This time around I am going to be professorial. Maybe because I consider myself a professor in “Wolfmanology.” Maybe because there is something fun about debunking myths. Maybe because I got up on the wrong side of the bed. Whatever the case, I now offer the most in-depth, analytical and prosaic piece you will ever read about Wolfman Jack, at least to date on this web site. I think it is time to do this.

Last month I received an e-mail requesting that I answer a question about Wolfman Jack. I said I would, providing I would not break any rules of privacy. It turns out the question was a common one, about Wolf's voice. After giving my stock answer, which is an honest answer, I decided to pontificate about the issue here. With historical reference, personal experience and a whole lot of cultural awareness, I now unleash this never-before-discussed-in-print treatise on the subject. 

I guarantee if you read from this point on, you will understand much more about The Wolfman's place in pop culture. However, I warn you, there are things written here that you may not wish to learn, for they invade the mystique and well orchestrated public image that was Wolfman Jack.
All disclaimers now in place, let me continue . . .

 The voice. His voice. It is the one thing I am asked most about concerning my association with Wolfman Jack. All of the questions come down to this one--“Was that his real voice?”

 To me it seems like a strange question, as well as it is a superficial question. But I try to address it regardless of my judgment.

 Of course it was his real voice. Do people think Wolf had some kind of mechanism attached to his throat, one that transformed the tones and cadences of a soft and calm speaking voice into a coarse, graveled one and then was able to, with the flick of a switch, increase its volume?

 The Wolfman had one voice; he could raise the volume and lower the volume. When he spoke, the volume was lower. And I wonder--wasn’t anyone aware of the zillions of times Wolfman spoke in his normal voice on the radio? On television? In movies? Everyone has heard the Wolfman talk in his normal voice. 
 You never hear people ask about Frank Sinatra’s voice. Did Frank sing in the same voice he spoke with? Or was Sinatra in possession of his own secret device, perhaps obtained from some alien during an abduction that made a crooner out of a New Jersey street kid?

 The fascination with Wolfman Jack's voice, I understand, comes from the general mystique surrounding him and from the fact that it produced such an original sound. At the time it reverberated through the airwaves via a small but powerful radio station in Mexico, it was one of a kind. No one had heard such a voice, no less coming one from another country in the dead of night playing music rarely heard on local stations. No one knew, either, who this voice with the strange name was or what he looked like. 

Wolfman Jack was a phantom who people listened to, usually, in the intimacy of their bedrooms and then, did so with a matter of secrecy. Like it was illegal. And possessive. People wanted to believe (and Wolfman always led them to believe) that when they listened to him it was a personal experience. Like no one else was really listening; like The Wolfman was doing his show for you and you alone. All of this raised the intensity of the voices purpose and function. 

This was no fluke, though it did touch on phenomena. Wolfman Jack, a character originated by Robert W. Smith, knew exactly what he was doing. He was well aware that broadcasting intimacy was important, essential and maybe even the core of the matter. Still, make no bones about this when Robert W. Smith was not on the radio as Wolfman, he sounded the same (except he didn't order his food at a restaurant by screaming, “Hey baby, lemme have a rockin’ setta eggs over easy and a cuppa java witout da cow juice, yeah!”). But there was never any actual difference between the man and the character. 

Now, what about that characters voice expressed as a part of Mr. Smith's personality and first unleashed over 200,000 watts from Mexico and later became a commercial property?

Yes it was his voice, amplified and animated. But it was also a derivative of an influence that few people know about--His Royal Lord Hipness Lord Buckley.

Richard Myrle Buckley has been described as “a far out, wailin', nonstop, groovy gasser who stomped virtually unknown through the pages of comedic history.” Sound familiar? Buckley was a comedian, a cool and talented spin off of the madcap 1930s. And Lord Buckley’s influence was running wild.
 Buckley spent the ‘30s performing his standup routines in speakeasies, made it to New York and married "Lady Buckley” (remember the references to “Wolfwoman”?). By the ‘50s he had a wide variety of admirers, including Jonathan Winters, Red Foxx, Lenny Bruce and most other landmark comedians. Since Buckley was not mainstream, he never broke through his underground status. But along the way his unique style ignited the talents of others.

Wolfman loved this guy and the hipness of his act. 

Buckley, for instance, the language he used was the argot of the streets of black America. "Negroes spoke a language of such power, purity and beauty,” he said,  “I could not resist this magical way of speaking, nor the great power it had for good in its purity and sweetness. A power that said by hip-zig-zag-urmph, everything is understandable. A voice spoke to me from within.”

If you recall, the assumptions about Wolfman Jack before he went public were all based around the notion that he was black. The similarity between Wolfman's street like language and Buckley’s is testimony to Wolfs admiration of Buckley and a manifestation of the fact that Robert W. Smith was a kid from the streets of Brooklyn, N.Y. When Robert first heard Buckley do his routine, instantly he had found a kindred spirit as well as an influence, someone to emulate. 

If you have never heard Lord Buckley and you love Wolfman Jack, you need to search for some Buckley recordings, get them, and listen with all of your might. You will hear the roots of The Wolfman in just about every routine Buckley performs. Consider, too, that Buckley was not only a creative inspiration for The Wolfman. Buckley’s existence was also a validation. Buckley did nothing but talk jive for a living. Although many people talked for a living, talking jive for a living was another thing all together. The fact that there was someone who could manage this made Robert W. Smith sure that he could do it. 

I discovered Lord Buckley through Wolf. In the early weeks of writing for Wolfman's syndicated radio show, Wolf was concerned about how I typed by material. He said it lacked a beat, a flow, and a hipness. 
“You gotta get into Lord Buckley, man,” Wolf said to me. “You gotta write my material just like I would say it, with the slang and the language of jive.”

Wolf handed me a Lord Buckley album (to borrow, not have, since these albums were so rare) and I took it home and studied it. I was amazed that I had never heard of this “cat.” But more so, I was amazed at how much Wolf imitated the rhythm and cadence of Buckley’s delivery. Granted, Wolfs natural voice made this easy. However, Wolf worked at the Buckley style, too. 

So, Wolf made me type my material on paper with all the flair of Buckley language, tossing out the grammar rulebook and relying on Buckley’s personal “hipasaurus.”

In essence, Lord Buckley created the language that now makes us all know and love Wolfman Jack. For years, I wrote Wolfs material with total disregard of the English language. My scripts were just about unreadable by anyone else except Wolf because Wolf had the Buckley tempo, the beat, and the rhythm in his head. And, reading most of it cold, Wolf was able to make it sound like it came off the top of his head. And, of course, he did it with that spectacular voice. His voice.

In the early years when Wolfman corrupted the ribbons of a microphone and contracted his veins with that voice, much of what he said did come off the top of his head. There is no way I can say that I did anything but contribute to his creativity. His translation of the influence of Lord Buckley was so powerful that to this day more people attribute Wolfs vocal style and hipness to some epiphany he had, giving birth to Wolfman Jack. We made up tons of stories about the origin of The Wolfman. The fact is, however, that without Lord Buckley, Robert W. Smith's voice, as suited as it was to echo Buckley’s hipness, might have been used to sell used cars to some ordinary people in some ordinary town. 

As fate would have it, the voice found the rhyme and reason to become extraordinary.

Check in often. I will.
Mars