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Writing into a Screen
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Writing into a Screen Can I post directly. again? This evening I was thinking about harmonicas. That may sound silly. I don't know any better. I have known more harmonica players than any other musician... I think. Maybe guitarists.. but I tend to ignore them. My favorites are the drummers, but they don't know much about music. The best harmonica player, obviously, is Stevie Wonder. But of course, he's one of the best at... mmmmm... everything. I'll save those stories for a later post. Lee Oskar, on the other hand, is a magnificent harmonica player. He played with War. Er... Eric Burton and War, as they were called. "Spill the Wine", "Why Can't we be Friends". You know them, I'm sure. The best was "Low Rider". Somehow considered the "Chicano Theme Song". Thanks Cheech! Lee is VERY specific. I won't go into it. And he doesn't deny it. His harmonicas are golden. Literally. But the thing that was making me want to write, at all, about it is -- Huey-Freaking-Lewis. Laugh all you want but... Did you know that Huey Lewis played harmonica for Led Zeppelin when he was like 16 years old? Can you imagine? Playing harmonica on cue when-so-ever Led Zeppelin required? I mean, Robert Plant can play his own harmonica... but not when-so-ever Led Zep requires. That's pretty crazy to me. Another really weird thing to me is that Huey's band... The News... was Elvis Costello's original backing band before The Attractions. I like The Attractions, but The News has Johnny Colla who is fabulous, as far as I am concerned. Okay. Back to the harmonica. Who cares, right? Fits in your breast pocket, cost less than $100 - what kind of instrument is this? Hohner, in Germany, makes the finest harmonicas. And accordions. I tried to play an accordion. Once. I'll stick to saxophone, harmonica, piano and drums, thank you. Playing accordion is like roller-skating, backwards... while playing harmonica. To me anyway. I'm sure there are plenty of satisfied accordion players out there. Don't get me wrong. Love the sound -- useful without a fiddle, but I just can't do it. The thing about harmonicas are the reeds. Some players soak their harmonicas in whiskey. Huey does. For days. Reeds, as you may know, NEED soaking. As a sax player, I gotta tell you that holding a reed in my mouth takes hours. If you present 12 or more reeds... could take all day. How do they work? These "harm"onicas? Their first name is almost "harmony". And that is what they do. Harmonize. Like accordions... sorta. Care to know? |
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My middle girl was obsessed with the harmonica --- a grandpa played and got her hooked, she was quite good but seems to have lost the interest in it. I met Huey and he dedicated, "Hip to be Square" to me at his concert. I was 1 years younger than him when he played for Led Zep ----- He felt I should of given him a lemonade because he was Huey. His body guards ended up paying... That was pre concert. I heard him: "This is for the girl in the lemonade stand... " He didn't feel I knew who he was. Like everyone walks around all in one color with eight big black guys all in black. Hello. 
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One of my favorites is Little Walter. I really liked his cover of Key to the Highway. Become a member now and get a free tote bag.
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2/1/2015 1:03 pm |
Another fabulous harmonica player was John Lennon. But again, pretty freakin' good at anything he put his mind to.
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