Word: harmonica
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...were on their way to success. The Rolling Stones had drawn thousands of screaming kids at The Boston Garden, singing such songs as "Little Red Rooster," a song sung by the Mississippi-origined bluesman, Howlin' Wolf, many years before. The Yardbirds had cut an album with the late blues harmonica player from Mississippi, Sonny Boy Williamson. The album sold well -- to the many, many Yardbirds fans...
Their appeal is obvious. Says "the Bear," a 280-lb. singer and harmonica player for a Los Angeles group called the Canned Heat: "I've got an old lady now, so I don't mess around when I'm in L. A. But when I'm on the road, it's different. I mean, here are these chicks padding around the hotel corridors after you, and it's great." Some musicians, however, profess to find them a nuisance. Mothers Manager Dick Barber complains that groupies are in such ready supply that it is "pretty...
...that worked out or put together," he says. "It's emotional. It's what you feel at the time." What Johnny feels at the time is likely to be a kind of sliding, "bottleneck" guitar playing in the classic twelve-bar blues pattern or keening "harp" (harmonica) stylings imitative of Little Walter. "When I'm playing without a band, I don't change chords when I'm supposed to-I change chords when I feel like it. That's a primitive concept, but if it feels good and sounds good to me, then...
...lyrics are complemented by an insistently rhythmic organ and Sonny Boy's incredible crying harmonica. The combination of the lyrics and the music creates sadness, loneliness, and despair--the Blues--and yet the sound of his slashing harp and insistent flowing rhythm section indicate that despite his blues Sonny boy can still swing and by singing and playing the Blues he is able to transcend his blues...
...Proposition will not challenge your well-insulated intellectualism. Admittedly, it is escapist; but that does not exclude the possibility of its being funny. When Fred Grandy comes on and looks like Bob Dylan and eats his harmonica like Dylan and sings like you've always secretly thought Bob Dylan did sing, you can guffaw if you want; you can even roll around a little on the kindergarten-colored wood benches (at least I did, much to the discomfort of another reviewer's wife who was snickering beside...