Wiki
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Length
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"You call us coons, say we ain't got any sense, you gonna wake up one morning - that ol' coon gonna be your president."
Howlin' Wolf's powerful anti-racist and prophetic song (confidently predicting a black U.S. President.) In 1970 when visiting him in Chicago, he asked me to write him a song about astronauts. (The full story is on my 'howlingwolfphotos' site) My great regret is that I was traveling and didn't finish one. But sax player/manager Eddy Shaw did. And this song is the heart of blues, both tragic and joyous. Howlin' Wolf put a lot of emotions at once into his work that deeply touch places we all share at our center.
Incendiary, brilliant, poignantly-sung as only Wolf could do, the song describes growing up in the Jim Crow south, civil rights and other amazing changes ("we're on the moon now!") and lists some major black historical events/contributions. All that plus, "You call us coons, say we ain't got any sense, you gonna wake up one morning - that ol' coon gonna be your president." Eat that crow, Jim! And Hubert Sumlin's guitar work is spectacular. Don't miss hearing this. SGS
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