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The Blues of Howlin' Wolf

'Moanin' at Midnight: The Life and Times of Howlin' Wolf'

Moanin' at Midnight: The Life and Times of Howlin' Wolf

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Detail: The cover of 'His Best (Chess 50th Anniversary Collection) '

Detail: The cover 'His Best (Chess 50th Anniversary Collection) .'

Howlin' Wolf Songs

Hear selected clips from Howlin' Wolf, The Chess Box (Chess)

Listen 'I'm the Wolf' (1954)

Listen 'Evil' (1954)

Listen 'Smokestack Lightnin'' (1956)

Listen 'Ain't Goin' Down That Dirt Road' (1968)
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July 12, 2004 - Howlin' Wolf electrified the blues of the Mississippi Delta and laid the foundation of rock and roll in the early 1950s. His lyrics -- delivered in a gruff, haunting voice -- evoked his hard-life experiences.

"Wolf's No. 1 weapon was his voice: he used it to brag about his sexual prowess to the ladies, or deliver a threat to the men," Ashley Kahn says in a Morning Edition profile of the late blues giant. "When he sang 'evil is going on,' there was little doubt about it."

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Moanin' at Midnight

Moanin' at Midnight

The Life and Times of Howlin' Wolf

by James Segrest and Mark Hoffman

Hardcover, 397 pages | purchase

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