[Harp-L] Harmonica Frank Floyd is the man

[David Payne <dmatthew@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Wow. He is the man! He is a guy we really need to at least be aware of.

On a whim, I got this Harmonica Frank Floyd CD, never had heard of him. I was listening to it today, go through the first few songs and he's doing this beautiful 1930s style Delta Blues, playing some good harp. He sings Delta Blues a lot like Robert Johnson, He does Jimmie Rodgers wonderfully, even does that train whistle that Jimmie used to drive the crowds nuts with. Then, I get to this song called "Shampoo" Well, it ain't about shampoo. Now, I am not necessarily a musical prude, I grew up listening to David Allen Coe's explicit tapes, I think was the name of it, it was so explicit, you had to be a member of the David Allen Coe fan club to get it, school bus driver used to play it on the school bus until somebody squealed. Anyway, I'm listening to shampoo and I'm like "Oh my, he did not just say that!" then, the he sings the next line and I'm like "Oh, my, he did not just say THAT!" The word "shampoo" has nothing whatsoever to do with the song, it's
 just this word thrown in to clean up the song, which I thought was a very interesting poetic vehicle.
Most of the songs are cleaner, though. 
Anyway, he's a one-man band in the Hazel Adkins tradition (Hazel technically came after) and I think, man, that is some DANG FINE harp playing for a neck rack. So, I figure I'd present him as a DANG FINE neck rack player. 
So I looked up some info on Frank. He's not using a neck rack. He's playing guitar and just holding the harmonica in his mouth (look ma, no hands!), I assume using U-block method. Now, when he sings, he's still got the harp in his mouth, still playing guitar, he sings out of the side of his mouth. He could also play two harps at the same time, one in his mouth, one in his nose. 
Now Harmonica Frank Floyd named himself. No kidding. He was born in 1908 in Mississippi, His parents separated without giving him a name, dumped him off on some sharecroppers. When he was old enough, Harmonica Frank Floyd named himself. He taught himself to play when he was a kid, they were to poor to even know what a neck rack was, so he taught himself to play like that.
He played in medicine shows, was a hobo for 30 years. Then in 1951, Sam Phillips recorded him. He was the first white guy recorded by Sam, as I understand it. This was because Sam was amazed that on record, you couldn't tell Frank was white. Hell, you'd sware on your life he was black. Frank was in his 40s at this time and his music sounded old. Sounded like the 30s. So, Sam set his sights on finding a younger version of Frank, whose records would appeal to a younger audience and make ol' Sam rich. Perhaps you have heard of the person he found to fill a younger version of Harmonica Frank's shoes. His name was Elvis Presley.
So, unlike Presley, Harmonica Frank didn't make Sam a lot of money cause his music was frozen from the 1930s. But that's good for us, it gives us a snapshot of what music was like at the early point of that fusion that would later become rock, country, what have you.

So, as you see, Frank is the man. I looked around for Frank's stuff y'all could hear and I did find some. Whole bunch in this one place. Shampoo is even there. Do not listen to shampoo with kids in the room. Do not listen to shampoo if you are easily offended, just remember, if you let a bad word slip, say the word "shampoo" and it will clean up the sentence. That's how Harmonica Frank rolls. 

If you just wanna listen to one song, check out No. 11, "Movement Like an Elgin"

http://music.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=music.artistalbums&artistid=17982314&ap=0&albumid=10376201

Aug. 7 will be the 25th anniversary of his death, BTW. 

Dave
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