record_label smokestack lightning
" Back Door Man " is a blues song written by Willie Dixon and recorded by Howlin ' Wolf in 1960 . It was released in 1961 by ___MASK18___ as the B - side to Wolf ' s " Wang Dang Doodle " ( catalog no . 1777 ). The song is considered a classic of Chicago blues . Michael " Cub " Koda ( October 1 , 1948  July 1 , 2000 ) was an American rock and roll singer , guitarist , songwriter , disc jockey , music critic , and ___MASK31___ compiler . " Rolling Stone " magazine considered him best known for writing the song " Smokin ' in the Boys Room ", recorded by Brownsville Station , which reached number 3 on the 1974 Billboard chart . He co - wrote and edited the " All Music Guide to the Blues ", and " Blues for Dummies ", and selected a version of each of the classic blues songs on the CD accompanying the book . He also wrote liner notes for the Trashmen , Jimmy Reed , J . B . Hutto , the Kingsmen , and the Miller Sisters , among others . `` 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 . Chester Arthur Burnett ( June 10 , 1910  January 10 , 1976 ), known as Howlin ' Wolf , was a Chicago blues singer , guitarist , and harmonica player , originally from Mississippi . With a booming voice and looming physical presence , he is one of the best - known Chicago blues artists . Musician and critic Cub Koda noted , " no one could match Howlin ' Wolf for the singular ability to rock the house down to the foundation while simultaneously scaring its patrons out of its wits ." Producer ___MASK90___ recalled , " When I heard Howlin ' Wolf , I said , ' This is for me . This is where the soul of man never dies '". Several of his songs , including " Smokestack Lightnin '", " Back Door Man ", " Killing Floor " and " Spoonful ", have become blues and blues rock standards . In 2004 , " Rolling Stone " magazine ranked him number 51 on its list of the " 100 Greatest Artists of All Time ". A chant ( from French ', from ___MASK93___ ', " to sing ") is the rhythmic speaking or singing of words or sounds , often primarily on one or two main pitches called reciting tones . Chants may range from a simple ___MASK77___ involving a limited set of notes to highly complex musical structures , often including a great deal of repetition of musical subphrases , such as Great Responsories and Offertories of Gregorian chant . Chant may be considered speech , music , or a heightened or stylized form of speech . In the later Middle Ages some religious chant evolved into song ( forming one of the roots of later Western music ). Rhythm and blues , often abbreviated as R & B or RnB , is a genre of popular African - American music that originated in the 1940s . The term was originally used by ___MASK31___ companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans , at a time when " urbane , rocking , jazz based music with a heavy , insistent beat " was becoming more popular . In the commercial rhythm and blues music typical of the 1950s through the 1970s , the bands usually consisted of piano , one or two guitars , bass , drums , saxophone , and sometimes background vocalists . R & B lyrical themes often encapsulate the African - American experience of pain and the quest for freedom and joy . Lyrics focus heavily on the themes of triumphs and failures in terms of relationships , freedom , economics , aspirations , and sex . The Deep South is a cultural and geographic subregion in the Southern United States . Historically , it is differentiated from the " Upper South " as being the states most dependent on ___MASK8___ - type agriculture and considered slave societies during the pre  Civil War period . The Deep South was also commonly referred to as the Lower South or the Cotton States , for their production of cotton as the primary commodity crop . Blues is a genre and musical form originated by African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the end of the 19th century . The genre developed from roots in African musical traditions , African - American work songs and European - American folk music . Blues incorporated spirituals , work songs , field hollers , shouts , chants , and rhymed simple narrative ballads . The blues form , ubiquitous in jazz , rhythm and blues and rock and roll , is characterized by the call - and - response pattern , the blues scale and specific chord progressions , of which the twelve - bar blues is the most common . Blue notes ( or " worried notes "), usually thirds or fifths flattened in pitch , are also an essential part of the sound . Blues shuffles or walking bass reinforce the trance - like rhythm and form a repetitive effect known as the groove . The Chicago blues is a form of blues music indigenous to Chicago , Illinois . Chicago blues is a type of urban blues . Urban blues evolved from classic blues following the Great Migration , or the Great Northern Drive , which was both forced and voluntary at times , of African - Americans from the southern United States to the industrial cities of the north , such as Chicago . Muddy Waters directly joined that migration , like many others , such as in Florida , avoiding the more harshly southern Jim Crow laws . Bruce Iglauer , founder of ___MASK1___ stated that , " Chicago blues is the music of the industrial city , and has an industrial sense about it ." Additionally , recognizing the shift in blues , Chicago Blues singer and guitarist , Kevin Moore expressed the blues transition stating , " You have to put some new life into it , new blood , new perspectives . You can ' t keep talking about mules , workin ' on the levee ." Chicago blues was heavily influenced by Mississippi bluesman who traveled to Chicago in the early 1940s . The development of blues , up to Chicago blues , is arguably as follows : Country blues , to city blues , to urban blues ". Chicago blues is based around the sound of the electric guitar and the harmonica , with the harmonica played through a PA system or guitar amplifier . " Spoonful " is a blues song written by Willie Dixon and first recorded in 1960 by Howlin ' Wolf . Called " a stark and haunting work ", it is one of Dixon ' s best known and most interpreted songs . Etta James had a ___MASK56___ and R & B record chart hit with " Spoonful " in 1961 , and it was popularized in the late 1960s by the British rock group Cream . Samuel Cornelius " Sam " Phillips ( January 5 , 1923  July 30 , 2003 ) was an American musician , businessman , ___MASK31___ executive , music producer , and disc jockey who played an important role in the emergence and development of rock and roll and rockabilly as the major form of popular music in the 1950s . He was a producer , ___MASK49___ owner , and talent scout throughout the 1940s and 1950s .