This piece is a bit different and as we have come to expect from Dale it is fascinating and well informed. I had never heard of this piece of music but my instant reaction after reading this was to find it on Youtube and I can see exactly what the writer was saying. So here we have:
Moanin’ at Midnight Dale Williams Barrigar
If you want to get an idea of what it might have felt like to be near the Southern cottonfields of the United States prior to the Civil War, as white or black person, turn to your favorite music source, and play the song “Moanin’ at Midnight,” by Howlin’ Wolf, so often that it seeps into your bones and steeps your very soul.
Sam Phillips called “Moanin’ at Midnight” “the most different record I ever heard.”
Released as Wolf’s first single for Chess Records in Chicago in 1951, the B-side became much more popular for many years. It shows the way great art so often goes under the radar for months, years, decades, or centuries after its creation, and also how it so uncannily returns.
Chester Arthur Burnett of West Memphis became Howlin’ Wolf and moved to Chicago in 1953, which can thereby be named the first year of rock and roll.
In France, “Waiting for Godot” was premiering in a small theater to boos and gasps, reflecting the modern feeling of absurdity/ambivalent hope. “The Crucible” was opening in New York, reflecting the hysteria of the McCarthy hearings. Hank Williams, the cowboy Shakespeare, had just died in the back seat of his automobile on the way to yet another show. Charles Bukowski, Post Office employee and classical music expert, was 33. “Wise Blood,” by silent, brooding Flannery O’Connor, was one year old.
In “Moanin’ at Midnight,” in less than three minutes, with less than sixty words, and with one drum, one harmonica, one electric guitar, and one massive, utterly unique voice that could probably only come from a man who was six feet three inches tall and weighed 275 pounds, Wolf creates an artistic masterpiece that is also a human and historical document as valuable, in its own way, as the Mona Lisa.
The song is also a tale of terror that could only have been created by a black person in America before the Civil Rights Movement; and a story so universal it can rightly be said to belong beside one of Shakespeare’s sonnets, or one of Robert Burns’ haunting Scottish border ballads about the continuance of love after death.
The ringing telephone in the song’s lyrics reminds the reader/listener that paranoia, anxiety, and deathly fear cross all boundaries in time and space. The knocking on the door in the song, like the knocking at the gate in “Macbeth,” reminds the hearer that IT is coming for all of us one of these days, no matter your race, creed, color, gender, opinions, or bank account.
Howlin’ Wolf’s moaning, humming, singing, talking voice in this song is so absolutely, finally, terrifyingly, consolingly uncanny, that it cannot be accurately described in words. It only invites failure to attempt to do so. Henry Miller called music as an art form, “absolutely sufficient unto itself” because it “tends toward silence.” If you’re alive, Wolf’s voice will give you the chills, and thrills, give you goosebumps, and increase your heart rate all at the same time, conjuring up some feeling from childhood you’ve never been able to name or live down. Play it loud. Play it very loud. Over and over again.
At the age of 43, after time in jail and the army, Wolf drove to Chicago for the first time in his own Cadillac, having made money on the radio in the Memphis area. Like Muddy Waters, he eventually moved to the Chicago suburbs, where he lies buried. He ran with fast women. He intimidated dangerous men. He lived with pit bulls. He wasn’t a man to cross the color line, he was a man to explode it or pretend it didn’t exist, depending on his mood, or who he was staring down at the moment.
“Moanin’ at Midnight” is a song that is almost part of nature. He was channeling a world as much as he was conjuring up THE world and creating it all in a picture whose psychology is so deep and profound it’s downright Jungian. He didn’t know how to read, they say. But he knew everything there is to know about the human soul. He was as much Jesus-like teacher from the Book of Mark as devilish blues musician from the Deep South. He was a professor of the blues and of life itself. In the 1960s and 1970s, Wolf played more shows on college campuses than anywhere else. His teaching was deep and profound, filled with consolations, challenges, provocations, and indelible gifts.
Frederick Douglass, a writer and American visionary who makes a fourth with Walt Whitman, Herman Melville, and Mark Twain, wrote of the slave songs, “Those songs still follow me.” It was long after he had bested the slave-master in a physical fight and escaped to the north, where he would eventually meet in person, and influence, none other than Abraham Lincoln.
Douglass also wrote, “You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a man.” In very, very many ways a far too under-sung, and even unknown, American master, and hero, Howlin’ Wolf gets the last laugh as his voice, spirit, and genius live on.
Image: Colourful leaves, petals and corms as pot pourri from pixabab.com
literally stories 
Dale
Congratulations! Once again you located the soul of your subject and wrote about it brilliantly. Sometimes, art is expressed over a long career; sometimes, like with the Wolf, it can be a supernova, brighter than everything in the universe, composed of the entire experience.
Great stuff,
Leila
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Thank you, Leila!
I truly believe that in very many ways the Wolf, as with his friend and rival Muddy Waters, has become even more relevant now than he was in his own time. Some of the records he made with Eric Clapton and other British musicians (who worshiped him and his talents, acting almost exactly like his disciples when they were around him) sound exactly like they could have been created yesterday, too. He played with Robert Johnson, AND he played with Eric Clapton (much later). That alone is so mind-blowing one can spend an entire week thinking about nothing but this, minimum.
“Moanin’ at Midnight” is far and away NOT his most famous song. He has at least half a dozen others that are more well-known. But as I try to show in the essay, it’s his best song. It literally belongs beside parts of Frederick Douglass’s first autobiography as an American, and therefore world, document and piece of revolutionary art. The way Wolf uses brevity and compression too, in this song, can be learned from by any and all story-tellers in whatever mode, maybe even, especially, short story writers! As the sense of paranoia, persecution and fear in America keep on ramping up more and more these days, this song becomes more and more true and relevant again.
I mentioned that Wolf was functionally illiterate but actually I found out that later in his late 40s or 50s he did learn how to read. Before that, he lived through music, the spoken word, folk tales and lyrics so much that he could be said to have read in a different mode.
The Wolf was also a Doctor. He received an honorary doctor of the arts from Columbia College Chicago in the early 1970s. That was one reason I myself was inspired to attend Columbia College where I received my bachelors degree (at the age of 27). That was also where I had the massive privilege of meeting Gwendolyn Brooks after one of her poetry readings where she drew a crowd of at least 300 people.
He lived ten minutes away from where I’m sitting, and is also buried ten minutes away. In Chicago he’s a huge presence for many to this day. And many more still don’t know his name. Americans need to start visiting, understanding and appreciating their own artists and artistic landmarks one hell of a lot more than they do now. If we could stop the cultural amnesia, and create a better sense of gratitude for what went before, all other current problems (or many, or most) would disappear.
Thanks again, Leila!
Dale
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I had never heard this but it is quite wonderful. thank you – dd
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Thank you, Diane!
I found a cool quote by Howlin’ that says a lot about what he thought about both art-making, and life itself.
“DON’T NEVER TAKE AND TRY TO CHANGE A MUSICIAN WHEN HE DOES SOMETHING.
LET HIM PLAY THE CHORDS THE WAY HE FEEL.”
Thanks again!
Dale
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Excellent review, Dale. Thanks for bringing this song to our attention. There was a good movie about Chess Records a few years ago. Believe it was titled Cadillac Records.
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Thanks, David!
The Land of Lincoln is a place filled with many wonders. I visited Carl Sandburg’s boyhood home in Galesburg last year and it’s a shack falling into the ground; although still standing. Sandburg is probably chuckling somewhere (since he was the one who popularized the folk singer in modern America).
Thanks again!
Dale
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Saw the movie. Don’t think it acurately portraid Cadillac records, at least based on a review I saw.
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Hi Dale
The beginning paragraph really hits home. The toil and cruelty of those days in the Old South.
I checked out “Moanin’ at Midnight” on You Tube and man it’s great! That harmonica is so powerful, and the guitar playing must have literally scared some people back then. it’s going to get a lot of playback, here. The album cover alone is a masterpiece of minimalism and the wolf is amazing.
This essay makes me want to listen to all of those old black blues guys. Robert Johnson, Muddy, BB King–all of them. The roots of rock n roll.
Kieth Richards talks a lot about the influence of the American Blues. His trips to Chicago, playing with Chuck Berry.
Great how you tied in Fredrick Douglas and his influence on Abraham Lincoln. I just finished a book called “Chasing Lincoln’s Killer” by James Swanson. So this time period has been in my mind a lot lately. There are some incredible overlaying facts about Lincoln and John Wilkes Booth. Booth is buried under an unmarked grave in Baltimore. Visitors stack pennies on it–giving Lincoln the final say.
Another great essay! Thank you for bringing this musician to our attention!
Christopher
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Christopher
Thanks for saying more about the harmonica, the guitar, AND the record cover! Great description of how great they all are. Makes me wish I’d said more about these 3 in the essay, but now you’ve done it here, so I feel better! More in the near future…The cover looks like Boo.
Dale
PS
Boo starts howling when I play the harmonica. No joke. (The neighbors love it.)
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Dale
Your welcome. Howlin’ Wolf is a great subject. Truly educational in a fun and a serious way, if that makes sense. Yeah, I love the wolf!
I’m going to show it to my ex-wife. She loves good music–70s mostly, but we like to check different genres. I look forward to your next one!I I have a short piece coming out on Friday. Christopher
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Christopher
It’s also cool how the record cover has the words “moanin’ / in the moonlight” on it, almost like an American haiku…
Thanks again, more later…
Dale
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Christopher
AWESOME to hear about Friday, I’ll be there!
Ever read “The Student” by Chekhov? Everything there is to know about life in four pages or less.
Tell the ex- I said hi! Remaining friends is better than everyone hating each other’s guts, and in fact I do it myself with my own ex-! (In my case I remain friends while keeping a safe distance.) More later…
Dale
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Hey Dale
I haven’t read “The Student.” I will though for sure. Thanks! I like quick reads before going to sleep. Usually, I fall to sleep with earbuds in listening to the latest, like, “Hunger and other stories,” by Charles Beaumont. The author you told me about a while back, unless I mixed him up with someone else.The first story has disturbed me pretty bad, called, “Miss Gentilbelle,” where an insane mother dresses her son up as a girl and slaughters his pets.” That’s a quote from the description of the book. I might skip that one not sure.
Thanks I’ll tell her. Yes we get along pretty well.
Christopher
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Hi Christopher!
Just so you know, I’m not familiar with the work of Charles Beaumont. Let me know if he’s any good, and I’ll check him out!
I can, however, recommend the work of a writer named William Gay, from Tennessee (he passed on in 2012). His book I HATE TO SEE THAT EVENING SUN GO DOWN from 2002 has got to be one of the best 21st century American collections of short fiction in existence. Stephen King wrote a short essay praising this writer at one point. As with Dennis Johnson, I’m not as much a fan of his novels, but this one short story collection can sit beside JESUS’ SON in quality, I do believe. William Gay himself was quite a character. He lived way out in the woods of rural Tennessee in a remote cabin.
Dale
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Hi Dale
if I can get through this first disturbing story. Might move on… I started “Student” by Chekhov. Going to wrap that up today. I will check out William Gay I HATE TO SEE THAT EVENING SUN GO DOWN that is high praise from you and Stephen King, sounds pretty good!
Christopher
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Christopher
The last man standing from THE BAND, Garth Hudson, passed on January 21, 2025 at the age of 87, don’t know if you heard.
The dude was a genius musician. God Bless and RIP!
Looking forward to tomorrow…
Dale
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Hey Dale
I didn’t know… that’s a sad deal. I’m not sure who I liked best in THE BAND. Robbie Robertson was very cool and could play that guitar, big time. I liked Danko and Helm–they were all great.
Always have excitement/apprehension when a piece of writing enters the world.
Christopher
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Ananias
Greetings from the great state of normal Illinois! Cold where you are? Here = 15 degree F wind chill and more snow coming – Siberian Huskies feel like they’ve gone home!
And yes, AIs don’t suffer, so they can’t feel pain, so they can’t create beauty. Maybe a huge reason why people like you and me feel so repelled by the prospect of turning one’s hard-earned creative powers over to the possession of an unfeeling robot! And those things never sleep!
But Spinoza the Outcast said, “The wise don’t fear death most of all.” (My translation from the Latin, dictionary in hand.)
How’s the writing and the studying of writing goin’ on?
My lurching version of John Lennon the Solo Artist peeking his head out this Sunday. And few remember that he did indeed spend a fair amount of time living like Emily Dickinson, esp. in the 1970s.
Hope all goes well in one of Lincoln’s 3 home states! I visited his birthplace in Kentucky one time, saw the cabin, entered the cabin, and felt the vibes. Later fell asleep in the grass outside the cabin (after smoking grass) with a blue-eyed, red-haired Lady from Ireland (now long gone) sleeping next to me. Woke up to a hawk flying above in the blue, screaming. No joke! Later…
Dale
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Hi Dale
It’s starting to warm but it was around 10 this morning. I’ll bet the huskies are loving it where you’re at!
That’s a good point about AI being incapable of feeling pain. This might sound corny… In a Star Trek movie this guy (maybe Spock’s brother) was trying to take away pain as a sort of transcendence. Captain Kirk said, “No I need my pain!” How can we, as artists, create anything without it?
On your advice, I’m listening to, “I hate to see that old sun go down,” by William Gay. It’s pretty good! also “Will you please be quiet , please?” by Raymond Carver. And Chekhov on my Kindle. Bouncing around… William Gay is the new kid on the block kind of like James Lee Burke awhile back.
I haven’t come up with much of anything new lately, so I’m tweaking old stories. I’d rather do that then not write anything. The act of writing is a thrill when something materializes, or “puts on weight” like some writer said. Stephen King suggested writing a 1000 words a day. Not sure if I get that done but over the last five years except for one day I woke up with COVID. Iv’e kept at it maybe like some new less destructive addiction.
I’ll bet your “John Lennon the Solo artist” will be a hit! I like John the best out of them. Did he sing lead on Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band? That sounds interesting about his lifestyle, living like Emily Dickinson. I look forward to it my fine writing friend!
Yes, it’s neat to know Lincoln lived here in Indiana, and these other two states. Wow that’s cool about visiting his cabin and the vibes! I could only imagine what that must have been like and a lass from Ireland too.
Abe would have beaten the shit out Booth in a straight up fight. The dude was 6’4 lean and mean, but gentle. “A gentler machine gun hand” in a way lol. But when Lee surrendered AL finally got some relief from sending boys to their deaths, that plagued him so gravely, then that damn Booth.
Flip-side
Christopher
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Christopher
Thanks for checking out my John Lennon essay tomorrow! These fictional essays are generally written without changing very much at all, but also written after thinking about it for a long time first (dozens of notes made almost all while doing other things like walking dogs and driving around the town/s and then never looked at…littering the floor of my apartment as reminders)…And let well enough alone, even the obvious imperfections because sometimes imperfection is more perfect than perfection and irregularity is more beautiful than a false shaping. Bursting the bounds vs. coloring within the lines. But some (a lot) of people like coloring within the lines and DO not appreciate the ones who don’t (and, honestly, can’t anyway. Some folks have falsely (I think) accused me of having ADHD). This essay is a longer one, topping out at EXACTLY (no more and no less) 3,000 words, so in that sense: perfection!….When I was a younger person, J. Lennon was truly one of my gods, never messed around much with the early Beatles stuff, went straight to The White Album, Let It Be and Abbey Road never thinking twice.
William Gay’s best work is his short stories, some are masterpieces, all are at least half great. He reminds me of you in many ways, as his best genre is the realistic horror story. Both of you descendants of Ambrose Bierce (among others) that way. My daughter is reading Ray Bradbury short stories in a high school lit class! Nice to see some folks still knowing what’s good and what ain’t so much!
Later!
Dale
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Hey Dale
I can relate to dog walking and thinking about writing. I usually take my phone for audio notes.
Imperfections and irregularities are well put. Poetic even.”Bursting the bounds vs. coloring within the lines.” 3000 words heck yeah!
“Revolution” kind of introduced me to the Beatles, but I didn’t really get into them until I got older, then I got hooked. “Let it be” is such a comforting song–musical therapy.
Yeah it’s funny how writers are in a sort of lineage. I’m glad they are teaching them Bradbury!
Peace
Christopher
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Thanks Dale! Went straight from your review to a Youtube clip. You got it dead right: Moanin at Midnight captures the late-night fear we all have at times about what might be coming for us.
I saw him perform about 50 years ago, in the unlikely settings of Aberdeen’s His Majesty’s Theatre. Pretty certain he didn’t do ‘Moanin at MIdnight’ in what was an almost shocking and absolutely unforgettable performance. He was stompin so hard and so loud I truly thought he might stomp through a wooden board or two.
Thanks again for the review.
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Hi Mick!
WOW! That’s an awesome comment, and one I will reread numerous times. Can’t believe you saw Howlin’ live. Thanks for sharing! Also, thanks for this description. You made that show come alive again in a mere 55 or so words. Excellent add-on to this essay. Thank you.
Dale
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A kind of paean to those who inhabit the songs they sing. Made for a fresh re-listening to Mr Wolf too. Your essays, Dale, like Leila’s, always a pleasure to read.
Geraint
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Hi Geraint!
That is a truly poetic summary of this essay which also nails the main idea. Always look forward to what you have to say. Thank you!
Dale
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Favorite Howlin’ Wolf song “Going Down Slow”. Good versions from Aretha, and the Animals as well. A portrait of dispair and regret. I have a lot of blues songs on my computer.
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Hi Dale, thank you for this unexpected essay giving the blues its dues. Fantastic piece. I could immediately hear the rumble of the harmonica and the magnificent range in his voice from deep in the grooves to the melodic tones and high vibrational humming in my ears – just a big thanks for opening a door I hadn’t opened in a while.
I had the privilege of living in Cambridge/Boston in the 70s a time of unbelievable music cornucopia. Among them, the blues greats were touring little clubs. It was unforgettable. Howlin Wolf, BB King, Albert King, Big Mama Thornton and many others made indelible impressions on me – we were all about the blues then. Those days we would just listen to whole albums over and over – the music was the center point. Diamonds in the rough.
PS I’m new here, have been reading Literally Stories for a while -but this my first time commenting, thanks for having me!
It was a pleasure to read.
Maria
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Dear Maria
Hello! Thanks so much for reading my essay and commenting with truly great comments. I really enjoyed hearing your descriptions of the Cambridge/Boston music scene, the little clubs and the blues artists you saw – that’s an amazing list! Thank you so much for sharing! It was also fun to hear about how you listened to the albums repeatedly. That’s something I’m familiar with and I think it’s the very best way to get something out of music – if the music is worth it. And the blues artists like Howlin’ Wolf are surely poets as well as musicians. They have so much to say, and they say it in such a beautiful way. America has never produced greater artists than these.
You should keep commenting on Literally Stories, I’m interested in what you have to say. Also, I have another blues essay coming up in the future – this one is about John Lee Hooker and it also talks about the time I saw Buddy Guy live, plus other things. Also, I have a piece on John Lennon upcoming (February 16th). Hope you can check these out – would love to hear your comments and feedback.
Thanks again!
Dale
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Dale, thanks! Yes, Cambridge was flourishing at that time – I should have said the 70s and 80s – we saw John Lee Hooker at Johnathn Swifts, it was a tiny little bar with a 2X2 podium, when he unplugged his guitar and left the stage, he walked straight to me and plunked his guitar in my lap! wow I had the surprise of my life – thankfully a band member came to collect it quickly – it’s not something you forget – but thanks to your essay I’m remembering those days! Cool – great music, great times
I look forward to reading your next pieces.
Maria
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Dear Maria
WOW, that is an awesome story about JLH! Thanks for sharing!
All your comments make me really, truly happy that I wrote about Howlin’.
In fact, yours are among the very best comments I’ve ever received, so thank you!
Also, your comments have inspired me to move forward with another blues essay to add to Hooker and Wolf. I’ve been wanting to do something some day on Muddy Waters’ “Mannish Boy,” 1977 version. So I moved that one to the front burner and hope to come up with something good.
Can’t say thank you enough!
Sincerely,
Dale
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Hi Dale,
Sorry it’s taken so long but I was off for the last week or so and wanted to give this my attention.
I love the Blues but have never studied the artists too much. I just enjoy the music with a lot of Jack.
I decided not to read the comments, just to sit back, close my eyes and scribble down a few words.
I am trying to read my terrible hand writing!
…
Haunting. (Well that’s a given!)
Harrowing. (See above)
The Harmonica was made for this type of music. (Although Aeorsmith have used the harmonica well!!)
I know his voice and I have been trying to come up with a word for it and the only one that keeps coming back to me is simply, ‘Lived’
I know that there are metaphor hunters out there who will always fight their corner no matter what they read or hear but for me this screams out about intrusion with an answer of an unanswered ‘Fuck off!’
That made me smile. If that was what he was going for that was decades before it really was apparent!!!
Everyone should listen to The Blues whilst they chill out in whatever way that they do – The two experiences enhance each other.
All the very best my fine friend.
Hugh
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Hugh
Thanks for commenting! Yes, the Blues can make us not feel blue if listened to in the right frame of mind/with the right understanding. That is what they’re made for, too, no matter how brutal the subject matter sometimes becomes!
R.L. Burnside was a late master who made some of his very best music late ’90s into the early 2000s. He moved to Chicago one time and four of his family members and friends were murdered within a month (he also did time for shooting someone dead in self defense) so he left town, went back to Mississippi, went back to being a farmer, and continued to play the blues whenever and wherever he could; being “discovered” again late in life and going on to make great tunes late in his own life and late for the blues too!
“It’s Bad You Know” being one of the most famous of those songs. Awesome…Pushing the blues to another level in time and keeping it alive in time…
Thanks again!
Dale
PS, Bonnie “Prince” Billie that folk singer I talked about a while ago has a new album out..
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Hi Dale,
Just a wee quick aside.
Within the last year or so I thought I’d found a new artist. Then I found out that ‘Taj Mahal’ was Eighty so!!
Love the mix of his music – Mainly Blues but there are bits and pieces that have no categorisation!!
I’m sure you will know of him but if not, check him out!
Thanks as always my fine friend.
Hugh
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Dale – your taste in music matches that of your taste in books – in other words superb! What I enjoy most about how you write about this (as you did with Bukowski the previous week) is how you really get into and describe the spirit of the art, as well as the history, the significance, but again, how you hone in on what makes this music not just great, but also ‘essential’ in its own way.
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