Re: [Harp-L] Meat and Potatoes 79 Deconstructing Slim Harpo

[Ken Deifik <kenneth.d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

1965, New York City.  I'm 13 or 14, I have an Echo Harp and a small chromatic.

Couldn't hardly play either, but I was teaching myself chromatic by playing 
pop songs out of a cheap song book.  My favorite song to play was the theme 
from the movie Thunderball, a piece I've never liked since, but probably 
for good reason.

WABC radio, my favorite of the three rock 'n' roll stations, picks up on 
Baby Scratch My Back.  As you know, it starts with that bent note.  What 
the hell is that?

I worked with my chromatic for MONTHS trying to figure out how he got such 
a smooth gliss between the notes.

Then Tony Glover's book came out.

I honestly didn't even know there was such a thing as Blues, or that 
Scratch My Back was an example.

There were good things about growing up in NYC that balanced that out.