I had been out drinking for about 6 hours when the harp player in a local band asked me up on stage, i was so hammered i could'nt read the key letters on me harps and started playing Hoochie Coochie man in the wrong key! i was quickly given the right key of harp (not one of mine unfortunatly) and then got stuck in.P.S. The mate filming this was even drunker than me and trying to HeadBang whilst holding the camera still, The Big Idiot! I think i did OK cos i really was Hammered!
Then a whole bunch of us got up and destroyed Hipshake
Last Edited by on Oct 04, 2011 9:18 AM
I'll never forget the time I royally messed up on "Messin with the Kid" when I was totally snockered. Sang the same line twice and grabbed the wrong keyed harp. ---------- Hawkeye Kane
There probably are times a person should politely decline when asked to get up: 1- if you are indeed TOO drunk 2- occasionally if you're on a date with your wife/friend 3- .. when the band's harper sucks and you don't want to be in a position to make him look bad. I know that sounds arrogant, but you know what I mean. 4- if the band tunes down a half step and you only have 2 harps in your pocket.. possibility for disaster.
One time a guy came into the bar where I hang out and he was complaining about how wasted he got the night before. He kept saying he was so wasted he went home and blew chunks. The bartender told him "hey it happens man, forget about it. It happens to the best of us."
The guy said...no, no, you don't understand. "Chunks" is my dog!! ---------- Tommy
And just who do you have to blame for this disaster? Nobody but yourself. If you can't hold your liquor and control yourself, you might think about leaving it alone That was a ridiculous display of harp playing(?), totally amateurish behavior and boring sophomoric nonsense. No wonder so many people think harmonica players are crackpots. ---------- www.reverbnation.com/thejoeleebushbluesgroup www.joeleebushshow.com
If you are serious about playing music, you need to think about a few things.
This video does not present you in a flattering light. People tend to remember the extremes. Usually, the negative extreme. Is this how you want people to think about your performing ability?
You started off playing in the wrong key and you needed help to get back on track. Do you want people to think you are too drunk to play in the right key?
How do you think your playing was in that video? How did it sound to you? Was it good or bad?
Hi Guys, here's the thing i put this up because i thought it was a bit of fun, i was pissed and i don't care who knows it, the crowd in the bar were all pissed and they had a blast, so did the band, (they all said so afterwards) the bands harp player said he thought i played well considering my drunken state and my level of ability,so to joeleebush and joe L i say it was'nt a disaster or an embarrasment in any way it was me leting loose and having some fun and forgetting some of the VERY HEAVY things that i have to deal with every day of my life. To all the rest of you who hopefully don't take themselves or life too bloody seriously, CHEERS and my next pint (or Brandy Sour is for you!)
Last Edited by on Oct 05, 2011 1:00 AM
And i'll tell you this much, i watched most of it as my youtube streamline is slow, but i got the general idea of you guys messin about, i happen to upload stuff to another site usually when i'm a bit pissed, sometimes its not too bad, others not too good, but i must say i could never play with anybody live unless playing the harp was 2nd nature, that being said.........i'm having a schooner now!!!. yo!
It's about having a good time right? All that matters is the right type of music for the right type of crowd. If you were playing in a serious joint then you need to be serious and drunk playing wouldn't go over well. If you are playing for children then maybe they don't want to hear your great blues playing. If you're playing in a place where fights are breaking out and bottles are being thrown then play hard and hope for the best. If everyone is drunk then you being drunk probably doesn't matter much either. It's about choices I guess. You don't bring a knife to a gunfight right? ---------- Tommy
Hey Geordie - refreshing to see someone who doesn't take it all too seriously! (and I've seen a hell of a lot worse from people who were stone cold sober.)
At least you're on a stage playing live - not just knocking one out in your bedroom (ooer, fnaar fnaar, yuk yuk)
Yeah Geordie, you don't wan't to do it all the time and be known as the drunk harp player, but late at night in a particularly drunken bar, I think your reputation is unscathed! I'll echo Mr.VLUN also: I consistently see MUCH worse playing by people that are completely sober AND think that they sound pretty damn good.
Thanks for the comments guys, i think Tommy the hat pretty much nailed it with his comments, it's a case of "right place, right time" that is the first time i have ever played when drinking and i did'nt know i would be getting up, normally i'm a sober bag of nerves. I have to say that i was quite supprised at how well (for my level of ability) i was able to play when that hammered, and if anything it has given me more of a boost than all the sober jam nights put together!
man is there anything worse than starting a song in the wrong key when guesting? - it's almost impossible to really recover from that - drunk or stone cold sober!! ---------- ~Banned in Boston!
@Joe Lee and Joe L your advice is 100% right on if only geordie will listen-you are very blunt about it but you are also very honest in your opinions-if you are drunk take a cab home and sleep it off
@Joe L.: I think you're being a little hard on me mate Geordie. Admittedly I skimmed through the two videos, but I didn't see anything horribly embarrassing. Just some basic bar-harp by a guy with a couple of beers in him.
Now the following video is in a whole other league.
But Geordie? Nah. I see nothing embarrassing there.
Of course, his embouchure needs works. Mine does too, when I'm...drinking.
Adam - I don't think I was hard on him. I don't know what geordie's playing goals are. I just asked some questions.
This video does not present you in a flattering light. People tend to remember the extremes. Usually, the negative extreme.
I was given this advice by a couple of professional photographer friends and it rings true. People have long memories and when it comes to judging artistic endeavors, they tend to remember the worst work.
Is this how you want people to think about your performing ability?
Sure, in the videos, the guys were drunk. Since, I don't see geordie perform, I have no clue what his performances are normally like. Here is what I saw:
1. He started off playing in the wrong key.
2. Another player handed him a harp in the right key to get back on track.
How do you think your playing was in that video? How did it sound to you? Was it good or bad?
More questions just to get geordie to think about the video after the fact. If he is happy with it, he should keep it. It never hurts to think a little analytically about our artistic endeavors. It's the only way we improve.
If we stop analyzing, evaluating and changing, we become stagnant. If geordie's goals are to play out with his buddies every once in a while, he may have achieved his goals. If his goals are different, he may (or may not) have additional work to do.
playing in the wrong key is something that you do not do even in my earliest stages of blowin` harp there is no effin way I would get the wrong key harp and if you are too pissed to know the difference dont play dont even think about it
i shuddered a little bit at Geordies vids but I understood, I laughed at Genes pissed busker dude, I absolutely pissed myself at arnenyms street man, and I'm sorry to say Adams 'table lady' made me chuckle!!! ---------- Rubes's band DadsinSpace-MySpace
The "fat girl falling down" video may provoke an initial chuckle, but it certainly doesn't end there. I posted as a stunning example of somebody getting up to perform and ending up embarrassing themselves.
"playing in the wrong key is something that you do not do even in my earliest stages of blowin` harp"
Well, i did it the other night, stone cold sober. Picked up the wrong harp by mistake on a tune I'd only played once before and couldn't figure out why everything sounded off until the tune was almost over. Shit happens.
YEEHA! yes it's me again, Geordiebluesman or to use my new username Topissedtoseetheharpkeyman, just to clarify my goals, i took up harp about 4 years ago on medical advice because a motorcycle crash head injury had badly damaged my short term memory it was a therapy that has become a delight, i am quite frankly amazed that i can play as i do considering how messed up i was when i started, so i would say i have allready passed my origonal goals but of course the goal posts keep moving! this is a lifetime journey but for me it just takes a hell of a lot longer to get anywhere. Lastly i would just like to say that Adam refered to me as "My mate Geordie" above so now i'm off to widen all the doorways im me house so i can get my big swollen head through em! Never forget, life is for living it can be gone in a moment.
Well said geordie, keep of dem bikes, its the drivers mostly at fault, not the rider, i quit the things after 35 years of misshaps, and i'm still alive. Harpin is great fun!!!....and safer.
Heay if you had fun and didn't bother anyone. Then who cares? As long as your not so drunk you can't stand. Or you could fall over while playing. That would be too drunk! True story I customized an amp for a guitar player in Nashville about 10 yeras ago and he seemed a little wierd. So we jammed together a couple times at his house and he asked if I wanted to start a band with him. I politly decined and he said; Yeah I understand I haven't been the same sence my accident. So I asked what are you talking about. He said I'll show you. He put a VCR tape in. Well he was from Maryland and was good friends with George Thorogood. So his band that he was fronting opened for one of Georges giggs. I forget what was going on, but it was being filmed for some reasone. Well half way thru his set he fell off the stage and hit his head on a monitor. He showed me the scar. WOW it cut him open bad. He said it took him a year before he could walk at all! And yes he said he was drinking Jack Daniels while playing.
Well, if we're going THAT direction, then I seem to remember a tune on that old Jonny Winter/James Cotton/Muddy Waters tour record from the 70's where James Cotton's got the wrong key. That ring a bell for anybody....?
that Munspelsmannen dude posted by arnenym is a menace :)
notice that in the Kudzu vid the camera person does nothing to assist the fallen woman? she appears to have hit her lower back on the table.
oh Stickman, first J.B. Lenoir sounds a bit out of tune then John Lee Hooker is really out. Great playing by Thornton,but especially Doc Ross, and Big Walter. Doc Ross 'the Harmonica Boss' is very under-rated. of course few people are aware of Thorntons harp playing. she played drums too.
----------
MP doctor of semiotics and reed replacement.
"making the world a better place, one harmonica at a time"
Last Edited by on Oct 08, 2011 11:50 AM
