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tale of the Big Bad Wolf, or the story of the Three
Little Pigs as it has come to be known, has been handed
down through many generations. Growing from factual
events the story passed from reality into the realm
of legend, and eventually to fable. A cautionary tale
told, amongst so many others, warning against the
evils of idle hands, the virtues of hard work, and
to be wary of the ever-present threat of the Wolf.
Likely due to the transformation of this tale into
a children’s fable, the racism laying at the
foundation of the story is largely overlooked today.
But to ignore this, and to forget the actual events
the story was born from, would be to dismiss a very
real, and shameful, episode in our collective history.
Do not forget, lest ye be doomed to repeat. We can
pretend to have risen to higher moral ground since
the days of those terrible events but, sadly, racism
still persists in this country, and the propagation
of this tale is but one small testament to that fact.
The true events leading to the fairy tale we now call
The Three Little Pigs began as follows:
Wolf was a farmer and Blues musician living in the
Mississippi Delta town of Money during the early years
of the 20th century. Married to wife Elle, and father
to three pups, B.B. struggled to cut a life for his
family from the fertile but unforgiving land of the
American south. Harder still was life in a society
not yet ready to recognize their equal place within
it. The Wolf was, even then, fifty plus years gone
from a civil war and forty some years pass the promises
of Reconstruction, a second-class citizen. Worse still
there were many a Pig who believed the Wolf to be
less than mammal. Segregation, especially in the south,
became commonplace. And the lynching, often en masse,
of Wolves by the PPP (The Pius Porcus Partis), occurred
with alarming frequency. It was in this environment
that B.B., and all Wolves, struggled.
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amongst the architects of the Wolves plight was Littlepig
Industries. One of the nation’s first multi--concern
corporations, LI controlled nearly the entire Mississippi
Valley, stretching from the developed streets of Chicago
to the farmlands of the south. They owned agricultural
land, ran the shipping lines up and down the river,
and influenced the lives of all in the region. Even
the shadowy industries of alcohol, drugs, gambling,
and prostitution ultimately came under their control.
Led by brothers Carrington, Beauregard, and Allouissius,
LI endeavored to own all land and control all commerce
along the stretch of the great river, and to drive
the Wolves from any ownership within the region. With
this goal in mind they began acquiring all Wolf-owned
farmland within the Mississippi Delta. When farmers
refused to sell, more aggressive means were employed.
And it was this fate that befell B.B. Wolf and his
family. All too often this was the fate of the Wolf
during these dark times. Persecuted, marginalized,
forgotten. Set ‘free’ from prior bonds
only to be cast into a land that did not want nor
would not help them. It was an environment rife with
pain and loss. And it was this environment that gave
birth to a truly American art form, the Blues.
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Blues as we now know it was just beginning to form,
born from the spirituals, chants, and work songs of
the late 19th century. Delta Blues artists, considered
one of the earliest and most influential blues styles,
became a powerful voice for a group newly freed and
aching to establish an identity. The earliest major
recordings of the first Delta Blues artists occurred
in 1928, eight years after the death of B.B. Wolf.
But recent discoveries have shown B.B. to be a pioneering
forefather of the movement. These Lost Tapes date
to the time of the first known blues recording, Lady
Smith’s version of Terrier Bradford’s
“Crazy Blues”. Truly, B.B. Wolf, had he
lived, would have been heralded alongside such names
as Hooker, Waters, and James as a Father of the Blues
Movement. But sadly B.B. did not live to see his glory
days and, sadder still, his music was lost, seemingly
forever.
ut
now his music has returned. The discovery of the Lost
Tapes of B.B. Wolf & The Howlers, and the publication
of the true events of his life and demise, as told
in the book BB Wolf & the Three LP’s, has
brought B.B.’s life full circle. No longer will
his tale linger in the nebulous land of fable. His
story is now known as fact. It is not a fairy tale
to tell the children, with happy endings and neat
moral messages, but rather a bloody tale, filled with
great loss and a tearful, unjust fate.
But it is
his story, and we all must bear the burden of remembering
it.
