RE: [Harp-L] Re:PB

["Robert Gaustad" <robertgaustad@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I moved from San Jose, California to New York about August 10, 1969, a very
pissed off 16 year old, once again being moved across the country.  On about
the 12th, my parents sent me to Cambridge, Mass to spend the summer at the
home of a professor friend of my parents.  I was furious.  Coincidentally, a
friend of mine from San Jose was in the area and we got back in touch.

My friend said, "Hey, I've got tickets to a concert this weekend...want to
go?"  My reply was, "F*** the concerts in the east, f*** the whole east
coast.  I can't stand this place." I was just going to feel sorry for
myself.  

So I'm in this Harvard professor's house (a great guy by the way) hanging
out alone, sweltering in the August heat and humidity and I turn on the
television.  They're all talking about Woodstock, this great concert that's
going on.  And it dawned on me that that's where my friend was and he had a
ticket for me. Now my whole life at that time was rock concerts, but I
hadn't even heard about Woodstock going on because of the impending move and
the fact that I had been in California until a few days before.  And I never
asked my friend who was playing.  I just said, NO. So I was doubly crushed.

I have nothing to do so I start to go through the guy's record collection.
He's got a lot of folk, classical, and early sixties crap.  No Led Zeppelin,
no Santana, no Airplane, no Big Brother, no Savoy Brown...just a few
Beatles...and, wait...there's something called the Paul Butterfield Blues
Band.  I think I've heard of these guys.

I put the album on and I am absolutely floored.  As Iceman says, the harp
playing just jumped off the record. I was just entranced by this band and
the harp playing.  I had never paid that much attention to the harmonica
before but with this album I realized just how great the instrument was.  I
played it over and over again.

So that's how I got into playing the harp and I practically wore out a
couple of Paul Butterfield albums playing them over and over until I had
just about every single Butterfield lick down. I soon got into Sonny Boy
Williamson II, James Cotton, Jimmy Reed, Lee Oskar (later), and others, but
Butterfield was my mentor all the way. 

Robert G.

PS - A couple of days after Woodstock I was able to catch Santana and Savoy
Brown at a little club in Boston called "The Boston Tea Party."  It wasn't
very crowded so I could walk right up to the stage.  Fantastic show.  So
with that show and learning about Paul Butterfield, I felt a little better.
It was still hot as hell, though.



> -----Original Message-----
> From: harp-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx 
> [mailto:harp-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of icemanle@xxxxxxx
> Sent: Monday, December 05, 2005 1:14 PM
> To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: [Harp-L] Re:PB
> 
> Butterfield's harmonica playing leaped off those old records 
> with high energy and excitement that was infectious - more so 
> than the old blues guys at the time, to my ears. I didn't 
> know much about harmonica playing in that early era, but I 
> know what moved me.