Howlin Wolf Smokestack Lightning - Live (1964)

Published on Sep 17, 2013

Appearing on the American Folk Blues Festival, a music festival that introduced audiences in Europe, including the UK, to leading blues performers of the day such as Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, John Lee Hooker and Sonny Boy Williamson, most of whom had never previously performed outside the US. The tours attracted substantial media coverage, including TV shows, and contributed to the growth of the audience for blues music in Europe. (via Wikipedia)

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Link: https://youtu.be/09j6vMdKi3E

"Smokestack Lightning" (or "Smoke Stack Lightning" as listed on the original single, but "Smokestack Lightnin'" on re-releases) is a classic of the blues. Howlin' Wolf recorded it in 1956, and it became one of his most popular and influential songs. It is based on earlier blues songs, and numerous artists later interpreted it.

 Wolf had performed "Smokestack Lightning" in one form or another at least by the early 1930s,^[1] when he was performing with Charley Patton in small Delta communities.^[1] The song, called "a hypnotic one-chord drone piece",^[2] draws on earlier blues, such as Tommy Johnson's "Big Road Blues" (1928, Victor 21279), the Mississippi Sheiks' "Stop and Listen Blues" (1930, OKeh 8807), and Charley Patton's "Moon Going Down" (1930, Paramount 13014).^[3] Wolf said the song was inspired by watching trains in the night: "We used to sit out in the country and see the trains go by, watch the sparks come out of the smokestack. That was smokestack lightning."^[4] In 1951, he recorded the song as "Crying at Daybreak" (RPM 340). It contains the line "O-oh smokestack lightnin', shinin', just like gold, oh don't you hear me cryin'", similar to the Mississippi Sheiks' lyric "A-ah, smokestack lightnin', that bell shine just like gold, now don't you hear me talkin'".

Link:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smokestack_Lightning