Original Song
Howlin' Wolf recorded "Killing Floor" in 1964 and it was released as a single. According to blues guitar great and longtime Wolf associate Hubert Sumlin, the song's title refers to male-female relationships. “Down on the killing floor–that means a woman has you down,” Sumlin said. “She went out of her way to try to kill you. She at the peak of doing it, and you got away now.” He paused, then added, “You know people have wished they was dead–you been treated so bad that sometimes you just say, ‘Oh Lord have mercy.’ You’d rather be six feet in the ground.
"Killing Floor" is an upbeat twelve-bar blues with an "instantly familiar" guitar riff provided by Sumlin. Backing Howlin' Wolf (vocals) and Sumlin (electric guitar) are Lafayette Leake (piano), Buddy Guy (acoustic guitar), Andrew McMahon (bass), Sam Lay (drums), Arnold Rogers (tenor sax), and Donald Hankins (baritone sax). The song appears on several Howlin' Wolf compilation albums, including his 1966 album The Real Folk Blues. In 1991, "Killing Floor" was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in the "Classics of Blues Recordings" category.
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