Howlin’ Wolf – “Evil Is Goin’ On” Lyrics

At Bluescentric, it is our great honor to dream up and manufacture Howlin’ Wolf t-shirts & merchandise on behalf of his estate for over the last decade. So we wanted to share with you interesting stories behind Howlin’ Wolf’s music.

Howlin’ Wolf’s haunting blues song “Evil” was actually written by legendary songwriter Willie Dixon. It was recorded and released by Howlin Wolf in 1954 at Chess Records.

Hubert Sumlin and Judy Williams were on guitars, Otis Spann on piano, Willie Dixon played double bass and Earl Phillips played drums.

In 1969, Howlin’ Wolf re-recorded a psychedelic-blues version the song for his release “This is Howlin’ Wolf’s new album”, which was rather controversial at the time.

“He had a hold on your soul, and he held you with his blues. Wolf was a hypnotist; he hypnotized himself when he opened his mouth and sang.”
– Sun Records’ Sam Phillips

Though the ‘song ’54 version did not chart, the ’69 version hit #43 on the Billboard R&B chart.

“Evil” has been successfully covered a number of times, including by Tom Jones & Jack White, Greta Van Fleet, Captain Beefheart, Cactus, Luther Allison and on The Faces’ 1973 album Ooh La La

If you’re a long way from home
Can’t sleep at night
Grab your telephone
Somethin’ just ain’t right

That’s evil
Evil is goin’ on wrong
I am warnin’ you, brother
You better watch your happy home

Well, long way from home
And can’t sleep at all
You know another mule
Is kickin’ in your stall

That’s evil
Evil is goin’ on wrong
I am warnin’ you, brother
You better watch your happy home

You better catch him
‘Cause something’s wrong
In your home

Well, if you call her on the telephone
And she answers awful slow
Grab the first train smokin’
If you have to hobo

That’s evil
Evil is goin’ on wrong
I am warnin’ you, brother
You better watch your happy home

If you make it to your house
Knock on the front door
Run ’round to the back
You’ll catch him just before he go

That’s evil
Evil is goin’ on
I am warnin’ you, brother
You better watch your happy home

Here’s Howlin’ Wolf performing EVIL:

And here’s Tom Jones annd Jack White recording a cover at Third Man Records: