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
Petals of Blood is a great reliance placed on such songs, which help tell, through the oral tradition of linking of proverbs and fables, the history of Ilmorog and Kenya before colonial intervention. "Petals of Blood" caused a stronger critical reaction than Ngugi's previous novels. The use of the past and historical memory is far more widespread in the novel due largely to the use of flashbacks, and questions relating to the past "from the central concerns" of the novel. The strong political motif that runs throughout the novel has also been discussed, focusing on the relation of political ideas to the "Petals