Harmonica Frank
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| Harmonica Frank | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Frank Floyd |
| Born | October 11, 1908 Toccopola, Mississippi, U.S. |
| Died | August 7, 1984 Blanchester, Ohio |
| Genre(s) | Blues, country, folk, rockabilly |
| Instrument(s) | Harmonica, vocals, guitar |
| Years active | 1920s - 1970s |
| Label(s) | Chess, Adelphi, Barrelhouse |
Harmonica Frank (October 11, 1908, Toccopola, Mississippi - August 7, 1984, Blanchester, Ohio[1][2]) was an American blues singer, guitarist and harmonicist.
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Early life, performing technique
Harmonica Frank Floyd was the son of itinerant parents who separated without giving him a name.[2] He was raised by his sharecropping grandparents, who died while he was a teenager. Frank taught himself to play harmonica when he was 10 years old, and he eventually learned guitar as well. He gave himself the name Frank Floyd[2] and began performing in the 1920s for traveling carnivals and medicine shows.
He learned many types of folk music and became an extraordinary mimic, effortlessly switching from humorous hillbilly ballads to deep country blues.
With his self-taught harmonica technique, he was a one-man band, able to play the instrument without his hands or the need for a neck brace. While also playing guitar, he perfected a technique of manipulating the harmonica with his mouth while he sang out of the other side. He could also play harmonica with his nose and thus play two harmonicas at once, a skill he shared with blues harp players Walter Horton and Gus Cannon's partner Noah Lewis.
[edit] Early recordings
After years of performing on the medicine-show circuit, Harmonica Frank began working in radio in 1932.[2] His first records were made in 1951, engineered by Sam Phillips in Memphis, Tennessee.[2] The songs, "Swamp Root", "Goin’ Away Walkin'", "Step It Up and Go", "Howlin’ Tomcat", and "She Done Moved", were licensed to Chess Records. Phillips put out another single on Sun Records, "Rockin Chair Daddy"/"The Great Medical Menagerist" in 1954. Harmonica Frank thus became the first white musician to record at that studio.[2] Floyd and Larry Kennon released a shared single, "Rock-A-Little Baby"/"Monkey Love" in 1958, on their own record label, F&L.
The experience gave Phillips the idea that a white man playing and singing black-oriented music would be a smash sensation, so he was excited to record and produce Harmonica Frank.[citation needed] It was ultimately a failure because Floyd was so old and played music that was archaic and old-fashioned.[citation needed] Phillips went on to utilize his initial idea to great effect with Elvis Presley; thus Floyd is considered by many to be an important precursor to rock and roll and rockabilly.
[edit] Rediscovery, legacy
Harmonica Frank's songs appeared on many all-black blues compilations in the 1960s and 1970s, collectors being unable to distinguish his race. Thus he earned the nickname, "The Missing Link", (i.e., the missing link between white folk and black blues, though he represents no such music).
In 1972 he was "rediscovered" by Stephen C. LaVere and in the following years recorded two albums for the Adelphi and Barrelhouse labels, including a compilation of the early material. Additional full albums were recorded before his death in 1984, many of which have become available on CD, though his vintage recordings (1951-59) remain mostly out of print and unavailable aside from occasional tracks on compilations.
In his 1975 book Mystery Train: Images of America in Rock 'n' Roll Music, author Greil Marcus presented a unique vision of America and music and how they relate by using (as metaphors) six musicians, one of which is Harmonica Frank Floyd.
[edit] References
[edit] Further reading
- Mystery Train: Images of America in Rock 'n' Roll Music (1975, fifth revision March 25, 2008), Greil Marcus
