Howlin Wolf's 113th Birthday + Born in Chicago
Surprise!
Today was a major event. My partner had tickets for a special movie happening at the Chicago Cultural Center, which until I got there I had no idea what it was gonna be.
We got there early…as we do anywhere we go. And I saw the poster:
Photo by Raeburn Flerlage - © Raeburn Flerlage featuring Hubert Sumlin sith Howlin’ Wolf.
Cool! Howlin’ Wolf’’s (Chester Burnett’s) birthday. Howlin’ Wolf and Lightnin’ Hopkins were on the jukebox of my favorite bar in Memphis many years back. I’d play it for punk bands visiting Memphis who were clueless about the blues. That’s as close as I ever got to Howlin’ Wolf blues fan that I am. However, my partner, Bob met Mrs. Burnett 40 years ago, around 1983 or so, at a similar event at the Chicago Cultural Center. She was giving a lecture on how she met Howlin’ Wolf and their home life. Bob managed to meet her after the lecture and got her to sign Howlin’ Wolf’s 1st LP “Moanin’ in the Moonlight”. They chatted a few minutes. Bob mentioned to Mrs. Burnett that he would go sit by her husband’s grave and play harmonica. To which she replied, “You seem like a nice boy. Why don’t you and some of your friends come to my 4th of July BBQ?”….to which Bob replied “I will bring a pecan pie.”
Now I’ve heard that story a few times, but today the shock was upon me for the movie was incredible and there sitting in front of us were Howlin’ Wolf’’s daughters, Barbara and Betty. The movie “Born in Chicago” is the best most comprehensive up to date film on the real history of earliest white blues musicians bridging the gap with their blues heroes right here in Chicago in the early 1960s: Michael Bloomfield, Paul Butterfield, Elvin Bishop, Barry Goldberg, Charlie Musselwhite and more. These guys were white University of Chicago college boy blues pioneers, and were welcomed in places like Silvio’s and other rough and tumble Black Chicago blues clubs.
The movie “Born in Chicago” which was made in 2020 and is being featured in a few places before going completely public, shows the camaraderie between Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, Little Walter and young incredibly talented and devoted fans who managed to carry the Spirit of the Blues across the segregated gap of musical consciousness in early 1960s. This is a MUST SEE movie! It is a gift, a treasure, and historical fact that needs to be brought into global awareness.