S.O.D. "Smokestack Lightning" by Howlin' Wolf
11/1/2015 Included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's list of the 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll is this 1956 blues classic and two others by this influential legend. Born Chester Arthur Burnett, after the 21st president, Chester A Arthur, in White Station, Mississippi in 1910, he may have gotten his nickname from his grandfather or from his idol, Jimmy Rodgers.
When Burnett was 20, he got lucky and started learning guitar from Charlie Patton, the most popular blues musician in the Mississippi Delta. Tampa Red, Blind Lemon Jefferson, and Ma Rainey were some of his other influences.
Howlin' Wolf was one of the first black musicians to attract young, white audiences in the late 60s which was called the Counterculture Movement. In 1964 along with his European tour, the Rolling Stones' version of his tune "Little Red Rooster" ranked #1 in the UK.
The Wolf, unlike many black bluesmen of his time, always had money and was educated mostly of his own doing. To assist him in his career, he returned to school in his late 40s, got his GED and studied business and accounting. He has been inducted onto 4 music halls of fame, released 19 albums and has received 3 music awards. After his death in 1976, daughter Bettye Kelly started the Howling' Wolf Foundation which helps to preserve the blues genre, provides for musical scholarships, and supports blues programs and musicians.