How Many More Years formed his own band in West Memphis, Arkansas, in 1948, billing himself as "The Howlin' Wolf". He began broadcasting on radio station KWEM in West Memphis, and was heard by Sam Phillips who signed him for Memphis Recording Service. He recorded "How Many More Years" at the MRS studio at 706 Union Avenue, Memphis, Tennessee, in or about July 1951, singing and playing harmonica with a band comprising (probably) Ike Turner (piano), Willie Johnson (guitar), and Willie Steele (drums). The repetitious bass-string boogie line resembles the one played in the traditional blues standard "Forty-Four". The record's original A-side, "Moanin' at
The Lion has Many Ears of jealousy; that Guðrún's son Svenni stole the antique pistol; that Kjartan in fact killed himself, staging his suicide as a murder (echoing how in "Laxdæla saga" Kjartan refuses to defend himself against Bolli); and that Hrefna murdered Bolli, apparently supposing that he was to blame for Kjartan's murder. In an epilogue, Guðrún bumps into Leó in the street and it becomes clear from family resemblance that her son Þorlákur is in fact not Bolli's son, but Leó's, and the two become a happy couple, echoing Guðrún Ósvifursdóttir's fourth marriage, to Þorkell Eyjólfsson, in "Laxdæla saga". The Lion has Many