Talk:Killing Floor (Howlin' Wolf song)

Songs Stub‑class

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Songs, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of songs on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.SongsWikipedia:WikiProject SongsTemplate:WikiProject Songssong
Stub	This article has been rated as Stub-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.
	This article has been automatically rated by a bot or other tool as Stub-class because it uses a stub template. Please ensure the assessment is correct before removing the `\|auto=` parameter.

This article should be named "Killing Floor_(song)".

Start again?

The writer of this article clearly only cares about blues inasmuch as it was a 'feeder' for mainstream rock music. Currently the article focuses disproportionately on the song's after-life: can we not assume that this article will be consulted by users interested in the blues as something of cultural value in and of itself, and not just as a jumping-off-point for rock groups? Suggest adding much-needed info about the song itself and its origins; e.g.

its probable beginnings in a Skip James song (Hard Times Killin' Floor Blues);

its lyrical content: the 'killing floors' are prob. the abbatoirs of Northern US cities where many blacks moving from the South found work;

the fact that the song represents the Wolf's return to Delta-style blues (i.e. oral borrowing from another singer's work, or simply from a common tradition), following his split with Willie Dixon, who had attempted to bring a pop songwriting sensibility to the blues and the Wolf's music in particular (i.e. by composing original material);

further to the above, and following on from the article's comment that the song is 'one of the most influential blues songs of all-time', it should be noted that the song was in fact rather anomalous - it was recorded quite late (1964) for a blues song still so deeply marked by the Delta. In that sense, it is a something of a 'last hurrah' for the old blues amidst the new 'uptown', more soul-influenced blues of Buddy Guy, Otis Rush, Magic Sam, Albert King which, along with soul and R&B would displace the older form of the blues. In other words when recorded, its lyrical style had become markedly dated and the Wolf was becoming harder to market;

the story told by Buddy Guy that he was called in to nail the guitar part as Hubert Sumlin (a highly regarded guitar player) was unable to. This might (?) have some bearing on the array of virtuoso guitar players who have had a go at the song - Clatpon, Hendrix, Page.

Most of this can be found on the liner notes to the Chess 'Best of' album. Modesthill (talk) 00:51, 16 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]