Blue Monday: Electric Blues Exception

Electric blues I believe to be generally soulless, the opposite of blues. Generally I find it to be blues for the masses, the pain and suffering removed from its heart and played without involvement - cheery almost - so that folks don't have to be moved. They can sit and clap along in their comfy seats, sat boozing in comfy bars.

However, Howlin' Wolf (a big exception I know) gets away with it. He doesn't sing with the aching and the poverty that the Delta blues men do, he doesn't sing with every inch of his being dragging him to hope for something; he sings with gall and grit, choking on the rasping anger trapped at the back of his throat. Boy, is he angry; he's angry at the women folk - just cant find a decent lady, and that sure makes a feller mad. So leave the late John Lee Hooker stuff alone, put down that BB King. The Wolf spits it, spits it evil...

There's books written and waiting to be written on The Wolf, he'll crop up here again in an earlier guise, but for now, we'll see what he can do with an electric.

The first track is from Alan Lomax's Blues Songbook. Alan Lomax was a Harry Smith type figure in a way, he recorded and catalogued a lot of blues men - he was the first person ever to record last weeks blues man (Mississippi Fred McDowell). The track featuress a backing band, Hubert Sumlin, Eddie Shaw, and an unknown bassist and drummer. Check...

Howlin' Wolf - Dust My Broom
Howlin' Wolf - Evil