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Mix Tape's History Remix

The Important Harmonica

I listened to the podcast,  A History of Rock in 500 songs today. The Loving Spoonful was the focus.

Some who follow me elsewhere know I play a little harmonica. I think a passable bit. There are several books on how to play but the harmonica isn’t something looked on as important as the guitar. Odd because the harmonica is a small instrument that can be carried everywhere. It is a big part of early blues.

The harmonica played a big part of the beginning of the Loving Spoonful podcast. As an example, John Lennon was such a good harmonica player that he played chromatic and diatonic harmonicas. I’m such a new player that I have C diatonic harmonica. Chromatic has more holes and a slide to do more bends. That is a level I’m not at yet.

There was a time, I wanted to learn “Love Me Do” on harmonica. I found out that the opening was done on a chromatic harmonica. So I won’t be learning that anytime soon.

John Sebastian was the lead vocal of the Spoonful and he played harmonica while more known for autoharp and vocals. His father was a concert harmonica player. The guy played classical music on harmonica! I looked on the web and can’t find his music. I imagine part of the reason is that his son became way more popular.

John Sebastian was no slouch on harmonica either. He played the intro to The Doors “Roadside Blues”. No way to find if the Sebastians ever did a duet.

If you get the chance to hear the podcast, there was a lot of harmonica info. The Loving Spoonful didn’t have any bad songs. The whole podcast had a lot going on.