Re: [Harp-L] Chugging and Choo-Choo Noises

[BO <bostonmoejo@xxxxxxx>]

it takes a train to cry Bob Dylan


"It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry" is a song written by Bob Dylan that was originally released on his seminal album Highway 61 Revisited, and also included on the compilation album Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits 2 that was released in Europe. An earlier, alternate version of the song appears, in different takes, on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1â3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961â1991 and The Bootleg Series Vol. 7: No Direction Home.[1] "It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry" has been covered by numerous artists, including Super Session featuring Al Kooper, Mike Bloomfield and Steven Stills, The Allman Brothers Band, Marianne Faithfull, Jerry Garcia, The Grateful Dead, Stephen Stills, Ian Matthews, Leon Russell, Little Feat, Chris Smither, Taj Mahal, Steve Earle, Levon Helm and Toto.[2][3]





-----Original Message-----
From: Mike Wilbur <mike@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: Joseph Leone <3n037@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Harp L Harp L <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Fri, Oct 17, 2014 11:33 am
Subject: Re: [Harp-L] Chugging and Choo-Choo Noises


One of my favorite lines " it takes a train to cry ". Just can't remember what 
song that came from.

Love Train Sounds....from Trains, I grew up with them too.


Mike Wilbur

> On Oct 17, 2014, at 11:20 AM, Joseph Leone <3n037@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> 
> 
> I have to join the Doug/Mike parade on this. I consider the two instruments as 
completely different and each with it's own attributes and pitfalls. And while I 
do a lot of tunes
> using both on the same tune, there is nothing like a diatonic for some things. 
Whereas the chromatic is better for some things. For example: to play Summertime 
on a chromatic
> or Georgia on a diatonic. Anything else is borderline blasphemy. I play about 
60/40 chromo/diat. 
> 
> I find it amusing that the best players on choo choo and train sounds are: 
#1.. too young to have experienced real trains (Steam). and #2.. never lived 132 
feet from train tracks.
> 
> As a small child growing up in Sharpsburg (Pittsburgh), I would lie in my crib 
at night and listen to the coke trains coming down the Allegheny valley from the 
ovens upriver. 
> When they reached the edge of our town they would blow their whistles so that 
the mills would know that they were only 1 1/2 miles away and to get ready. The 
sounds of 
> those whistles echoing in the valley were some of the creepiest, most laconic, 
morose, lonely sounds I have ever heard even to this day. And for that dear 
friends....definitely
> requires a diatonic. As the trains went by they would shake the glazing 
compound out of the window frames. .   lolol
> 
> smokey joe.  (who once told Casey Jones "Slow the h*** down goof ball") yes, 
he is the most unforgettable character you will ever meet.   
> 
> 
>> On Oct 17, 2014, at 10:34 AM, Mike Wilbur wrote:
>> 
>> I have to agree with Doug on this.
>> If a diatonic was specifically built for Train Sounds, I would take up the 
Trombone again.
>> 
>> I know Choo-Choo and Chugging has a important place in Music and certainly a 
historical significance in American Blues, Country and Blue Grass.
>> I respect that.
>> 
>> For myself.....I'll take the bus
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Mike Wilbur
>> 
>> 
>>> On Oct 17, 2014, at 10:07 AM, Doug Schroer <dougharps@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Thanks for posting a very nice clip of chromatic harmonica playing Gershwin
>>> well.
>>> 
>>> You know, I have never heard anyone say that chromatic harmonica was "made
>>> for chugging and choo-choo noises."  It isn't.  It was designed to play
>>> music that the diatonic could not perform well.
>>> 
>>> Regarding Richter tuned diatonic harmonica (designed for chords), there is
>>> an historical tradition of playing "chugging and choo-choo noises" in a
>>> folk style that can demonstrate mastery of certain techniques, and that has
>>> been used to entertain many.
>>> 
>>> "Chugging" can also be used as part of rhythmic self accompaniment in
>>> blues.  I do not engage in train and fox chase renditions, as it is not my
>>> thing, but I respect the technique needed to perform this well.
>>> 
>>> Can't we appreciate a chromatic harmonica performance without a swipe at an
>>> old school diatonic technique?
>>> 
>>> I wish you had just posted the YouTube video without the "Chugging and
>>> Choo-Choo Noises" heading.
>> 
>