Texts of the songs discussed, including a transcription
of Howlin’ Wolf’s recording that represents the non-word sounds in his performance,
are appended.
Apart from the
striking repeated title image Howlin’ Wolf’s “Smokestack Lightning” [1], consists
largely a of collage of blues formulae mixed with more significant and effective
inarticulate moans and cries. The song,
with its elemental emotional appeal, made number eleven on the R & B charts
and has since been covered by countless bands, including significantly the
Yardbirds who brought Wolf’s lyrics a huge white audience.
Musically the performance could hardly be
more focused with its driving relentless vamp on a single chord. The song contains some of the most familiar language
in blues literature; set phrases of complaint that define the genre.
Why don't ya hear me cryin'?
Whoa oh, tell me, baby
What's the, matter with you
Where did ya, stay last night?
Whoa-oh, fare ya well
Never see, a you no more
Whoa-oh, who been here baby since,
I-I been gone
This web of lament is then intensified by
the non-linguistic utterances so prominent in Wolf’s oeuvre, indeed the
basis for his name. Here the singer
bursts beyond the capacity of words, as in scatting, field hollers, and gospel
screams, and the yodeling Wolf admired, a kind of eloquent speaking in tongues,
giving voice to the suffering of human life expressed also in everyday life at times
as wordless sighs or weeping.
Against a background of highly
conventionalized set phrases, the title image stands out dramatically. “Smokestack lightning” had appeared earlier
in songs by the Charlie Patton and Mississippi Sheiks as well as by Wolf
himself. [2] In spite of this small
place in tradition, the expression reportedly puzzled bassist Willie Dixon. [3]
Though discussion continues, Wolf
provided a simple and convincing comment on the origin of the image: "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 Howlin’ Wolf’s song, the image accumulates all the more signification
due to its underdetermination. A
semiotic map of “smokestack lightning” would begin with the direct reference to
a steam railway locomotive smokestack which triggers associations common to the
blues in which trains suggest most often loss and love longing but sometimes
escape and liberation. The trains were a
dramatic intrusion of the outside world for the farm worker, representing
specifically the exit from local life, the route to the cities and the
North. The train as an agent of change
was often the herald of suffering and its mechanical might seemed all but
supernatural. Countless songs refer to
the train separating one-time lovers. [5]
In the song’s immediate predecessors the train’s stack is associated
with loss. Patton sang that the train’s
appearance “give me the blues” because the singer is “'fraid she's gettin' on
board.” The railroad association is more
tenuous though the separation is more final in the Mississippi Sheiks usage in
which the singer is “cryin'” due to finding “my baby/ Layin' on the coolin'
floor.” The melancholy connotations of
the train cling to it even when there is no question of anyone riding out of
town, when, in fact, the train is reduced to pure symbol.
The suggestive potency of the striking
image of “smokestack lightning” is not limited to the mournful associations of
its sound at night, a use reminiscent of the role of the calls of wild geese in
Chinese poetry. The fiery combustion of
the engine, its titanic pressures and terrific heat, represent as well the
strength of libido that drives all creatures always forward. The great clouds of steam and smoke generated
by a steam locomotive provide a glimpse into the churning heart of life
itself. The glowing sparks seem animated
germs of existence.
Convention is often opposed to innovation
and denigrated by critics, though in fact a discerning use of convention allows
the economical expression of themes of great complexity. In Howlin’ Wolf’s “Smokestack Lightning” both
musical and verbal resources are restricted to the bare minimum, and one single
“floating image,” that of “smokestack lightning,” governs the entire song like
that single insistent chord against a tissue of blues commonplaces and even
more universal non-verbal utterances. The
image is the richer and the deeper for its measure of indeterminacy. The songc is a classic not of complexity, but
of fierce single-minded intensity, both in feeling and in structure. Beginning and then periodically dissolving in
inarticulate vocalizations, against a collage of floating phrases with great
elliptical gaps the listener must complete, the song unforgettably portrays the
suffering of the singer as the driving music indicates the unfailing energy to
persist in the face of pain and loss.
3. According to James Segrest. See his The Life and Times of Howlin' Wolf.
4. This line is
quoted hundreds of times, including in the “Smokestack Lightning” entry in Rolling
Stone’s list of “500 Greatest Rock and Roll Songs, but I have not located
its first appearance in print.
5.
The range of train references in rural songs is suggested by a few
examples: “Railroad Blues” by Sam McGee, a white country singer, who says he
“went to the depot, looked up on the board/ It read "Good times here, but
better down the road." In “Dixie
Flyer Blues” by Bessie Smith the female speaker is leaving, while in Little
Junior Parker’s “Mystery Train” she’s likewise on her way, but the persona is
male. In Robert Johnson’s “Love in Vain”
it is unclear who is taking the train.
Many songs (such as Henry Thomas’ “Railroadin’” refer to travel by
freight train, while in others such as Leadbelly’s “Midnight Special” (and Johnny
Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues”) the train is simply the emblem of freedom. In Big Bill Broonzy’s “Too Too Train” the
engine is a dynamo outdone by a lover’s energy.
And she do a little of this
And mama and she do a little of that
And when she put on full steam
Make a freight train jump a track
Smokestack Lightning
{Howlin’ Wolf] 1956
Ah oh, smokestack lightnin'
Shinin', just like gold
Whoo hoo
Whoo hoo
Whoo
What's
the, matter with you?
Why don't ya hear me cryin'?
Whoo hoo
Whoo hoo
Whoo
Whoa oh, tell me, baby
A-why don't ya hear me cryin'?
Whoo hoo
Whoo hoo
Whoo
Whoa-oh, stop your train
Let her, go for a ride
Why don't ya hear me cryin'?
Whoo hoo
Whoo hoo
Whoo
Never
see, a you no more
A-why don't ya hear me cryin'?
Whoo hoo
Whoo hoo
Whoo
Whoa-oh, who been here baby since,
I-I been gone, a little, bitty boy
Girl, be on
Whoo hoo
Whoo hoo
Whoo
Whoa, smokestack lightnin'
Shinin' just like gold
Why don't you hear me cryin'?
A-whoo-hoo, a-whoo-hoo, whoo
Whoa-oh, tell me, baby
What's the matter here?
Why don't you hear me cryin'?
Whoo-hoo, whoo-hoo, whoo
Whoa-oh, tell me, baby
Where did you stay last night?
Why don't you hear me cryin'?
Whoo-hoo, whoo-hoo, whoo
Whoa-oh, stop your train
Let a poor boy ride
Why don't you hear me cryin'?
Whoo-hoo, whoo-hoo, whoo
Whoa-oh, fare-you-well
Never see a you no more
Why don't you hear me cryin'?
Whoo-hoo, whoo-hoo, whoo
Whoa-oh, who been here baby since
I, I been gone a little bitty boy?
Girl, be on [heard by some as “derby on”]
A-whoo-hoo, whoo-hoo, whoo
Crying At Daybreak [Howlin’
Wolf] 1951
Tell me baby, what's done matter
now
Today been a long and lonesome day
Lonesome day
Smokestack lightnin', shining just
like gold
Honey do you hear me crying?
Today been a long and sad old day
Don't you hear me crying
Tell me baby what you got on your
mind
Why don't you hear me crying
Ain't gonna marry, ain't gonna
settle down
Why don't you hear me crying
Big Road Blues [Tommy
Johnson] 1928
Cryin', ain't goin' down this big
road by myself
Now don't you hear me talkin',
pretty mama?
Lord, ain't goin' down this big
road by myself
If I don't carry you, gon' carry
somebody else
Cryin', sun gonna shine in my back
door someday
Now, don't you hear me talkin',
pretty mama?
Lord, sun gon' shine in my back
door someday
And the wind gon' change, gon'
blow my blues away
Baby, what makes you do me like
you do do do, like you do do do?
Don't you hear me now?
What makes you do me like you do
do do?
Now you think you gon' do me like
you done poor Cherry Red
Taken the poor boy's money now,
sure, Lord, won't take mine
Now don't you hear me talkin'
pretty mama?
Taken the poor boy's money; sure,
Lord, won't take mine
Taken the poor boy's money now;
sure, Lord, won't take mine
Cryin', ain't goin' down this big
road by myself
Now, don't you hear me talkin',
pretty mama?
Lord, ain't goin' down this big
road by myself
If I don't carry you, gon' carry
somebody else
Cryin', sun gon' shine, Lord, my
back door someday
Now don't you hear me talkin',
pretty mama?
Lord, sun gon' shine in my back
door someday
And the wind gon' change, blow my
blues away
Stop and Listen Blues [Mississippi
Sheiks] 1930
Ev'r day have been there
Long old lonesome day
Now don't ya a-hear me talkin',
pretty mama?
Ev'r day have been
Long old lonesome day
Cry, it seem like you-ooo would
Be there ooo-ooo, same old way
Cryin', smokestack lightning
That bell that shine like gold
Now don't ya a-hear me talkin',
pretty mama?
Ooh, smokestack lightning
Bells that shine like gold
Layin'
on the coolin' floor
Don't a hearse look lonesome, mama
Rollin' for yo' do'?
Now don't ya a-hear me talkin', pretty
mama?
Don't a hearse look lonesome
Rollin' for yo' do'?
Cryin' she's gone, tell you-ooo,
Lord
Won't be-ee-ee back no mo'
Ooh, stop and listen
Hear how those bells in toll
Now don't ya a-hear me talkin',
pretty mama?
Ooh, stop and listen
Hear the bell it tolls
I had a sweet little faror
But she's dead and gone
Moon Going Down [Charlie Patton]
1930
Aw, the moon is going down baby,
sun's about to shine
Aw, the moon's going down baby,
sun's about to shine
Rosetta Henry told me, "Lord,
I don't want you hangin' round"
Oh well, where were you now baby,
Clarksdale mill burned down?
Oh well, where were you now babe,
Clarksdale mill burned down?
(Boy, you know where I were)
I were way down'n Sunflower with
my face all full of frown
There's a house over yonder,
painted all over green
There's a house over yonder,
painted all over green
(Boy, you know I know it's over
there)
Lord, the finest young women,
Lord, a man most ever seen
Lord, I think I heard that Taylor
whistle, Taylor whistle, Taylor whistle blow
Lord, I think I heard that Taylor
whistle
(Well now I hear it blowin')
Lord, I ain't gonna stop walkin'
'til I get in my rider's door
Lord, the smokestack is black and
the bell it shine like, bell it shine like, bell it shine like gold
Oh the smokestack is black and the
bell it shine like gold.
(Cover me boy, you know it looks
good to me)
Lord, I ain't gonna walk there,
ah, babe ain't 'round no more
Aw, I evil was at midnight, 'til I
heard the local blow
I was evil out at night, when I
heard the local blow
I
got to see my rider, 'fraid she's gettin' on board
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