Top Harmonica Track Poll - Part One!

[Foxhound]

Vote for as many as five of the tunes that you like the best!

Alice Cooper - I'm Eighteen

Beatles - I'm a Loser

Blackfoot - Train, Train

Canned Heat - On the Road Again

Dave Clark Five - Over and Over

Doors (with John Sebastian) - Roadhouse Blues

Bob Dylan - Just Like a Woman

INXS - Suicide Blonde

J. Geils Band - Centerfold

Billy Joel - Piano Man

Led Zeppelin - When the Levee Breaks

Barry McGuire - Eve of Destruction

Paul Butterfield Blues Band - Born in Chicago

Pretenders - Middle of the Road

Rolling Stones - Gimme Shelter

Standells - Dirty Water

Supertramp - School

Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers - Last Dance with Mary Jane

War - Cisco Kid

Neil Young - Heart of Gold

 

[METALPRIEST]

Re: Top Harmonica Track Poll!

Cooper
Beatles
Joel
Zeppelin
Tramp

 

[LG]

Re: Top Harmonica Track Poll!

J Geils Band

Led Zeppelin

Supertramp

War

Neil Young

Those are my five.

 

[tomcat]

Re: Top Harmonica Track Poll!

Zeppelin
BlackFoot
Beatles
Stones
Neil Young

 

[taha]

Re: Top Harmonica Track Poll!

Supertramp
Blackfoot
Tramp wins

 

[Flower]

Re: Top Harmonica Track Poll!

From this list ~

Alice Cooper - I'm Eighteen

Doors (with John Sebastian) - Roadhouse Blues

Standells - Dirty Water

Supertramp - School

Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers - Last Dance with Mary Jane

 

[Foxhound]

Re: Top Harmonica Track Poll!

Nobody'a broken from the pack yet!

 

[Flower]

Re: Top Harmonica Track Poll!

I haven't found a video yet but Goldie Zelkowitz a.k.a. Genya Ravan is said to play a mean harmonica .. this review of "Goldie Zelkowitz" is from Answers.com ~

When you hear the great blues singer Genya Ravan totally capture Gregg Allman's "Whipping Post," you realize that his melody needed a vocal that could bring the song way over the bar. Ravan's voice does just that, hits the home run while gliding through the dense production of Gabriel Mekler, the man who produced Janis Joplin's I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama. It's the combination of Mekler's guidance and Ravan's musical instincts that give immense power to this 1974 release titled after Ravan's birth name, Goldie Zelkowitz.

The version of the Allman Brothers' classic is a total reinterpretation, but it is only one of ten selections that are arguably the best setting for this pioneer vocalist. "Get It Back" is funky and hip with dance rhythms that are adventurous and futuristic; the song has pull like an undertow, and the production is so polished it will amaze. Mekler was one of the most underrated producers of his day, and the Kozmic Blues album was a masterpiece overshadowed by Cheap Thrills and Pearl. It seems like Mekler had something to prove and, with co-producer Trevor Lawrence, he augments Ravan's vocal prowess, the band aiding and abetting her as she takes "Hold On I'm Coming" and makes it her own.

A dazzling recording that sounds like Quicksilver Messenger Service doing Big Mama Thornton's "Ball and Chain" with drums out of Charlie Watts on "Let It Bleed" -- this makeover of the Sam & Dave hit is a monster track. "Whipping Post" was great but this "Hold On I'm Coming" just obliterates everything in its path.

While Ten Wheel Drive experimented with various styles, their former lead singer has the opportunity here to focus and to strut her stuff away from the confines of a big, big rock band, giving listeners a side of Ravan that is only hinted at on Urban Desire, one of her most popular solo albums, which arrived a few years after this. "Letter" is like a subdued "Stay With Me" from the TWD days, while "Breadline" takes the disc even deeper into the blues. "Walkin' Walkin'" is snappy, intimate dance-pop that gives good balance to an album boasting Danny Kortchmar on guitar and Bobby Keyes on horns. "Need Your Lovin'" segues into a mini-medley with "Peeping and Hiding" finding Ravan's voice in complete control, and boy can she play the harmonica. Her catalog remains one of the most unmined vaults of treasures in rock/blues history, and this album needs to be the centerpiece of a boxed-set appreciation of Genya Ravan. It is so overwhelmingly good that, with a push to the blues market, it can find a new audience for this major and underrated talent. The singer's legacy is intact at Genya Ravan - Genya Ravan and Goldie Zelkowitz is an often overlooked chestnut in her impressive catalog, an album that needs to get serious attention from those who understand this art form and who want another album to cherish. ~ Joe Viglione, All Music Guide

 

[Groovy Man]

Re: Top Harmonica Track Poll!

Blackfoot - Train, Train
Canned Heat - On the Road Again
Paul Butterfield Blues Band - Born in Chicago
Billy Joel - Piano Man
Neil Young - Heart of Gold

Nice to see The Doors with John B. Sebastian in the poll.

 

[Foxhound]

Re: Top Harmonica Track Poll!

There have been so many fabulous harmonica tracks that made it onto the Billboard charts that I wanted to include at least ten more in the poll and vote for at least another five myself. But I had to play by my own rules....