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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! > Katmandu by Bob Seeger
Katmandu by Bob Seeger
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Philosofy
885 posts
Oct 19, 2018
2:39 PM
I heard this song on the radio the other day, and the harp was just, well, terrible. But I couldn't put my finger on why. It sounded like the player knew what he was doing: I didn't get a Alanis Morrisette vibe from it. Was the harp badly out of tune? Inaccurate bends? Just playing in the wrong position? Bob Segar is great musician, I'm surprised he left it in. Can anyone shed some light on this?
Gareth
36 posts
Oct 20, 2018
1:18 AM
Just had a listen. I think it's someone who can't play harmonica, playing in the wrong key.
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Harpeaux Edwards
ted burke
726 posts
Oct 20, 2018
9:08 PM
Seger seems to have an affinity with bad harmonica players. Fortunately, he has written some great rock and roll songs
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Blind Melon
108 posts
Oct 21, 2018
4:23 PM
It looks like it was Bob, himself, that played harmonica on the studio version of Katmandu.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beautiful_Loser

I thought it might have been one of the session players from Muscle Schoals when Bob recorded the album.

The harp on Down Home is tough to listen to.

Last Edited by Blind Melon on Oct 21, 2018 4:23 PM
jbone
2727 posts
Oct 21, 2018
8:14 PM
Another example of that attitude some people- who are good at music in other veins- thinking, how hard can it be, I'm going to do this.
Since a harmonica is a small simple instrument, I think people are misled by the actual complexities of learning to play well. When I started out I had no idea how far the journey would take me and how very much I needed to know in order to sound halfway decent.

On one of Clapton's DVD's he had his rhythm guitarist try to play chromatic on one song and it was a farce from the get-go.

You can know a lot about music, theory, your first instrument(s), but you still have some uphill to go if you decide to put a harp part in a song.
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Music and travel destroy prejudice.

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jbone
2728 posts
Oct 21, 2018
8:15 PM
Another example of that attitude some people- who are good at music in other veins- thinking, how hard can it be, I'm going to do this.
Since a harmonica is a small simple instrument, I think people are misled by the actual complexities of learning to play well. When I started out I had no idea how far the journey would take me and how very much I needed to know in order to sound halfway decent.

On one of Clapton's DVD's he had his rhythm guitarist try to play chromatic on one song and it was a farce from the get-go.

You can know a lot about music, theory, your first instrument(s), but you still have some uphill to go if you decide to put a harp part in a song.
----------
Music and travel destroy prejudice.

Reverbnation

Facebook

Youtube


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