A Legend And His Acolytes

We continue our look back at the music of 50 years ago…..

While playing a concert with his band Cream at the Fillmore in New York Eric Clapton was asked if he would be interested in recording an album with blues legend Howlin Wolf. Clapton, who cut his teeth on playing the music of the old blues masters agreed. Sessions were set up for May of 170 at Olympic Studios in London.

Clapton called up a bunc of his mates and they agreed to join in. Charlie Watts and Bill Wyman would provide the rhythm section with unofficial Rollin Stone Ian Stewart on piano. When Watts and Wyman couldnt make one of the days, Ringo Starr and Klaus Voorman filled in. To solidify the recordings there was overdubbing done at Chess Records in Chicago by Steve Winwood and some of the Chess regulars. The recordings also included some harmonica from 19 year old Jeffrey Carp.

The songs were a collection of Wolf standards that he had previously done over the course of his long career. Many were written by Willie Dixon and included The Red Rooster (which was an early hit for the Stones), I Ain’t Superstitious”, and “Wang Dang Doodle”.

They also cut “Sittin On Top Of The World” that has been done as everything from a blues to country to bluegrass song since the Mississippi Sheiks orignally cut it.

Here’s the original…

Here’s Wolf’s original

Clapton and Cream did it

Doc Watson did it…

So did the Dead

even Jack White took a crack at it from the “Cold Mountain” movie soundtrack

Here is the version from these sessions with Clapton, Wyman, Watts & Carp and Wolf’s guitarist Hubert Sumlin along with overdubs from Lafayette Leake on piano

Wolf’s health wasn’t the best at this point but I think the sessions turned out really well. Clapton’s guitar lines are clean and cutting. There would be other sessions with other English rock stars playing with their blues heroes …And as much as other artists tried to put their own stamp on these, it’s tough to beat the old guys for the authenticity that can’t be matched.

I’m off for a couple of days…the next musical blog will be on Friday.