RE: [Harp-L] Off the Wall in cherry blossom time

["Bill Hines" <billhines4@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Amazing, what was I listening to when I received this? Yes! Off the
Wall. Karma, etc. Except there ain't no cherry blossoms here in PA, it's
snowing like crazy :-(  The Little Walter bio "Blues With A Feeling" has
lots of behind the scenes info on this tune and the many takes they did
before getting it right. After "Juke" became a hit, Walter was using
this to take its place as his opening tune, since it wouldn't be
appropriate to start his sets with his big hit.

Bill Hines

-----Original Message-----
From: harp-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx [mailto:harp-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Winslow Yerxa
Sent: Monday, February 28, 2005 3:45 PM
To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [Harp-L] Off the Wall in cherry blossom time


Isn't it funny how we associate the music we like with our own
experiences, no matter how wildly these might differ from the
circusmtances the led to the creation of that music?

Right now in San Francisco ornamental cherry trees are blossoming
between the pre-spring rains, leaving the moist air fragrant amid the
soft pink flurries of petals - for me, Off the Wall time.

I grew up in Vancouver, BC, where late March and early April are cherry
blossom time. As a teenager under the mysterious and powerful spell of
Little Walter, I heard the siren call of Off the Wall mixed in with the
scent of the blossoms - the same prettiness, the same florid exuberance,
the same call to blood rising in a barely containable excitement (though
Off the Wall tries to  contain it with that driving verse midway through
that ends in that very hip drum break, it the xitement somehow
continues).

I have no idea what Little Walter had in mind when he came up with that
instrumental, but I doubt that it was springtime flora in a damp
northwestern seaport.

Anyone else have these incongruous associations with their favorite
tunes?

Winslow

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