it is. How things go. Youâve got to make everything, every word tailored. Every word fits.
Chris: You donât remember any of those songs that they sang about somebody in the town?
Howlinâ Wolf: No, I donât know nothing about them songs they were singing, somebody in the town. Thereâs always somebody in the town. Who is in the town? Somebodyâs in there, well who is in the town? If youâre seeing somebody in the town, youâve got to tell why theyâre in the town and what caused them to be there in the town. What did this come from to make this person come to town? You can start a theory, but if you canât master your words, why you just forget it. Because you ainât got no, uh, you have nothing there for you to back up on, to make no background, make no sense to it. You sing songs today, youâve got to have some sense to it. A touch off. Do that. You see when I do that, some gas and then the house been gone, boom. Thatâs the touch off. Youâve got to have some touch off in this stuff.
Unknown voice: I love this song.
Howlinâ Wolf: I love it. Iâm going, when I get back to the airport Monday, Iâll spend about five hours with my wife and kids. Iâll leave on Monday morning early. My first day will be in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Thatâs the 26th.
Chris: Wow. Where do you play there? Do you play across the river in one of them big dance halls?
Howlinâ Wolf: I donât know. Iâve never been there, in Baton Rouge, and played before. Iâm going to leave Baton Rouge and Iâm coming back to Memphis the next night. The next night I go to Columbus, Georgia. The next night I go to Tallahassee, Florida. The next night Iâll be in Hollandale, Florida. Then Iâll come out going home. Iâve got about five days or six days out there in the last month of this week. In the last of this month.
Unknown voice: Do you work most of the year round?
Howlinâ Wolf: All the time. I work seven nights a week. Iâve been doing it ever since â53.
Unknown voice: That was book an agent.
Howlinâ Wolf: Associated. Same people that booked Armstrong books me. Associated .A lot of people call it New York Attractions, but itâs Associated. ABC.
Unknown voice: I was looking for you going to a jazz workshop.
Unknown voice: Where do you like going to the best?
Howlinâ Wolf: Anywhere. I donât have no pick-and-choose. If anybody want me to sing, âSpoonful, Spoonful!â Iâm right there. Donât worry about a thing! No, I donât go around picking no place to play. I go around and play where the people want me to play. I let the peoples handle me. I donât tell the peoples what to do.
Unknown voice: You know the best thing I like to hear you sing yet?
Howlinâ Wolf: What?
Unknown voice: Good and Easy.
Howlinâ Wolf: Iâll go anywhere they want me to. If they want me on an island, Iâll tell them they got a boat where I can get out there, Iâll be out there.
Unknown voice: I like to hear you sing âIn The Moonlightâ because it look like you just bring everything out there.
Howlinâ Wolf: You let the peoples carry you, because they made you.
Unknown voice: Youâve got a lot of fans.
Howlinâ Wolf: Thank you. I always let the peoples carry me because they made me. I got time to talk with them. I was born on earth and I stay on earth. I donât ever get up ⌠When I go up in space, Iâm going to get me a Sputnik and I wonât talk to nobody then because Iâll be in space. But as long as Iâm on earth, Iâll be with my people. As soon as they take me to space, I wonât talk to anybody any more. Iâll be gone and youâll be down here.
Chris: You get more fired up in front of a Negro audience than you do in front of a white?
Howlinâ Wolf: Get more what?
Chris: Do you get more fired up.
Howlinâ Wolf: I get fired up anywhere that I play. I donât get shame on nobody. I donât, because the fact has been, when I started to playing I started with a bunch of white boys. They liked-ed the blues and I liked-ed the blues and weâd make whiskey. The police would run us all through the woods. Iâd be cooking and maybe picking the box. Theyâd get tired of picking the box, Iâd pick and theyâd cook awhile. Every once in a while, weâd take one of them cups and stick it under that spout and, ha!
All the peoples I really have dealt with was a bunch of bad white boys. They was bad and I was bad. We stayed in devilment! When they put them in jail, they put me in jail, they put them in jail, too. We was just together. We was a bunch of rats, you know? They all held up for me. They liked-ed me, you know? If you want to have trouble, donât bother me. Lock me up there and locked them up, too.
They finished sending me to school. On account of those boys liked me so well. We all just liked us as brothers. We never did do nobody no harm. We didnât do one another no harm. I donât know. Sooner or later we got busted up some kind of way.
Chris: Did your father play too? Did he sing?
Howlinâ Wolf: No my father was a craphouse man. Shoot dice and running women. I never did like that kind of carrying on. I wanted to do something. I made a lot of whiskey. I never did gamble.
Chris: You probably saw too much of it losing.
Howlinâ Wolf: No, I see too many peoples get hurt in the gambling. I see a lot of people gambling and you can lose that hard money and you turn out to be a desperado, you know what I mean? I said that wasnât no job for me. Gambling is no good for a man. When youâre gambling, thatâs when youâre mean, when youâre gambling and lose a lot of money. Thatâs right.
Unknown voice: Did you ever play around Paducah?
Howlinâ Wolf: Paducah, Kentucky?
Unknown voice: Yeah, anywhere around through there.
Howlinâ Wolf: No, I played in Cairo once or twice, but I never was in Paducah.
Unknown voice: You think any blues was ever played around through there?
Howlinâ Wolf: I donât know, I donât know. Of course I go through there when Iâm going South sometimes. Different places. I never have played there. The furthest I played is Cairo and Carbondale, Illinois, and all around St. Louis. Of course thereâs lots of places though the country Iâve never been. Iâve never been in Omaha. I was in Kansas City once or twice.
[Break]
When I get up there, I work all the way through. I donât sit down there and hold some womanâs hand and jive some woman. I come to satisfy the people. Do the best that I can. I didnât come to get drunk. I drink, but you donât catch me. I stay right entertaininâ.
Chris: Is this your first trip out to California? Or were you out here when you were making the record?
Howlinâ Wolf: I was down here in World War II, at Rice, California. Indio. I didnât come back until they got me to come down here on that film.
Chris: You didnât come out there when âHow Many More Daysâ went pretty big?
Howlinâ Wolf: No. The peoples wanted me but the promoters blocked me. Chess and them sent Muddy Waters and them out here at that time. Muddy would come all over this country. I was trying to beg the people to give me a lift, but somehow or another somebody was blocking me. They couldnât make no money. As I say, I couldnât afford to come out here for small peanuts. Iâm not smart, but it cost me 1,125 dollars to bring these peoples out here on the plane. Thatâs too hard for me to drive with âŚâŚâŚÂ way out here.
Howlinâ Wolf: This trip. Then the man, I charge the man $3,500 and when I get through Iâll end up making about $800. Now you take these mens, I have to give them $150 a week, and I have to feed them. I have to sleep them. That comes out of my pocket.
Unknown voice: You couldnât get a date in L.A. on this trip?
Howlinâ Wolf: Hm?
Unknown voice: You couldnât get a date in Los Angeles on this trip?
Howlinâ Wolf: Oh, maybe so, but I canât. I got another week.
Unknown voice: Youâre already booked up.
Howlinâ Wolf: Yeah, they have to get me back somewhere. In June the 10th, Iâll be in The White House, playing in Washington.
Unknown voice: Is that right? Youâre playing The White House.
Unknown voice: Just like, what was that ball you played for President Kennedy?
Howlinâ Wolf: Yeah, a festival for his wife.
Unknown voice: How was that? What was it like to play for him?
Howlinâ Wolf: It was wonderful. Those people act just like you act.
Unknown voice: Yeah, theyâre people after all.
Howlinâ Wolf: Theyâre people. If they want to hear the blues, thatâs nothing wrong, thereâs no harm there.
Unknown voice: Thatâs great. I felt like, itâs finally happening.
Howlinâ Wolf: You see them going into the White House lawn this time.
Unknown voice: They has a special section in the basement.
Howlinâ Wolf: Thatâs for the big folks. Ainât no little peoples going to be found around there. Thatâs the tenth of June.
Unknown voice: ⌠The Mighty Wolf plays for President Kennedy.
Howlinâ Wolf: Yeah. All over the country they tried to block me from down this way. The peoples know Iâm a good artist and they tried their best to try to bock me out of this area. Itâs too bad. Now I done hit this area Iâm going to make it hard for all the blues singers.