The Commercial Appeal from Memphis, Tennessee • 141

RECORD REVIEWS The Commercial Appeal Memphii Sunday Auguat 29 1978 7 Missing Link Has Surfaced piQP 4Eft SPAGHETTI OR This offer good for one free Cavatini deep dish pasta Cavatini Supreme1 pasta or Pizza Hut spaghetti with the purchase of one at regular price By WALTER DAWSON In 1951 after 30 yean of making hii own fray in the world by picking pccana Mowing a harmonica and playing a guitar laboring with a carnival aa a firewater workman and muaidan working atreet cornen for nick-eli and dimes farming performing in town equates with medicine shows and broadcasting over radio in California Arkansas and Tennessee Harmonica Rank found himself living in Memphis mid he went over to Sam Phillips' Memphis Recording Service studio on Union to cut some songs Over the next few months others wen put down and some were leased to a young outfit in Chicago called Chest Records while two of the songs were released later on PhUttps' own Sun label None of Harmonica stuff sold well but today Ms Sun record is one of the hardest to find on that label according to Milton Pond Memphis1 authority on early Sun Records One reason of course is that because of the poor sales not many copies were preseed up but "i i- 1 fori THIS COUPON 0000 POO ONI PORI CAVATDi-OMP DISH PASTA CAVATINI SUPOCHC1 PASTA 00 PIZZA NUT SPAGHETTI WITH THKPUOCMASS OF ONK AT OtOUUO MENU POtCI 7 wTiAniw Ad ProwwlEi StfOtamwrfea aaoMelMbriw WAMiWHhv Simms JWINLbMi 4MWtSr offor expires Soot 4 1974 a man who lived and worked with both blacks and whites and Ms experiences and musical esthetics cross racial lines so completely that in eome of Ms stuff it is difficult to separate them into Mack and white Apart from his musical abilities Harmonica Ftank is also a visual treat Early in Ms career he was playing a dance when he lost his harmonica holder that fit around his neck So he developed a technique of pitting the harmonica in his mouth like a cigar and working ft around (which made ft appear that he was chewing on it) to get around to the right notes Another useful trick of his was to play two harmonicas at once one held in front of his mouth and one in froot of his nose Harmonica Ftank whose last name is Floyd is 67 years old now and he retired from Ms musical wanderings years aga Recently however he was by Mues and rockabilly fons leading to Ms rejoining the ranks of active performers both in conceit and on records Three albums have been released by him in the last three years and two of them are for sure highly recommended One is called The Great Original Recordings of Harmonica Ftank on the Puritan label and ft is made up of all the songs he cut for Sam Phillips the ones that have survived anyway and two that he did hi 195ft It is simply a great album entertaining even if not the least Mt interested in the roots of rock and roU and it covers the whole range of Frank's repertoire The second album is Bhies That Mad the Roosters Dance (Barrelhouse Records) which Ftank cut last year His powers haven't diminished much at all since the '90s this record shows him to be just as raw as raucous and as highly engaging as his earlier stuff The third album recorded in 70s and just called Harmonica Ftank Floyd (Adel phi Records) is the least of the batch The main problem lies in the material chosen for ft Some of the songs aren't as entertaining as Flank's better numbers Still the album holds a lot of merit for a devout fan The records exactly the type of thing you'll find in your average record store and the easiest way to get them is from Harmonica Ftank himself: Fbr information you can write Mm at Ftank Floyd PO Bon 92 Georgetown Ohio 45121 TWO FOR ONE TIMJm-JIN LABOR DAY WEEK-END SEPT 4-5-6 BIG VAN SHOW DAILY CASH PRIZES PJ7AYGIRL 0 Harmonica Frank Floyd Hfs Double Harmonica Technique another is that Frank's record is so highly thought of by collectors that those who have found a copy won't sell it Pond says that in his IS or so years of collecting he has never even seen a copy of the record and as far as price goes he wouldn't even venture a guess Because Ms records never sold Harmonica Frank had little influence in the history of rock and roll except perhaps to heighten Sam Phillips' often-stated desire to rind a white man who could sing like a'Nack (which is one of the tMngs Frank did and the thing that Phillips later found in Elvis Presley) But today looking back and listening to Harmonica early records it is imperative to give him an important place in any musicologist's tracing of the roots of rock He is a living link between early forms of American popular music and what came to be rock and roll Harmonica Frink was and is an enigma His blues are so genuine that for years many people mistakenly thought he was Mack and Ms country songs bear the same stamp of authenticity that Jimmy Rodgers' da Still other songs of his were harbingers of the rockaMlly mid rock and roll fever that Sam Phillips and Sun artists like Elvis were to heat up only a few years after Frank 1 for PMIlipe SATURDAY AND SUNDAY $5000 WILDEST DECORATED VAN $5000 BEST LOOKING EXTERIOR $5000 BEST OF SHOW LABOR DAY $10000 Grand WILDEST DECORATED VAN $10000 Grand Prize-BEST LOOKING EXTERIOR $10000 Grand BEST OF SHOW HUE MAMIES An Empty Screen This Week The free Friday film series at the Memphis and Shelby County Public library will have an open date this week because of the Labor Day weekend The aeries will resume on its usual 4 and 7:15 pm schedule aa Sept 10 with a Mil of two films on African wildlife Portrait of a Tree" and 8tory of Soto" FOR YOUR ENTERTAINMENT PLEASURE NIGHTLY FROM 9 PM emmm Watch "The Flame" jump 10 vans in a Go-cart 3 PM Sat Sun and Monday Come on Saturday He might not make it Sunday and Monday FREE TO PAID GUESTS MNAIL Lakeland Beach and Rides will dose after Labor Day $100 doily per person to comp swim fish picnic $250 extra to tide all day Beach is open daily rides Saturdays Sundays and Labor Day 1-40 Canada Road 386-4881 isehti ismmr gag? nan CT.