[Harp-L] Beatles Harmonica

[meagher@xxxxx]

Different strokes for different folks! 

 

IMHO, they are both *trash*. As harmonica players I mean. They’re both so talented as to be from another species. But if we’re talkin harmonica…

 

Jagger played a reasonably proficient blues, and deserves some marginal credit for extending that limited skillset into adjacent genres, as he did in “Might As Well Get Juiced.” On a logarithmic scale, he’s maybe a 5/10. At best.  

 

Lennon, to me, is a 3/10, where someone like Alanis Morisette is a 1/10 and Little Walter is a 10/10. I’m not hearing the technical advancement you do, though. He was an EPICALLY good songwriter that used harmonica cleverly to advance his (world class) melodies, but I’ve never heard him do anything I couldn’t train a newbie to do in six weeks (or less), whereas at least Mick is out there bending notes and making blues licks happen. 

 

My unpopular opinion is that John Lennon was an incredibly talented songwriter and a terrible harmonica player and most efforts to recast that are just boomer bullshit whitewashing of their heroes. Mick, at least, played the blues, if weakly. 

 

Have at me! 

 

Ev, aka The Tree

 

 

 

 

From: Michael Rubin <michaelrubinharmonica at xxxxx> 
Sent: Monday, September 5, 2022 11:48 AM
To: meagher at xxxxx
Cc: Gary Lehmann <gnarlyheman at xxxxx>; harp-l at xxxxx
Subject: Re: [Harp-L] Beatles Harmonica

 

I completely disagree.  Jagger is a poor imitation of blues players, Lennon is a fine example of originality in pop music.  IMO Lennon is the far more technically advanced player and more important to the progress of the instrument.



 

On Mon, Sep 5, 2022 at 10:44 AM <meagher at xxxxx <mailto:meagher at xxxxx> > wrote:

For Stones fans? 

It's always a contest. 

The Stones always win. 


What was the question? 




-----Original Message-----
From: Gary Lehmann <gnarlyheman at xxxxx <mailto:gnarlyheman at xxxxx> > 
Sent: Monday, September 5, 2022 11:43 AM
To: Evan Meagher <meagher at xxxxx <mailto:meagher at xxxxx> >
Cc: harp-l at xxxxx <mailto:harp-l at xxxxx> 
Subject: Re: [Harp-L] Beatles Harmonica

Like it’s a contest?

Sent from my iPad

> On Sep 5, 2022, at 8:51 AM, Evan Meagher <meagher at xxxxx <mailto:meagher at xxxxx> > wrote:
> 
> Harmonica is one of the places where the Stones kick the tar out of the Beatles. Mick won’t make anyone forget about Sonny Boy Williamson but his (and before him Brian Jones’) harp playing exceeds that of Lennon by a million miles. 
> 
> 
>