Re: [Harp-L] Recreation of Bobby Gentry's classic 'Ode To Billie Joe' album

[Ansel Barnum <anselsb@xxxxxxxxx>]

I agree the diatonic work on this album was much inferior to the stuff
played with a chromatic harp. This presented a dilemma to me, given the
point of the project was to recreate the album: Should I be faithful to the
album by playing its unsatisfactory diatonic lines, or come up with
original material at the expense of a true recreation of the album? I wound
up leaning more towards the former, with a bit of compromising. The
chromatic work on the other hand was quite tasteful on the album, so I
happily reproduced those parts, although done on a diatonic (I'm of the
overbend school).

If any of you want to hear the outcome, you can listen to the radio
broadcast which got archived here
<http://thekey.xpn.org/2014/12/05/free-noon-flashback-lower-40-give-bobbie-gentry-smashing-tribute/>.
Harp content is minimal, though present on all songs except the last, true
to the original album.


Ansel
---------------
www.anselbarnum.com
www.facebook.com/supplereed


On Fri, Dec 5, 2014 at 1:25 PM, <harp-l-request@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>
> Message: 7
> Date: Fri, 5 Dec 2014 16:41:52 +0000 (UTC)
> From: Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: Re: [Harp-L] Recreation of Bobby Gentry's classic 'Ode To
>         Billie  Joe'    album
> To: Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>
> Cc: "harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx" <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Message-ID:
>         <
> 883101532.370711.1417797712841.JavaMail.yahoo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
>
> I should add that the first cut on the original album is the only one with
> diatonic harmonica; all the other cuts have chromatic (except the title
> cut, the only one without harmonica). That high bent note you hear on
> several cuts is Draw 11 on a chromatic, the only note on chromatic that
> sounds like a diatonic bend.
>
> Tommy Morgan typically arrived at a recording session with a truckload of
> chromatics in all 12 keys multiplied by each key in several pitch levels,
> ranging from something like A435 thru A444, just in case the orchestra or
> band was in something other than A440.
>
> Tommy was part of an elite group of studio session players known as the
> Wrecking Crew that included, among others, guitarists Tommy Tedesco and
> Glenn Campbell, bassist Carol Kay, and drummer Hal Blaine. It'd be
> interesting to see how many of these stalwarts (who also backed the Beach
> Boys, Sonny and Cher, and the Carpenters) appear on this record. Listening
> to the album, at first I was reminded of the jazz-folk-blues fusion of Tim
> Hardin's first record (which, by the way, featured John Sebastian's
> harmonica on several cuts along with several New York jazz stalwarts).
> Later it seemed more like the mid-'60s LA pop session that it is. Not on
> the level, perhaps of Pet Sounds or Revolver, but it's worth noting that
> Ode to Billie Joe knocked the Beatles off the #1 spot in the summer of 1967.
>
> Winslow
> zzzz
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>
> To:
> Cc: "harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx" <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Thursday, December 4, 2014 11:56 PM
> Subject: Re: [Harp-L] Recreation of Bobby Gentry's classic 'Ode To Billie
>      Joe'    album
>
> It's definitely not Charlie McCoy. The diatonic playing is about as far
> from McCoy's clean, well-defined sound as you could get, and the chromatic
> playing doesn't sound like him, either. In fact, the player sounds more
> adept on chromatic than on diatonic. When he plays diatonic it's fumbly,
> hope-this-sounds-like-dirty-blues licks.
>
> The album was recorded in LA, so Tommy Morgan is a candidate. The diatonic
> playing is consistent with the way he played diatonic on TV themes such as
> the Rockford Files and Sanford and Son.
>
> Winslow
> zzzzz
>
>
>