[Harp-L] A Long Dazed Journey Into "Please Please Me"

[Bradford Trainham <btrainham@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

This whole thing all started up in earnest last December when a local
band
invited me to substitute for their singer who couldn't make it for a
Christmas
gig. 
We got together, practiced, liked one another and by the time the gig
was
done, they'd asked me to join up permanently. 
The new year found us together and practicing and into the admixture
of that
practice, I, one day, whipped out a Steve Baker special D and
cross-harped my
way at first clumsily and then not-half-badly through that song "I got
to Wear
Shades" and thus began my harmonica involvement with the band. 

Then came the announcement that we were booked in to play a little
celebration
in a small town  outside Austin. 

We speculated about a set list.  Someone said "Beatles"... Ah, which
one then? 
Fool that I am, I said "How about Please Please Me"? 
They all were down with the idea like it was contagion of the most
virulent
magnitude. 
And... Fool that I am... I thought I'd just be able to cross-harp this
one
with a Steve Baker A harp. 

There was also the matter of me being expected to sing the George part
and
supply the harmonica lines as well. 
And that d-sharp...  Well... It cut me about every time, you know? 

Between the perfect pitched d-sharp and my ability... Well... there
was a
"margin of error"... a consistent "Margin of error"... 


We all got intense about it. 
"Should we pull the song?"... 

"Gimme a week and I'll let you know.". 

I came home... fished out a Hohner chromatic in c someone had given me
a
!!long!! time ago. 
Thinks I... fool that I am...  
"I'll use this thing.". 
I figured out the combination of spring and breathing. 
I practiced at home. 
A Margin of error still existed all right, but it was seeming to
lessen a bit. 
It was the last practice before the gig. 
My strategy with the chromatic... didn't work. 
(I'm not willfully omitting the model.  I'm blind and... fool that I
am...
never thought to ask.) 


More intense conversation about "pulling the song". 
While outwardly, I admitted it didn't look good, I begged for three
days to
resolve the situation or pull the song. 


Home again, I went frantically out on the InterNet. 
I thought... fool that I am... that if there was a chromatic in the
key of e
(Please Please Me is in e.) I'd have a part so easy it could almost be
played
without "benefit" of brain or lip or audience or the whole of
existence
itself!!

I found the Hering 51-48??  
(I at least asked...  I just can't !quite!! remember!)

Harphouse rushed it to me. 
I opened the case and hey!!  It worked!  My fool's strategy!! 
I told the band. 

The gig came. 
It worked.  I played it perfectly every time. 
My question...  What harmonica did John Lennon (Fool that I am... I
post to a
list of pure harmonicists with this impure question!!) 
play on the studio versions of Please Please Me? 
Thanks,
Brad Trainham