477. Howlin’ Wolf, "Moanin' in the Moonlight"

 


Before we get to the music, THAT COVER, MAN!  Isn't it great?  That's the first cover we've come to where I'm like "I would totally hang that on my wall."  Just brilliant.

More classic blues!  I like this stuff fine, but it doesn't particularly move me, like it did to a whole generation of British kids.

Jagger, Richards, and Jones were awestruck when, in 1962, they saw Howlin’ Wolf playing in Manchester at the American Folk Blues Festival. Wolf recorded many songs that influenced The Rolling Stones, and, two years after that performance, the band took a blues song to No. 1 on the UK charts for the first time, with a recording of Wolf’s “Little Red Rooster.” “The reason we recorded ‘Little Red Rooster” isn’t because we want to bring blues to the masses,” said Richards at the time. “We’ve been going on and on about blues, so we thought it was about time we stopped talking and did something about it. We liked that particular song, so we released it.” 

I can appreciate the intensity of the singing, and feel the rawness and get what must have grabbed kids back then, but I think this is going to have to be one of those things I appreciate more than actually like.  

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