![]() In the wake of The Rolling Stones' increasing notoriety, the UK was in the grip of R&B fervour. If the Top 20 success of Little Red Rooster was a phenomenon, even more bizarre was the success that Howlin' Wolf and Hubert enjoyed a few months later with Smokestack Lightning. "No, I just thought, Amen, hallelujah, at last!" Rooster booster I fell in love with them, Muddy and all of us felt the same way. "They opened my path because they were well known before they ever first got to the States, and they tore up things here. ![]() "They didn't want him on the show but the Stones insisted I used to see them guys all the time, and when I first heard the Stones version of Little Red Rooster I couldn't believe it! Then when Wolf and Mick Jagger first met, Mick walked up to Wolf and said I hope you didn't mind that we cut Little Red Rooster? Wolf just smiled and said: No, man… you guys have put me on the map! Although the Wolf was suitably restrained, one can only speculate how the mothers of America reacted to their daughters watching the Wolf rip the place apart. It's a friendship and mutual admiration society that goes back to 1964 when the Rolling Stones recorded Little Red Rooster, and later had Howlin' Wolf support them on their 1965 Shindig television appearance in Los Angeles. His last album, About Them Shoes, boasted heavyweight contributions from Eric Clapton and the aforementioned Mr Richards, and he's also stepped onstage in the UK for a couple of dates with the Rolling Stones. Wolf says Ladies and gentlemen, this is my son - let's see if he's got it now! We played Smokestack Lightning and he said Why didn't you play like that before?" "My fingers got so sore but I went back to work and that evening I was the last guy to get up on the bandstand. ''I'm set in my ways and when he told me to put the pick down I just felt like hitting him, but I went home and practised playing without it.'' He chuckles. "So I went home and started practising but couldn't believe it - I'd been playing with this guy eight years and now I'm fired! Wolf's time was always split time, 12 bars, six, 11 - anything.'' Hubert explains. Wolf turned to me and shouted: No you ain't, you fired!'' Sumlin laughs out loud. I told him that's what I started out playing with and that's what I was going to go on using. "He told me Put it down, use your fingers like everyone else. ![]() "He was so powerful at times I wouldn't even dare speak to him! One time, Wolf told me to put the pick down because I was playing too loud,'' Hubert says. Stories abound of the fights he and Hubert had on and off stage - on one occasion he allegedly knocked out his guitarist's front teeth - and as Hubert admits, it was Wolf who was responsible for inadvertently forging the fluttering style that has become his trademark. The way we did it everyone would be heard - the piano player, bass player, drummer - but when I played my solo, maaan you better get out my way!'' Scowlin' Wolfīut if the Wolf was generally supportive of Hubert's musicianship - he invariably referred to the younger man as his 'son' - he could also be a hard taskmaster. The guitar sounds upfront on the records we made but it wasn't like that when we recorded it, we needed to hear one another. ![]() "I can hear and I can hear good - I was just playing with the guys. "I wasn't really loud,'' Hubert says indignantly. Wolf goes: When there's something to be said, let me tell him, not you! You fools operate the studio and leave the music to me. ![]() "One time the Chess brothers hollered at me in the studio when we recording Shake It For Me… Leonard Chess said Hubert, turn it down, turn that thing DOWN! Wolf just stopped the music and pointed across the room at where they were in the Control Booth. "On just about all the numbers we recorded Wolf always turned me loose, let me do what I wanted,'' Sumlin recalls. Uniquely, and unlike anything recorded up to that time, Sumlin's solos and intricately crafted riffs owed little to the influences of either Mississippi, or the increasingly popular 'City Blues' of guitarists like BB King and Freddie King. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |