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I can’t appreciate the harmonica - it just irritates the crap outta me - here and there is acceptable (just), but regular usage? I say get the crap outta here…

Maybe I am missing something ?

I like old Dylan and Neil Young records. I like Springsteen's Nebraska. It became a good tool for a soli performer to break up a song with 4 or more verses.

My thing is it's an instrument that I usually prefer played with mediocre technique. I love Stevie Wonder, but I don't really want to hear someone shred on the harmonica. Blues Traveler, anyone?

Of the top of my head, Morricone's use of the harmonica is the only one I really like.



Edit; Shit! Forgot about Little Walter. He's great.

Can't get behind Blues Traveler "sheets of sound" style, though Coltrane or Roland Kirk is awesome. Not harp. The low thing in the Sanford and Son theme is a contrabass harmonica. It's shit hot. So is Toots Thielmans.

Still a lot of potential, I think. Unfortunate that it’s been relegated to the Bud Light crowd. It’s a pretty exciting sound, especially amplified. Outside of folk and straight Chicago Blues, that Hooker N’ Heat album with John Lee Hooker and Canned Heat is a stomper. “Last Dance With Mary Jane” wouldn’t be the same without it, neither would the first track of Talk Talk’s Spirit of Eden.

(Not interested in hearing one through some asshole’s pedalboard, though)

There is a certain genre of harmonica I hate… like if the white session guy is a little too good on a random 60s album it will likely annoy me. I love the movie, but kind of hate the way it was featured in Once Upon A Time In The West. Thematically it was wonderful, I just think the sound itself was a little goofy.

Ditto for one of my fav 13th Floor Elevator tracks “I Had To Tell You.” I love that song, and as a Texan who spent a large portion of his life Under Threat Of Arrest For Specific Reasons, they mean a lot to me, but the harmonica in that song is the sort I don’t particularly care for. I’d much prefer to hear Dylan lay into it.

My first ever live music performance was in 4th grade, playing “Oh, Susanna” on harmonica for the entire school during an assembly.

I have mixed feelings. I love a dirty sounding blues harp. I love it when Ozzy plays it in “The Wizard”. I love having a pocket instrument. I don’t love overplaying Blues Traveler-type stuff.

Not crap with a heap of waffles

aka the Blooze Kazoo. crap.

Obvious not crap.

kerbled

https://premierrockforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=69512

Not crap with significant waffles. But it works perfectly in The Pretenders’ “Middle of the Road” and The Delta 72’s “Rich Girls Like to Steal.”

Every once in a while, you’ll come across a kazoo player on a 1920s hot jazz recording, and fuck that noise. It makes me angry, like someone who can’t actually play an instrument thinks he deserves the same showcase as someone who can. Kazoo = crap.