Can we list some of the great players who primarily play rock-n-roll? There's a lot of rockers who add a little harp to the music but aren't particularly great players.
I'd start the list with John Popper, Jason Ricci, Magic Dick and the guy I just discovered here in the forum, Will Wilde.
I'd add Sugar Blue although some may contest if he is a rocker (He sure rocks to me.) I don't want to split genre hairs, just learn about really good harp players who rock.
One of the bands I play in plays rock from AC/DC, Stones, Petty, T-Birds to the Who,Bruce, Counting Crows, Clapton, Foo Fighters, etc. I make up my parts but like hearing what good rock harpists do. I have to admit, playing the bagpipe part of AC/DC while the dance floor sings the lyrics is very cool. Not everyone's cup of tea, but I dig it!
Last Edited by Tom585 on Mar 02, 2018 7:51 PM
We do Comfortably Numb with me doing a David Gilmour part on harp. Also a Bowie song, Seven. These are 1st position parts, one on a diatonic, one on a chromatic. ----------
" ... who primarily play rock-n-roll?" All the above guys, except John Popper, almost all of the time, play blues/blues rock stuff on their harmonicas. And even John Popper´s playing relies heavily on blues figures (2nd pos riffing). That´s just the way it is.
The "genre" definition makes this a difficult question. When is blues considered rock, and when is rock considered blues? I think it is actually a continuum, with a huge wooly grey area in the middle. Where did Paul Butterfield Blues Band sit on that spectrum? The Yardbirds? I guess most people would say Led Zeppelin was a rock band (for some, they were the definitive rock band). But sit and carefully listen to Led Zeppelin I, II, and III in succession - it would be easy to argue that they were a blues band. This begs the question: what is rock?
John Lennon's harmonica playing would be considered "intermediate" by most people on this forum. However, he deserves credit for pioneering the use of harp in white pop-rock. The opening riff on the Beatles's very first record "Love Me Do", was Lennon's harp. For many people in the Beatles's audience at that time, this was the first harmonica they consciously heard. From what I've read, Lennon loved harp, but was sensible enough to only use it very sparingly throughout the Beatles's 1960s catalogue. (or maybe he was discouraged by George Martin and/or Paul McCartney). Anyway, I think John Lennon deserves a mention, based on the impact he had on "rock harmonica", bringing harp into a handful of Beatle's records, starting with Love Me Do.
Last Edited by AppalachiaBlues on Mar 04, 2018 6:07 AM
Since rock was underpinned by blues I think trying to separate the two by very much is moot. How different can rock and blues harp be? To me the rock idea is just louder drums and more distorted loud guitar. You know, the blues had a baby.... ----------
Huey Lewis has already been mentioned,but it is odd that he's seldom been discussed on this forum. The man is good, seriously good, with solid technical grasp, a tone that can be alternately golden or raspy as the song requires, and demonstrates a natural ease blending blues and country-tinged phrases into a funky rock and roll context. As for the funk, Lewis shows on several YouTube live videos that that the harp isn't a vanity instrument that gets used every so often, ala Jagger, Plant, Daltry, when there's a need for some ersatz authenticity. Often times when he's not singing, Lewis joins in with the band, as in this video where he makes a solid contribution on "I Need a New Drug", joining the sax player in playing the hornline. His tone is bright, the notes are punchy, his groove is wonderful, and he duplicates the dance steps. The man can play indeed. ---------- www.ted-burke.com
I was in the grocery store the other day and Huey Lewis and the News' "Heart of Rock & Roll" was on. After that chromatically ascending horn line, his amplified harp came in, and for me the excitement flooded back of hearing *that sound* (in my case, from Junior Wells, a decade or more before Huey Lewis came on the scene).
Lewis is a serious player. You can find a live show where he plays an extended unaccompanied solo where he quotes both Sonny Terry and big chunks of Roller Coaster. He also has a sense of humor about it, making jokes about being a harmonica player during a "Good Morning America" appearances a few years back. =========== Winslow
Depending on how far back you want to go, there's also Onie Wheeler, who was right on the edge between country and rock, more or less in a style known as Hillbilly Boogie.
The late Richard Newell a.k.a. King Biscuit Boy. He was in Ronnie Hawkins' band and the Canadian rock band Crowbar as well as his own bands. You could classify him as a blues or rock player-he did both.
Last Edited by DanP on Mar 04, 2018 11:34 PM
As for Huey...this recording of him was one that stood out for me and made me think about harmonica as a kid, as something other than on a Muddy Waters record. He has a nice nasty rock-edged tone here, and uses some Sonny Boy licks.
I don't think he really can be called a rock harp player, but Jimmy Buffet had a Harp player for many years, Greg Taylor, his style wasn't blues or country or rock, more of a clean type of playing that didn't overwhelm the music and what he played seemed to fit.
Mark Ford. He's thought of more as a blues player, but I think a really big chunk of what he plays stylistically puts him in the same league as Sugar Blue, a harp player confronting rock guitar god tendencies and offering a style that is more than a match for technique, style, style, and sheer spot light grabbing flash. The solo Ford takes on Mellow Down Easy is rock harmonica at its best. This would be what I'd expect to hear if Steve Vai were a harp player. ---------- www.ted-burke.com
Here`s two rock bands from the 70`s that played some harp, Every show I saw them in they would blow some harp.Steve Miller band and Grand Funk railroad
