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From: Coolrays
Date: Mon, 19 Jan 1998 23:45:37 -0600
Subject: re: whammer jammer

At 9:18 PM -0500 1/18/98, JohnStt wrote:
>I just downloaded and listened to Chon's clip of Whammer Jammer, this was the
>first time I had heard this tune (thanks Chon, and yes, I brought a lunch).
>Can someone tell me when this was first recorded? I sounds amazingly similar
>in places to a Charlie Musselwhite tune recorded in 1978 called "Harpin' on a
>Riff" (I found this on the Blind Pig 20th set) Who was the copier?

My GUESS is:

Both Magic Dick and Charlie Musselwhite were heavily influenced by Little
Walter whom they both heisted licks from. They didn't take much from each
other. I believe they both developed their individual styles independently
but from the same primary source(s). Count Butterfield and Alan Wilson
among others in this class.

There are several examples of Magic Dick playing Little Walter licks
note-for-note and with the same attitude in his solos on early J. Geils
albums. The only example that immediately comes to mind(and is easily
explainable) is a high-blow-bend run that Little Walter used as a fill
during a verse of John Brim's original "Ice Cream Man" that appeared 17
years later as a fill during a verse of J.Geils' "Cruisin' for Love" from
their first album(but what the heck, it's a cool lick and was quite
appropriate). There are several other examples.

Although I don't know for sure because I've never asked him, I have always
speculated that Magic Dick wrote "Whammer Jammer" to at least partially
reflect the way his harmonica hero, Little Walter, conducted business and
had influenced him. What I mean is that LW had a unusually high percentage
of instrumentals especially compared to his peers and in a sense "Whammer
Jammer" is MD's interpretation and regurgitation of everything he had
learned from LW at the time but with his own modern (at the time) spin. If
you study both of these guys you'll find much commonality. MD's not as
fluid as LW but he was a master at applying LW's tone, dynamics and riffs
to the style of R&R that J. Geils is famous for.

Although there are probably others, the only example that comes to mind of
Charlie Musselwhite copping a LW lick is the nah-nah-nah-nah-nah riff that
LW so aptly applied in "Crazy Legs." I forget where Charlie used it but
that one seems like fair game. LW probably stole it. Any harmonica rookie
can do it and one probably had before the turn of this century.

But what do I know.

r