You can't possibly fault the material aboard this 12-song collection of Howlin' Wolf's Memphis recordings cut for Sam Phillips. The title track features some truly frightening guitar work from Willie Johnson,and all the material here is loaded with feral energy and a sense that it could fall apart at any second. It's totally intuitive music, with Wolf seemingly making it all up as he went along, which Sam Phillips had the patience to capture as it all went down. These are some of the great moments in blues history...These are the recordings that prompted Sun Records chief Sam Phillips's oft-repeated assertion: "This is where the soul of a man dies." Phillips oversaw sessions by the likes of Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, and B.B. King, but the guttural electric blues of Howlin' Wolf captured his fancy like nothing else - and it's not hard to see why. The Wolf of these '52 sessions was just a few years off the farm, having begun to play West Memphis, Arkansas, juke joints, and cat houses following World War II. Working with a small but feral band highlighted by lead guitarist Willie Johnson (called by some the Jimi Hendrix of his day), the already middle-aged singer and harmonica player created a sound in the early '50s that bridged the Mississippi blues that were his roots with the amped Chicago blues that were his destiny. Phillips captured the man born Chester Burnett on the title track, "Drivin' C.V. Wine," and also on the other 10 selections included here, three of which were previously released while all but one of the remaining numbers have never appeared before in North America. Wolf's Chess sides are, of course, landmarks, but this is Wolf untamed and running wild. --Steven Stolder
Tracklist:
| A1 | Cadillac Daddy (Mr. Highway Man) | |
| A2 | Bluebird Blues | |
| A3 | My Last Affair (Take 1) | |
| A4 | Oh Red! (Take 2) | |
| A5 | Come Back Home | |
| A6 | Dorothy Mae | |
| B1 | Decoration Day Blues | |
| B2 | Color And Kind | |
| B3 | Drinkin' C.V. Wine | |
| B4 | I Got A Woman (Sweet Woman) | |
| B5 | Everybody's In The Mood | |
| B6 | My Baby Walked Off |
Howlin' Wolf – Cadillac Daddy - Memphis Recordings, 1952
(320 kbps, cover art included)
