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Title: Moanin' at Midnight: The Life and Times of Howlin' Wolf by James Segrest, Mark Hoffman ISBN: 0-375-42246-3 Publisher: Pantheon Books Pub. Date: 01 June, 2004 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $26.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (3 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: From Blues ToDo Monthly, June 2004
Comment: I was sitting with Hubert Sumlin in the Green Room of Jazz Alley last week, when Mark Hoffman peeked through the doorway. The customary mischievous twinkle in his eye was augmented by an excited sense of urgency. In his hands he held a book; not just any book, but one he had written himself. This particular copy was a gift for Hubert, because Hubert had provided a critical link in the book's research. How could anyone write the definitive biography of Howlin' Wolf without consulting the man who'd been Wolf's guitarist for 25 years?
Hubert grinned, Mark bubbled with appreciation. Crisp new pages and a freshly-pressed sepia close-up of a cigarette-puffing Howlin' Wolf on the cover. Someone set the finished product down on the table; that's when I grabbed it and started leafing through. It was impossible to resist.
Moanin' at Midnight, The Life and Times of Howlin' Wolf, finally gives the blues world back its missing link. When Howlin' Wolf left this earth in January 1976, he took with him his stories, his imposing presence and his immensely powerful voice. Fortunately, he left behind his recordings, which, for a generation now, are all we've had by which to remember him. Fortunately also, Wolf had many friends and associates who refused to let go of his memory, and were willing to share their recollections with co-authors Hoffman and James Segrest.
Throughout the book, Hoffman and Segrest use words like gargantuan, ferocious and primal to describe Wolf's persona. If you ever were lucky enough to see Wolf perform, you know why. But even the surviving videos are enough to get the point across. It was not only the man's size that was intimidating, it was the way he wrapped his huge and startling voice around a song. It was his big hands dwarfing a guitar neck or reducing a harmonica to relative invisibility. As the equally legendary record producer Sam Phillips remarked the first time he heard Wolf on the radio in 1951, "This is where the soul of man never dies."
Moanin' at Midnight is as thorough as a biography can be, but to Hoffman and Segrest the project was clearly a labor of love. A dozen years, hundreds of hours of interviews, cross-country commutes to glean insights into a personal hero, the relentless pursuit of detail...the devotion is unmistakable, and it shows.
What Hoffman and Segrest have accomplished with their book is nothing short of magnificent. What they have given us, at long last, is the big picture of Chester Arthur Burnett, aka Howlin' Wolf . At 6'3" (some say 6'6") and nearly 300 pounds, Burnett demands a big picture. Wolf was not only a bluesman's bluesman, he really was larger than life.
If you have any doubts, ask Hubert Sumlin.
Rating: 5
Summary: An excellent biography
Comment: For any fan of Howlin' Wolf, this book is a must. It sheds a lot of light on a man that was as complex as he was talented. Wolf learned his craft from blues legends, like Charley Patton, and took the blues he heard when he was a child and molded it into his own sound. With a voice that was truly unique and actually quite flexible, he put everything he had into a song.
It tells the heroic story of a man born in the south in the first decade of the 20th century amid grinding poverty, extreme racial prejudice, and an unhappy childhood, that found his freedom and his place in the world of the traveling blues man. His early life scarred him both physically and emotionally, and it can be heard in his music.
The musical structure of his music could be very simple sometimes, but he put so much heart, so much emotion into it that the music is never boring, never trite. His childhood and life were hard, but his music is not merely a reflection of hard times. It also can reflect the joy he took in his talent and sharing it with people. A totally unique performer and voice in all of music, not just the blues. And a truly unique man.
The book is well written and is easy to read, with many bluesmen telling about their encounters with 'The Wolf'.
Highly recommended!
Rating: 5
Summary: immerses you in the world of the wolf and the blues
Comment: In a word: spectacular. These writers have filled in what was, until now, the blank slate of Wolf's childhood and early life. They also describe every facet of his long career in detail, all the way from when he first started playing with Charlie Patton in the 1920s up to his last big show in Chicago in the 1970s. All the major players are in here: Willie Johnson, Hubert Sumlin, Sam Lay, Jody Williams, Eddie Shaw, Jimmy Rogers, Willie Dixon, Muddy Waters, Sonny Boys I and II, Little Walter, and on and on. So are an amazing number of fists, knives, bullets, and other instruments of mayhem-a lot more than you'd expect any human could survive in one lifetime. This is the big book about the big man that every blues fan's been waiting for for many years. It'll probably be the definitive biography and maybe the only one needed about the Wolf. Blues biographies don't get any better than this.
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Title:The Howlin' Wolf Story - The Secret History of Rock & Roll ASIN: B0000DJZ81 Publisher: Bmg Distribution (VI Pub. Date: 04 November, 2003 List Price(USD): $19.98 Comparison N/A, buy it from Amazon for $16.38 |
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Title: Between Midnight and Day: The Last Unpublished Blues Archive by Dick Waterman, Peter Guralnick ISBN: 1560255471 Publisher: Thunder's Mouth Press Pub. Date: 01 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: Escaping the Delta: Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues by Elijah Wald ISBN: 0060524235 Publisher: Amistad Pub. Date: 06 January, 2004 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title:The American Folk Blues Festival 1962-1966, Vol. 1 ASIN: B0000AYL2M Publisher: Universal Music & VI Pub. Date: 26 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $19.98 Comparison N/A, buy it from Amazon for $16.38 |
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Title:The American Folk Blues Festival 1962-1966, Vol. 2 ASIN: B0000AYL2N Publisher: Universal Music & VI Pub. Date: 26 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $19.98 Comparison N/A, buy it from Amazon for $16.38 |
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