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Smoke Stack Lightning


Howlin' Wolf

Written by: Chester Burnett
Produced by: Leonard and Phil Chess, Willie Dixon
Released: March '56 on Chess
Charts: Did not chart

This was based on Wolf's "Crying at Daybreak," recorded years earlier and itself modeled on Charley Patton's "Moon Going Down." The inspiration, said Wolf, was watching trains cut through 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."

Appears on: His Best (Chess)

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