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227-632: The Lovin' Spoonful is an American folk-rock band formed in Greenwich Village , New York City, in 1964. The band were among the most popular groups in the United States for a short period in the mid-1960s and their music and image influenced many of the contemporary rock acts of their era. Beginning in July   1965 with their debut single " Do You Believe in Magic ", the band had seven consecutive singles reach

454-499: A Rickenbacker twelve-string guitar on the Beatles' mid-1960s recordings. This relatively clean, jangly sound—without distortion or other guitar effects —became a cornerstone of folk rock instrumentation and was used in many American folk rock records made during 1965 and 1966. We were a group, but not professional musicians. I had to de-complicate my music and get it simpler and simpler, so that we could play it and make it sound like

681-462: A "punchy" midrange sound that could be heard above an electric guitar. Also, tube amplifiers produce a natural growling overdrive when cranked at higher volumes, which adds body, fullness, and "grit" to the sound. Little Walter also cupped his hands around the instrument, tightening the air around the harp, giving it a powerful, distorted sound, somewhat reminiscent of a saxophone, hence the term "Mississippi saxophone". Some harmonica players in folk use

908-583: A Greenwich Village club. Sebastian's show, made up of a quickly assembled group of Fred Neil, Tim Hardin , Buzzy Linhart and Felix Pappalardi , greatly impressed Boone, who later remembered it as "one of the most significant nights in my musical life." He also recalled: "I was stunned. I had never heard such power in a folk group before." The performance motivated Boone to enter the Greenwich Village folk scene and join Sebastian and Yanovsky's group. The band

1135-444: A Manhattan neighborhood south of Greenwich Village. That year, Erik Jacobsen , the former banjo player of the bluegrass band Knob Lick Upper 10,000 , moved into the apartment next door, and the two soon bonded over their shared interests of smoking marijuana and listening to eclectic music. Like Sebastian, Jacobsen had been affected by the new sound of the Beatles; he later recalled that while touring in early   1964, he listened to

1362-517: A Rolling Stone ", " For What It's Worth ", and " Let's Live for Today ". During the 1950s and early 1960s in the UK, a parallel folk revival referred to as the second British folk revival , was led by folk singers Ewan MacColl and Bert Lloyd . Both viewed British folk music as a vehicle for leftist political concepts and an antidote to the American-dominated popular music of the time. However, it

1589-509: A Village apartment which neighbored Washington Square Park . The younger Sebastian often went to the park to play music, and he also played in rock bands as a teenager at his prep school in New Jersey . He became a multi-instrumentalist, being proficient on guitar, harmonica, piano and the autoharp . Beginning in the early 1960s, he worked as a studio musician . Yanovsky grew up in Downsview ,

1816-618: A brief and commercially unsuccessful solo career. The original iteration of the Spoonful last publicly performed in June   1968, after which time Sebastian departed the group and pursued a briefly successful solo career. The band dissolved later that year. In 2000, the Lovin' Spoonful were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame , an occasion that saw Sebastian, Yanovsky, Boone and Butler perform together for

2043-513: A brief residency at Café Bizarre, playing several sets a night for six days a week, leading Sebastian to later reflect, "We learned more at that crappy little club than almost any other gig." Marra had been especially critical of the band's earlier performances at the Night Owl, but he was impressed by the band's newly professional approach, and in May of 1965, he offered for the band to return to performing at

2270-511: A category including Dando Shaft , Amazing Blondel , and Jack the Lad , an offshoot of northern progressive folk group Lindisfarne , who were one of the most successful UK bands of the early 1970s. Examples of bands that remained firmly on the border between progressive folk and progressive rock were the short lived (but later reunited) Comus and, more successfully, Renaissance , who combined folk and rock with elements of classical music. Folk metal

2497-480: A cell and leakage through the nonplaying reed would be significant. For example, when a draw note is played, the valve on the blow reed-slot is sucked shut, preventing air from leaking through the inactive blow reed. An exception to this is the now-discontinued Hohner XB-40, on which valves are placed not to isolate single reeds, but rather to isolate entire chambers from being active, a design that made playing traditional blues bends possible on all reeds. The mouthpiece

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2724-459: A cloth maker and weaver from Trossingen , copied a harmonica his neighbour had brought from Vienna. He had such success that eventually his brother and some relatives also started to make harmonicas. From 1840, his nephew Christian Weiss was also involved in the business. By 1855, there were at least three harmonica-making businesses: C. A. Seydel Söhne , Christian Messner & Co., and Württ. Harmonikafabrik Ch. Weiss. (Currently, only C.A. Seydel

2951-465: A club known strictly for folk music, but Sebastian recalled that he and Yanovsky were immediately enthusiastic at the prospect of challenging folk enthusiasts: "Did we want to kill in that room!   ... We were going to be face to face with the folkies at last." The band played at the venue at the suggestion of Fritz Richmond, who encouraged the group by pointing to Bob Dylan's recent transition to electrified rock, first heard three months earlier with

3178-530: A contract, Sebastian continued performing as a studio musician on other artists' recordings. In this period, he played harmonica on progressive folk records for several acts, including Fred Neil , Jesse Colin Young and Judy Collins . In January   1965, the musician Bob Dylan asked Sebastian to play bass guitar on his newest album, Bringing It All Back Home . The album's first day of sessions, January   13, featured only Dylan on an acoustic guitar and, for

3405-459: A creative medium and to the wealth of musical culture to be found within the United States. Of particular importance to the development of folk rock by the British Invasion were the subtle folk influences evident in such Beatles' compositions as " I'll Be Back ", " Things We Said Today ", and " I'm a Loser ", with the latter song being directly inspired by folk singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. In

3632-467: A cross between Chuck Berry and Mississippi John Hurt . Fritz suggested the Lovin' Spoonful , a line from Hurt's 1963 song "Coffee Blues." The name was perfect. – John Sebastian, 2016 In early   1965, in preparation for their first public performances, Sebastian, Yanovsky, Boone and Carl continued rehearsing at the Bull's Head, while Sebastian and Yanovsky searched for a group name. Fritz Richmond ,

3859-444: A different timbre, so that they often function in place of a brass section. In the past, they were referred to as horn harmonicas. The other type of orchestral melodic harmonica is the polyphonia, (though some are marked "chromatica"). These have all twelve chromatic notes laid out on the same row. In most cases, they have both blow and draw of the same tone, though the No. 7 is blow only, and

4086-514: A few orchestra harmonicas are also designed to serve as both bass and chord harmonica, with bass notes next to chord groupings. There are also other chord harmonicas, such as the Chordomonica (which operates similar to a chromatic harmonica), and the junior chord harmonicas (which typically provide six chords). The Suzuki SSCH-56 Compact Chord harmonica is a 48-chord harmonica built in a 14-hole chromatic harmonica enclosure. The first three holes play

4313-426: A few tracks, Sebastian playing bass guitar, but none of the recordings were used on the final album. Dylan returned the next day to re-record much of the material, rearranging the songs attempted the day before so they instead featured an electric backing. Dylan invited Sebastian to return for a separate session held that evening, in which they recorded a remake of the song " Subterranean Homesick Blues ". Boone – one of

4540-403: A full chromatic (12-note) octave. Pitch pipes are also sold for string players, such as violinists and guitarists; these pitch pipes usually provide the notes corresponding to the open strings. Vibrato is a technique commonly used while playing the harmonica and many other instruments, to give the note a 'shaking' sound. This technique can be accomplished in a number of ways. The most common way

4767-587: A handful of recordings in the early 1900s, generally labeled as a "mouth organ". The first jazz or traditional music recordings of harmonicas were made in the U.S. in the mid-1920s. Recordings known at the time as "race records", intended for the black market of the southern states, included solo recordings by DeFord Bailey and duo recordings with a guitarist ( Hammie Nixon , Walter Horton , or Sonny Terry ). Hillbilly styles were also recorded, intended for white audiences, by Frank Hutchison , Gwen Foster and several other musicians. There are also recordings featuring

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4994-413: A major chord on blow and draw, with and without the slide. Holes 2, 3, and 4 play a diminished chord; holes 3, 4, and 5 play a minor chord; and holes 4, 5, and 6 play an augmented, for a total of sixteen chords. This pattern is repeated starting on hole 5, a whole step higher; and again starting on hole 9, for a total of 48 chords. The ChengGong harmonica has a main body, and a sliding mouthpiece. The body

5221-558: A major international hit. By mid-May, it had reached number two on all of the major British singles charts and number one on the Swedish Kvällstoppen chart. On May   20, 1966, Boone and Yanovsky were arrested in San Francisco for possessing marijuana, then an illegal drug. Police discovered the marijuana after pulling the pair over and searching their vehicle. Boone and Yanovsky spent the night in jail before being bailed out

5448-452: A music writer. Williams later reflected, "For a band like that to come to Club 47 was revolutionary, in terms of Cambridge['s] holier-than-thou purist attitude about folk music." Early in the Lovin' Spoonful's May residency at the Night Owl, Sebastian wrote a new song, " Do You Believe in Magic ", which explored the transformative power of music. His initial inspiration came during one of the band's performances, in which he and Yanovsky noticed

5675-516: A neighborhood in New York City, and the three were greatly influenced by the Beatles' performance; Sebastian later reflected, "It affected us heavily   ... us [meaning] my specific generation". Later that night, Elliot encouraged Sebastian and Yanovsky to play guitars, and Sebastian remembered discovering they had "a tremendous affinity" for one another. Sebastian, the son of the classical harmonica player John Sebastian Sr. , grew up in

5902-613: A number of factors, including the Beatles' coupling of folk derived chord progressions and beat music, the Byrds' rock adaptation of "Mr. Tambourine Man" (which Dylan had heard at a Byrds' rehearsal in late 1964), and the Animals hit cover of "The House of the Rising Sun". Bringing It All Back Home was released on 22 March 1965, peaking at number 6 on the Billboard Top LPs chart and #1 on

6129-423: A popular music group. Dylan's material would provide much of the original grist for the folk rock mill, not only in the U.S. but in the UK as well, with many pop and rock acts covering his material in a style reminiscent of the Byrds. Their reworking of "Mr. Tambourine Man", along with the Animals ' rock interpretation of " The House of the Rising Sun " (itself based on Dylan's earlier cover), helped to give Dylan

6356-413: A popular thing. Whenever you have a format like that, it sounds folky, because it's not glitzed over with anything. We only had acoustic and electric guitars, so every chance we got, we'd try to add some variety. The only way you could get variety was to go to a harmonica during this song, or get an acoustic in this space; get different moods that way. —Ron Elliott of The Beau Brummels on the origins of

6583-646: A range of techniques that exploit properties of the microphone and the amplifier, such as changing the way the hands are cupped around the instrument and the microphone or rhythmically breathing or chanting into the microphone while playing. The harmonica was developed in Europe in the early part of the 19th century. Free-reed instruments like the Chinese sheng had been fairly common in East Asia since ancient times. They became relatively well known in Europe after being introduced by

6810-648: A rebuke to the folk purists who had rejected his new electric music. Throughout 1965 and 1966, hit singles like "Subterranean Homesick Blues", "Like a Rolling Stone", "Positively 4th Street", and " I Want You " among others, along with the Bringing It All Back Home , Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde albums, proved to be hugely influential on the development and popularity of folk rock. Although Dylan's move away from acoustic folk music served to outrage and alienate much of his original fanbase, his new folk rock sound gained him legions of new fans during

7037-594: A regular vocal microphone, such as a Shure SM 58 , for their harmonica, which gives a clean, natural sound. As technology in amplification has progressed, harmonica players have introduced other effects units to their rigs, as well, such as reverb , tremolo , delay , octave , additional overdrive pedals, and chorus effect . John Popper of Blues Traveler uses a customized microphone that encapsulates several of these effects into one handheld unit, as opposed to several units in sequence. Many harmonica players still prefer tube amplifiers to solid-state ones, owing to

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7264-409: A result, he had been thinking of a way in which to introduce folk styled acoustic guitars and socially conscious lyrics into pop music for several years prior to his 1965 breakthrough as a recording artist. By January 1966, he had recorded the self-penned hit " Sunshine Superman " with a full electric backing band. Other bands and solo artists who were blurring the boundaries between folk and rock in

7491-400: A rock act if they signed at a folk-oriented label. Cavallo approached Paul Rothchild and Jac Holzman of Elektra and said the band needed an advance of $ 10,000 before they could sign (equivalent to US$ 97,000 in 2023). Holzman initially refused due to the large figure, but he soon changed his mind and offered the band a deal, by which point they had signed elsewhere. The band instead signed

7718-502: A side-deal with Elektra, which had them record four songs, including Sebastian's song "Good Time Music". Jacobsen later said that the band offered the songs to Elektra out of guilt, since "We had kind of hung [Holzman] out to dry just a little bit   ... [so we] allowed him to have those sides. The label later included the four songs on the compilation album What's Shakin' , released the following year. The Lovin' Spoonful signed with Koppelman-Rubin, an entertainment company, who signed

7945-401: A sixteen-year-old girl dancing among the audience. The girl stood in contrast to the older beatnik crowd who typically attended folk performances, and Sebastian recalled that "[she was] dancing like we danced – and not like the last generation danced". He also remembered: "Zal and I just elbowed each other the entire night, because to us, that young girl symbolized the fact that our audience

8172-502: A slight expansion, which they intended to make the seal between the comb, reed plates, and covers more airtight. Modern wooden-combed harmonicas are less prone to swelling and contracting, but modern players still dip their harmonicas in water for the way it affects tone and ease of bending notes. The reed plate is a grouping of several reeds in a single housing. The reeds are usually made of brass, but steel, aluminium, and plastic are occasionally used. Individual reeds are usually riveted to

8399-545: A song which had been recorded by the folk duo Simon & Garfunkel in 1964 and first released on their album Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. . The reissued single rose to number 1 on the Billboard pop chart in late 1965, became a hit around the world, and set the duo on one of the most successful careers in pop and rock music. Simon and Garfunkel have been described as "folk-rock's greatest duo, and one whose fame and influence would persist well beyond folk-rock's heyday." One of

8626-582: A suburb of Toronto, Canada, and he was enmeshed as a guitar player in the city's folk-music scene, which centered on the Yorkville neighborhood. Denny Doherty , another musician active in Yorkville, invited Yanovsky to join his folk group, the Halifax Three , which later relocated to Greenwich Village. After the Halifax Three broke up in June   1964, Elliot recruited Yanovsky and Doherty to join her own group,

8853-444: A tape recorder, featured a mixture of Sebastian's originals ("Good Time Music" and "Didn't Want to Have to Do It"), folk songs ("Wild About My Lovin ' " and "My Gal") and rock and roll (" Route 66 ", " Alley Oop " and " Almost Grown "). The band received a mixed reception, due in part to their loud playing style in the small venue. Marra was unimpressed and returned to booking folk acts. Cavallo and Jacobsen recommended rehearsals and that

9080-502: A traditional style, and is played on a combination of traditional and rock instruments. This incorporation of traditional British folk music influences gives British folk rock its distinctly British character and flavour. It evolved out of the psychedelia -influenced folk rock of British acts such as Donovan, the Incredible String Band , and Tyrannosaurus Rex , but was also heavily influenced by such American folk rock bands as

9307-504: A verse and a basic melodic figure, and Sebastian collaborated with him to complete the song. Kama Sutra issued the song as a non-album single on November   13, and it peaked at number ten on the Billboard Hot 100 in January   1966. The sessions for Daydream came ten weeks after the band finished their first album, and the band had had little time to rehearse new material. Owing to

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9534-601: Is the BibleCode Sundays . Celtic rock is also popular in Spain where bands such as Celtas Cortos have had a large following since the early 1990s. Medieval folk rock developed as a subgenre of electric folk from about 1970 as performers, particularly in England, Germany and Brittany, adopted medieval and renaissance music as a basis for their music, in contrast to the early modern and nineteenth century ballads that dominated

9761-474: Is a 24-hole diatonic harmonica that ranges from B 2 to D 6 (covering 3 octaves). Its 11-hole mouthpiece can slide along the front of the harmonica, which gives numerous chord choices and voicings (seven triads, three 6th chords, seven 7th chords, and seven 9th chords, for a total of 24 chords). As well, it is capable of playing single-note melodies and double stops over a range of three diatonic octaves. Unlike conventional harmonicas, blowing and drawing produce

9988-551: Is a fusion genre of heavy metal music and traditional folk music that developed in Europe during the 1990s. It is characterised by the widespread use of folk instruments and, to a lesser extent, traditional singing styles (for example, Dutch Heidevolk , Danish Sylvatica and Spanish Stone of Erech). It also sometimes features soft instrumentation influenced by folk rock. The earliest folk metal bands were Skyclad from England, Cruachan from Ireland and Mago de Oz from Spain. Skyclad's debut album The Wayward Sons of Mother Earth

10215-775: Is credited with inventing the blow and draw mechanism), was created in 1826 and was eventually adopted nearly universally. In Germany, violin manufacturer Johann Georg Meisel from Klingenthal bought a harmonica with chambers (Kanzellen) at an exhibition in Braunschweig in 1824. He and the ironworker Langhammer copied the instruments in Graslitz three miles away; by 1827 they had produced hundreds of harmonicas. Many others followed in Germany and also nearby Bohemia that would later become Czechoslovakia . In 1829, Johann Wilhelm Rudolph Glier also began making harmonicas. In 1830, Christian Messner,

10442-420: Is essential to the functioning of the instrument because it provides a groove for the slide. Since the 1950s, many blues harmonica players have amplified their instrument with microphones and tube amplifiers . One of the early innovators of this approach was Marion " Little Walter " Jacobs, who played the harmonica near a "Bullet" microphone marketed for use by radio taxi dispatchers. This gave his harmonica tone

10669-534: Is intended to play in only one key, the 12-, 14-, and 16-hole models (which are tuned to equal temperament) allow the musician to play in any key desired with only one harmonica. This harp can be used for any style, including Celtic, classical, jazz, or blues (commonly in third position). Strictly speaking, diatonic denotes any harmonica designed to play in a single key—though the standard Richter-tuned diatonic harmonica can play other keys by forcing its reeds to play tones that are not part of its basic scale. Depending on

10896-410: Is often needed to find one that feels suitable for each individual player. This device is used by folk musicians, one-man bands , and singer-songwriters such as Bob Dylan , Edoardo Bennato , Tom Harmon , Neil Young , Eddie Vedder , Billy Joel , Bruce Springsteen , and blues singers Jimmy Reed and John Hammond Jr. The chromatic harmonica uses a button-activated sliding bar to redirect air from

11123-549: Is placed between the air chambers of the instrument and the player's mouth. This can be integral with the comb (the diatonic harmonicas; the Hohner Chrometta); part of the cover (as in Hohner's CX-12); or may be a separate unit, secured by screws, which is typical of chromatics. In many harmonicas, the mouthpiece is purely an ergonomic aid designed to make playing more comfortable. In the traditional slider-based chromatic harmonica, it

11350-431: Is possible, as on chromatic and other harmonica models with wind-savers, but also to both lower, and raise (overbend, overblow, overdraw) the pitch produced by pairs of reeds in the same chamber, as on a diatonic or other unvalved harmonica. Such two-reed pitch changes actually involve sound production by the normally silent reed, the opening reed (for instance, the blow reed while the player is drawing). The basic parts of

11577-465: Is still in business.) Owing to competition between the harmonica factories in Trossingen and Klingenthal, machines were invented to punch the covers for the reeds. In 1857, Matthias Hohner, a clockmaker from Trossingen, started producing harmonicas. Eventually he became the first to mass-produce them. He used a mass-produced wooden comb that he had made by machine-cutting firms. By 1868, he began supplying

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11804-439: Is that of the 'trill' (or 'roll', or 'warble, or 'shake'); this technique has the player move their lips between two holes very quickly, either by shaking the head in a rapid motion or moving the harmonica from side to side within the embouchure. This gives a quick pitch-alternating technique that is slightly more than vibrato and achieves the same aural effect on sustained notes, albeit by using two different tones instead of varying

12031-440: Is to change how the harmonica is held. For example, the vibrato effect can be achieved by opening and closing the hands around the harmonica very rapidly. The vibrato might also be achieved via rapid glottal (vocal fold) opening and closing, especially on draws (inhalation) simultaneous to bending, or without bending. This obviates the need for cupping and waving the hands around the instrument during play. An effect similar to vibrato

12258-455: Is used often in East Asian rock and pop music. Orchestral harmonicas are primarily designed for use in ensemble playing. There are eight kinds of orchestral melody harmonica; the most common are the horn harmonicas often found in East Asia. These consist of a single large comb with blow-only reed-plates on the top and bottom. Each reed sits inside a single cell in the comb. One version mimics

12485-486: The 1967 Detroit riot . He would rise to top the charts in the 1970s with a number of his folk-rock recordings such as " Sundown " and " Carefree Highway " and eventually become known as a folk-rock legend. Some artists who originally produced with a harder edged rock sound found the ability to communicate more easily and felt more genuine in this method of delivery. In this category was Cat Stevens , who began in London much like

12712-565: The Aeolian harp ). Mouth-blown free-reed instruments appeared in the United States, South America, the United Kingdom and Europe at roughly the same time. These instruments were made for playing classical music. The harmonica first appeared in Vienna, where harmonicas with chambers were sold before 1824 (see also Anton Reinlein and Anton Haeckl ). Richter tuning, invented by Joseph Richter (who also

12939-625: The Bill Monroe bluegrass standard " Blue Moon of Kentucky "; Buddy Holly 's self-penned material, which strongly influenced both Dylan and the Byrds; Ritchie Valens ' recording of the Mexican folk song " La Bamba "; Lloyd Price 's rock 'n' roll adaptation of the African-American folk song " Stagger Lee " (originally recorded by Mississippi John Hurt in 1928); Jimmie Rodgers ' rock 'n' roll flavored renditions of traditional folk songs; and

13166-521: The Billboard Hot 100 singles chart and stayed there for three weeks, selling over a million copies in just five weeks in the U.S. The band's arrangement of "The House of the Rising Sun", which transmuted the song from an acoustic folk lament to a full-bore electric rock song, would go on to influence many folk rock acts but none more so than Dylan himself, who cited it as a key factor in his decision to record and perform with an electric rock band in 1965. The Searchers were influential in popularizing

13393-481: The Celtic rock movement, medieval music was focused on by bands like Ripaille from 1977 and Saga de Ragnar Lodbrock from 1979. However, by the end of the 1970s almost all of these performers had either disbanded or moved, like Gentle Giant and Gryphon, into the developing area of progressive rock . In the 1990s, as part of the wider resurgence of folk music in general, new medieval folk rock acts began to appear, including

13620-598: The Hotel Albert . The Albert was frequented by many local folk musicians, and the building's proprietors allowed musicians staying there to rehearse in its basement, a decaying space with standing pools of water, chipping walls and a bug infestation. While at the Albert, the band befriended one of the building's permanent residents, Butchie Webber, who often fed them meals. Though the two were not romantic, Webber married Sebastian, so as to prevent him from being drafted into fighting in

13847-708: The Newport Folk Festival on 25 July 1965, where he was backed by an electric band, was also a pivotal moment in the development of the genre. During the late 1960s in Britain and Europe, a distinct, eclectic British folk rock style was created by Pentangle , Fairport Convention and Alan Stivell . Inspired by British psychedelic folk and the North American style of folk rock, British folk rock bands began to incorporate elements of traditional British folk music into their repertoire, leading to other variants, including

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14074-530: The Ritchie Blackmore project Blackmore's Night , German bands such as In Extremo , Subway to Sally or Schandmaul and English bands like Circulus . In Britain the tendency to electrify brought several progressive folk acts into rock. This includes the acoustic duo Tyrannosaurus Rex, who became the electric combo T. Rex . Others, probably influenced by the electric folk pioneered by Fairport Convention from 1969, moved towards more traditional material,

14301-504: The UK Album Chart . The album's blend of rhythm and blues -derived rock and abstract, poetic lyrics was immediately influential in demonstrating that intelligent lyrical content could be wedded with rock 'n' roll. The songs on the album saw Dylan leaving folk music far behind. Even with this folkier, acoustic material, Dylan's biting, apocalyptical, and often humorous lyrics went far beyond those of contemporary folk music, particularly

14528-631: The Vietnam War . Butler, who still played drums for the Sellouts, auditioned for the Lovin' Spoonful in the Albert's basement. He impressed the others when he broke a drumstick but continued performing by hitting the cymbal with his hand, cutting it in the process. The band were inspired by Butler's energy and hired him as their drummer. While waiting to be signed to a record label, the Lovin' Spoonful played at night clubs on MacDougal Street in Greenwich Village, including Cafe Wha? and Café Bizarre. The band held

14755-649: The War Department allotted a rationed supply of brass to Kratt's factory so they could continue to produce harmonicas that the Red Cross distributed to American troops overseas to boost morale. In 1898, the harmonica was brought to Japan, where the Tremolo harmonica was the most popular instrument. After about 30 years, the Japanese developed scale tuning and semitone harmonicas that could play Japanese folk songs. In Europe and

14982-676: The Whisky a Go Go and The Crescendo (later renamed The Trip ). The Lovin' Spoonful returned to the West Coast in October   1965. They appeared for a week at San Francisco's hungry i nightclub, one of the most prominent clubs in America's folk-music scene, and on October   24, they headlined a dance party at the Longshoreman's Union Hall in the city's Fisherman's Wharf neighborhood. Organized by

15209-419: The folk music revival . Performers such as Bob Dylan and the Byrds —several of whose members had earlier played in folk ensembles—attempted to blend the sounds of rock with their pre-existing folk repertoire, adopting the use of electric instrumentation and drums in a way previously discouraged in the U.S. folk community. The term "folk rock" was initially used in the U.S. music press in June 1965 to describe

15436-538: The washtub bass player for the Jim Kweskin Jug Band , suggested to Sebastian the name the Lovin' Spoonful , a reference to the lyrics of the song "Coffee Blues" by the country blues musician Mississippi John Hurt , with whom Sebastian had previously worked. Sebastian and Yanovsky were enthusiastic about the suggestion and adopted it as the band's name. Joe Marra, the owner of Greenwich Village's Night Owl Cafe, knew Sebastian from his time backing other artists at

15663-573: The 1920s and 1930s, which had been reissued by Folkways Records ; Harry Smith 's Anthology of American Folk Music was particularly influential. While this urban folk revival flourished in many cities, New York City, with its burgeoning Greenwich Village coffeehouse scene and population of topical folk singers, was widely regarded as the centre of the movement. Out of this fertile environment came such folk-protest luminaries as Bob Dylan, Tom Paxton , Phil Ochs , and Peter, Paul and Mary , many of whom would transition into folk rock performers as

15890-419: The 1950s, in which the reed and reed plate were molded out of a single piece of plastic. The Magnus design had the reeds, reed plates, and comb made of plastic and either molded or permanently glued together. Cover plates cover the reed plates and are usually made of metal, though wood and plastic have also been used. The choice of these is personal; because they project sound, they determine the tonal quality of

16117-450: The 1960s progressed. The vast majority of the urban folk revivalists shared a disdain for the values of mainstream American mass culture and led many folk singers to begin composing their own "protest" material. The influence of this folk-protest movement would later manifest itself in the sociopolitical lyrics and mildly anti-establishment sentiments of many folk rock songs, including hit singles such as " Eve of Destruction ", " Like

16344-578: The 1970s, Celtic rock held close to its folk roots, drawing heavily on traditional Celtic fiddle , pipe , and harp tunes, as well as traditional vocal styles, but making use of rock band levels of amplification and percussion. In the 1980s and beyond, Celtic rock was perpetuated by bands such as the Pogues , the Waterboys , Runrig , Black 47 , and the Prodigals . A more recent folk rock band based in England

16571-598: The 1970s, the country folk subgenre has been perpetuated by artists including John Prine , Nanci Griffith , Kathy Mattea , Mary Chapin Carpenter , and Iris DeMent . A subgenre of folk rock that combines traditional Celtic instrumentation with rock rhythms, often influenced by a wide variety of pop and rock music styles. It emerged from the electric folk music of the late 1960s and was pioneered by bands such as Horslips , who blended Gaelic mythology , traditional Irish music and rock. The British singer-songwriter Donovan

16798-458: The 1990s. It was not until the early 2000s when the genre exploded into prominence, particularly in Finland with the efforts of such groups as Finntroll , Ensiferum , Korpiklaani , Turisas , and Moonsorrow . The music of folk metal is characterised by its diversity with bands known to perform different styles of both heavy metal music and folk music. A large variety of folk instruments are used in

17025-691: The American and British charts. In particular, the Byrds' influence can be discerned in mid-1960s recordings by acts such as the Lovin' Spoonful, Barry McGuire , the Mamas & the Papas, Simon & Garfunkel , Jefferson Airplane , the Turtles , We Five , Love , and Sonny & Cher . It was during the rehearsals at World Pacific that the band began to develop the blend of folk music and Beatles-style pop that would characterize their sound. However, this hybrid

17252-458: The Atlantic. In mid-1965, folk singer-songwriter Donovan was also experimenting with adding electrified instrumentation to some of his folk and blues-styled material, as evidenced by songs such as " You're Gonna Need Somebody on Your Bond " and "Sunny Goodge Street". In spite of his folky persona and repertoire, Donovan himself had always considered himself a pop star, rather than a folk singer. As

17479-600: The Beatles' impact on American popular culture effectively sounded the death knell for the American folk music revival . In addition to The Beatles, the two British groups that were arguably the most influential on the development of folk rock were the Animals and the Searchers . The Animals released a rock interpretation of the traditional folk song " The House of the Rising Sun " in the U.S. in August 1964. The song reached number 1 on

17706-481: The Beatles' music became even more explicit during 1965, with the release of " You've Got to Hide Your Love Away ", a folk-derived song with introspective lyrics, again influenced by Dylan. Although the Beatles themselves utilized folk as just one of many styles evident in their music, the underlying folk influences in a number of their songs would prove to be important to folk rock musicians attempting to blend their own folk influences with beat music . The effect that

17933-503: The Byrds did in the United States but toned down the sound more frequently with acoustic instruments. He performed songs that contained concern for the environment, war, and the future of the world in general. The Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell won many Grammy Awards with her folk rock/pop songs. British folk rock developed in Britain during the mid to late 1960s by the bands Fairport Convention , and Pentangle . It uses traditional British music and self-penned compositions in

18160-465: The Byrds entered Columbia Studios in Hollywood to record his song "Mr. Tambourine Man", Bob Dylan completed the recording sessions for his fifth album, Bringing It All Back Home . Of the eleven tracks on the album, seven featured Dylan backed by a full electric rock band, in stark contrast to his earlier acoustic folk albums. Dylan's decision to record with an electric backing band had been influenced by

18387-521: The Byrds' music. The commercial success of the Byrds' cover version of Dylan's " Mr. Tambourine Man " and their debut album of the same name , along with Dylan's own recordings with rock instrumentation—on the albums Bringing It All Back Home (1965), Highway 61 Revisited (1965), and Blonde on Blonde (1966)—encouraged other folk acts, such as Simon & Garfunkel , to use electric backing on their records and new groups, such as Buffalo Springfield , to form. Dylan's controversial appearance at

18614-561: The Byrds, Love , and Buffalo Springfield. British folk rock was at its most significant and popular during the late 1960s and 1970s, when, in addition to Fairport and Pentangle, it was taken up by groups such as Steeleye Span and the Albion Band . Steeleye Span, founded by Fairport Convention bass player Ashley Hutchings , was made up of traditionalist folk musicians who wished to incorporate electrical amplification, and later overt rock elements, into their music. This, in turn, spawned

18841-643: The Byrds, the Lovin' Spoonful's label encouraged the band to trade lead vocal responsibilities; on Do You Believe in Magic , Sebastian sings lead on most songs, but Butler also sings twice (" You Baby " and "The Other Side of This Life") as does Yanovsky ("Blues in the Bottle", "On the Road Again" and the unreleased " Alley Oop "). The album first went on sale on October   23, 1965, when the band held an autograph session in Pleasant Hill, California , and Kama Sutra issued

19068-666: The China Harmonica Society, and the Heart String Harmonica Society. During the 1950s, chromatic harmonica became popular in Hong Kong, and players such as Larry Adler and John Sebastian Sr. were invited to perform. Local players such as Lau Mok ( 劉牧 ) and Fung On ( 馮安 ) promoted the chromatic harmonica. The chromatic harmonica gradually became the main instrument used by the Chinese Y.M.C.A. Harmonica Orchestra. The Chinese YMCA Harmonica Orchestra started in

19295-543: The French Jesuit Jean Joseph Marie Amiot (1718–1793), who lived in Qing-era China. Around 1820, free-reed designs began being created in Europe. Christian Friedrich Ludwig Buschmann is often cited as the inventor of the harmonica in 1821, but other inventors developed similar instruments at the same time. In 1829, Charles Wheatstone developed a mouth-organ under the name "Aeolina" (inspired by

19522-501: The Lovin' Spoonful as new folk-rock acts. Dylan also contributed to the creation of the genre, with his recordings utilizing rock instrumentation on the albums Bringing It All Back Home , Highway 61 Revisited , and Blonde on Blonde . In a broader sense, folk rock encompasses similarly inspired musical genres and movements in different regions of the world. Folk rock may lean more towards either folk or rock in instrumentation, playing and vocal style, and choice of material. While

19749-626: The Lovin' Spoonful and offered to sign them. Elektra regularly produced acts from Greenwich Village, including the Even Dozen Jug Band and the Paul Butterfield Blues Band . The label's offer would have allowed the Lovin' Spoonful to retain Jacobsen as their producer and Cavallo as their manager, but the band worried that Elektra had not been successful at issuing singles in the pop market, and that they would not be clearly identified as

19976-636: The Lovin' Spoonful embarked on a 19-day package-tour with the American girl group the Supremes . The acts performed at colleges across the southern U.S., beginning in Lafayette, Louisiana , on November   10. Both acts traveled by bus and partied together, along with members of the Supremes' backing band, the Funk Brothers , billed as the Earl Van Dyke Orchestra. The Lovin' Spoonful generally enjoyed

20203-476: The Lovin' Spoonful performing "Do You Believe in Magic", and the label pressed copies to be the band's debut single. The label issued it in the U.S. on July 20, 1965, and it debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 a month later, remaining on the chart for thirteen weeks and peaking in October at number nine. The release of "Do You Believe in Magic" in July   1965 propelled the Lovin' Spoonful to nationwide fame in

20430-452: The Lovin' Spoonful – John Sebastian and Zal Yanovsky – met on February 9, 1964, at the apartment of Cass Elliot , a mutual friend and fellow musician. Elliot was holding a party that night to watch the English rock band the Beatles make their American television debut on The Ed Sullivan Show . Elliot, Sebastian and Yanovsky were all active in the folk-music scene in Greenwich Village ,

20657-512: The Lovin' Spoonful's performance to similarly "go electric" in their style. Amid their touring schedule, the Lovin' Spoonful recorded tracks for their debut album, Do You Believe in Magic . The band recorded thirteen songs across several sessions between June and September   1965, mostly at Bell Sound in New York, and they also recorded at RCA Studios in Hollywood, Los Angeles . The band's focus

20884-425: The Lovin' Spoonful, Sebastian (guitar, harmonica, autoharp , vocals) and Zal Yanovsky (guitar, vocals) were active in Greenwich Village's folk-music scene . Aiming to create an "electric jug band", they recruited the local rock musicians Steve Boone (bass guitar) and Joe Butler (drums, vocals). The four-piece lineup honed their sound at New York nightclubs before they began recording for Kama Sutra Records with

21111-616: The Lovin' Spoonful, the Byrds and the Mamas & the Papas remained on close terms in the mid-1960s. Amid their busy TV and live-date schedule, the Lovin' Spoonful recorded most of their second album Daydream in four days, from December   13 to 16, at Bell Sound Studios in New York City. Some songs for the album were recorded in November, including " You Didn't Have to Be So Nice ", and additional sessions took place at Columbia Studios in New York City and RCA Studios in Hollywood, California . Boone began "You Didn't Have to Be So Nice" as

21338-566: The Mugwumps . That same year, Sebastian briefly played with another New York folk group, the Even Dozen Jug Band , before he was also recruited into the Mugwumps to play harmonica. Sebastian later remembered becoming enamoured with Yanovsky: "[He] amused the hell out of me. He inhaled and exhaled people and conversation and jokes and theater. He was this kind of cultural weathervane – and people gathered around him." During live performances with

21565-424: The Mugwumps, rather than playing folk songs straight through, Yanovsky and Sebastian often improvised off of one another on guitar and harmonica, respectively. After the Mugwumps dissolved in late   1964, Sebastian and Yanovsky began planning to form their own group, which they envisioned as an electric jug band . Sebastian recalled: "Yanovsky and I were both aware of the fact that this commercial folk music model

21792-549: The New York area with "a folk-rock sound", even though the group had not yet released a record. The Lovin' Spoonful performed two sets at Club 47 and initially received a mixed reception; many folk fans walked out of the first set due to the band's loud sound. Sebastian recalled a moment from the first set: [A woman] carefully [got my] and Zally's attention, points out toward the amplifier, and puts her fingers in her ears. And Zally gave her his broadest and most affectionate smile, and turned his amplifier up as loud as he could. That

22019-432: The Night Owl, Phil Spector , a well-known producer, listened to an acetate of "Do You Believe in Magic" and considered signing the band to his label, Philles Records . Recollections differ as to who turned whom down, but subsequent authors suggest that in writing their own music and possessing a defined sound, the Lovin' Spoonful differed greatly from the acts with which Spector normally worked. Elektra Records approached

22246-546: The Night Owl. The Lovin' Spoonful shared their bill at the club with two other electric groups whom Marra booked, Danny Kalb 's band the Blues Project and the Modern Folk Quartet, the latter of which Sebastian sometimes filled in for on drums. The Night Owl's triple-bill was immediately successful, and other established acts sometimes came to watch, including members of the American band the Byrds and Mary Travers of

22473-496: The No. 261, also blow only, has two reeds per hole, tuned an octave apart (all these designations refer to products of M. Hohner). The chord harmonica has up to 48 chords: major , seventh , minor , augmented and diminished for ensemble playing. It is laid out in four-note clusters, each sounding a different chord on inhaling or exhaling. Typically each hole has two reeds for each note, tuned to one octave of each other. Less expensive models often have only one reed per note. Quite

22700-519: The Top Ten of the U.S. charts in the eighteen months that followed, including the number-two hits " Daydream " and " Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind? " and the chart-topping " Summer in the City ". Led by their primary songwriter John Sebastian , the Lovin' Spoonful took their earliest influences from jug band and blues music, reworking them into a popular music format. In 1965, the band helped pioneer

22927-424: The U.K. None of their singles had charted in the country. To expand the band's popularity to an international audience, their management organized several live- and TV-dates in England and Sweden for April   1966. Only days before the Lovin' Spoonful was set to depart to Europe, they were approached to provide a soundtrack for What's Up, Tiger Lily? , the directorial debut of the comedian Woody Allen , who knew

23154-481: The U.S. music charts. These groups were all heavily influenced by American rock 'n' roll , blues , and R&B —musical genres they had been introduced to via homegrown British rock 'n' roll singers, imported American records , and the music of the skiffle craze. These UK groups, known collectively as the British Invasion , reintroduced American youth culture to the broad potential of rock and pop music as

23381-455: The U.S. singles chart. The high-profile success of the Beau Brummels' music was important in demonstrating that a hybrid of folk and rock could potentially be translated into mainstream commercial success. Pre-dating the Beau Brummels' commercial breakthrough by almost two years, singer-songwriter Jackie DeShannon 's April 1963 single " Needles and Pins " marked, according to Unterberger,

23608-577: The U.S. within weeks. The band made their American television debut on the channel 10 show of the Miami disc jockey Rick Shaw , and they also taped appearances for the TV programs American Bandstand , The Merv Griffin Show and The Lloyd Thaxton Show . In conjunction with the release of the single, the band's management made plans for their first series of serious live dates outside of New York City. Beginning in August,

23835-489: The UK, the folk group the Springfields (featuring Dusty Springfield ) had been releasing folk-oriented material featuring full band arrangements since the early 1960s, including renditions of " Lonesome Traveler ", " Allentown Jail ", and " Silver Threads and Golden Needles ". Although these records owed more to orchestral pop than rock, they were nonetheless influential on up-and-coming folk rock musicians on both sides of

24062-573: The United States, tremolo harmonica uses the Richter tuning, developed in Germany. In 1913, Shōgo Kawaguchi ( 川口章吾 ), known in Japan as the "Father of the harmonica", devised an alternate tuning, which is more suited to playing Japanese folk tunes. This tuning is also suited to local music throughout East Asia, and harmonicas using the tuning became popular in the region. Initial diatonic harmonica tunings were major key only. In 1931, Hiderō Satō ( 佐藤秀廊 ) announced

24289-410: The United States. By the 1920s, the diatonic harmonica had largely reached its modern form. Other types followed soon thereafter, including the various tremolo and octave harmonicas. By the late 19th century, harmonica production was a big business, having evolved into mass production. New designs were still developed in the 20th century, including the chromatic harmonica, first made by Hohner in 1924,

24516-605: The United States. Its music rapidly became popular, and the country became an enormous market for Hohner's goods. US president Abraham Lincoln carried a harmonica in his pocket, and harmonicas provided solace to soldiers on both the Union and Confederate sides of the American Civil War . Frontiersmen Wyatt Earp and Billy the Kid played the instrument, and it became a fixture of the American musical landscape. Harmonicas were heard on

24743-552: The Village Music Hall, a small music club on West 3rd Street in Greenwich Village. There, he met Sebastian and Yanovsky, and though he had no background in folk music, Boone soon bonded with the two over their shared musical influences, including Elvis Presley , Chuck Berry , the Everly Brothers , Buddy Holly , Motown , the Beatles and other British Invasion acts. Sebastian played him his composition " Good Time Music " –

24970-544: The Weavers , whose mainstream popularity set the stage for the folk revival of the 1950s and early 1960s and also served to bridge the gap between folk, popular music, and topical song . The Weavers' sound and repertoire of traditional folk material and topical songs directly inspired the Kingston Trio , a three-piece folk group who came to prominence in 1958 with their hit recording of " Tom Dooley ". The Kingston Trio provided

25197-413: The West Coast were sometimes picketed by members of the '60s counterculture . Protesters carried signs which accused the band of being " finks " and traitors to the movement, and they encouraged fans to boycott the band and burn their records. The public revelations of the drug bust added to tensions between Sebastian and Butler on the one hand, and Yanovsky and Boone on the other. Boone later suggested that

25424-531: The album nationwide in November. It debuted on the Billboard Top LPs chart on December 4, and it initially ran on the chart for 19 weeks, peaking in February   1966 at number 71. By late   1965, the Lovin' Spoonful had made appearances on the most popular American television variety shows, including Where the Action Is , Shindig! and Hullabaloo . Executives from NBC approached Cavallo and offered

25651-508: The amplitude of one. In addition to the 19 notes readily available on the diatonic harmonica, players can play other notes by adjusting their embouchure and forcing the reed to resonate at a different pitch. This technique is called bending , a term possibly borrowed from guitarists, who literally bend a string to subtly change the pitch. Bending also creates the glissandos characteristic of much blues harp and country harmonica playing. Bends are essential for most blues and rock harmonica due to

25878-439: The attention of classical musicians during the 1930s. American Larry Adler was one of the first harmonica players to perform major works written for the instrument by the composers Ralph Vaughan Williams , Malcolm Arnold , Darius Milhaud , and Arthur Benjamin . Harmonicas were scarce in the United States during World War II . Wood and metal materials for harmonicas were in short supply because of military demand. Furthermore,

26105-480: The band and drug use, as the press had often incorrectly speculated that the Lovin' Spoonful alluded to the spoon used in injecting heroin . The increased speculation was partly driven by the lyrics' use of the term "dream", which by 1966 was sometimes used to connote the experience of taking psychedelic drugs . Additionally, a trade ad in Billboard accompanying the single's release made several drug allusions, drawing

26332-506: The band befriended a local fashion designer, Jeannie Franklyn , who subsequently designed custom-clothing for Yanovsky. They also struck up a friendship with David Crosby , the rhythm guitarist of the Byrds. Crosby had spoken favorably of the Lovin' Spoonful in interviews as early as August, often promising reporters that they would be the next big group. Both he and his bandmate Jim McGuinn had been familiar with Sebastian and Yanovsky since their earlier years playing folk with Cass Elliot, and

26559-461: The band from his work at clubs in Greenwich Village. The band recorded the soundtrack in two days, April 11 and 12, at National Recording Studios in New York City, and they made a brief appearance in the film. The film was a commercial disappointment and received mixed reviews. Issued in August   1966, the soundtrack album reached number 126 on the Billboard LPs chart. Jacobsen later criticized

26786-425: The band recorded "Do You Believe in Magic" and several other songs. Jacobsen invited Yester to participate in the session, adding both piano and backing vocals, and the session musician Gary Chester played tambourine. Jacobsen and Cavallo brought an acetate disc of the demo to numerous record labels, all of which turned down an opportunity to sign the band. After attending one of the Lovin' Spoonful's performances at

27013-409: The band replace Carl as drummer. Carl, who was six years older than his bandmates, clashed with them in terms of appearance and playing style, and he was subsequently fired by the band's management. Having fired Carl, the Lovin' Spoonful could no longer play at the Bull's Head and were in need of a new rehearsal space. The band had little money and had been living with Elliot in her Village apartment at

27240-479: The band the opportunity to star in their own television series, The Monkees . The executives Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider met with the band in Manhattan and explained their idea for a comedy sitcom about a band seeking to make it big, styled similarly to the Beatles' 1964 film, A Hard Day's Night . Though excited at the prospect of being propelled quickly to a national audience, the band were unenthusiastic at

27467-412: The band to Kama Sutra Records in June   1965. As part of the deal, MGM Records distributed the records, which Kama Sutra released for Koppelman-Rubin. The arrangement's format of multiple middlemen left little in profits for the band. Sebastian later said that not signing with Elektra was "the worst decision I ever made in my life". Kama Sutra saw no need to re-record Jacobsen's original demo of

27694-672: The band toured the West Coast of the United States . In San Francisco, the band held a four-week residency at Mother's Nightclub , and on August   7, they performed in-front of 35,000 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California , as one of several support acts for the English pop group Herman's Hermits , alongside the Turtles and the Bobby Fuller Four . In Los Angeles, the Spoonful played at several clubs on Sunset Strip , including Ciro's ,

27921-411: The band's best performing studio album. Of the songs recorded for Daydream , Sebastian and Yanovsky hoped that their joint composition "It's Not Time Now" would be issued as a single, but Kama Sutra denied the request out of fear that it was a protest song . The label instead issued " Daydream " in February   1966. The song's release fueled speculation from the press and public about a link between

28148-438: The band's folk-flavored sound Although folk rock mainly grew out of a mix of American folk revival and British Invasion influences, there were also a few examples of proto-folk rock that were important in the development of the genre. Of these secondary influences, Unterberger has cited the self-penned, folk-influenced material of San Francisco's the Beau Brummels as arguably the most important. Despite their Beatlesque image,

28375-449: The band's performance was likely substandard, since they were all drunk and high on marijuana. Several guests also partook in the drug LSD , including Butler, and the Lovin' Spoonful stayed overnight. The Lovin' Spoonful returned to the U.S. in the last of week of April. The band's morale was high following the tour, particularly after they had been treated as equals by contemporary performers whom they held in high regard. "Daydream" became

28602-459: The band's sound in June 1965, at roughly the same time as "Mr. Tambourine Man" peaked at number 1 on the Billboard chart. Within three months it had become the first folk rock smash hit, reaching number 1 on both the Billboard Hot 100 and the UK Singles Chart . The single's success initiated the folk rock boom of 1965 and 1966, during which a profusion of Byrds-influenced acts flooded

28829-714: The band's touring and recording schedule. Browne flew the band to Ireland at his own expense to perform a private show, paying them US$ 10,000 for the performance (equivalent to US$ 94,000 in 2023). Held at the Luggala Estate, a Gothic Revival house in the Wicklow Mountains , the party was attended by many prominent Swinging London figures, including members of the Rolling Stones , Peter Bardens , Anita Pallenberg , Chrissie Shrimpton , John Paul Getty Jr. , Rupert Lycett Green and Mike McCartney . Butler recalled that

29056-462: The band's use of minor chords , haunting harmonies, and folky acoustic guitar playing—as heard on their debut single " Laugh, Laugh "—was stylistically very similar to the later folk rock of the Byrds. Released in December 1964, "Laugh, Laugh" peaked at number 15 on the Billboard Hot 100 in early 1965, while its similarly folk-flavored follow-up, " Just a Little ", did even better, reaching number 8 on

29283-657: The basic notes on the instrument would mean playing in a specific mode for each position. For example the Mixolydian mode (root note is the second draw or third blow), produces a major dominant seventh key that is frequently used by blues players because it contains the harmonically rich dominant seventh note, while the Dorian mode (root note is four draw) produces a minor dominant seventh key. Harmonica players (especially blues players) have developed terminology around different "positions," which can be confusing to other musicians, for example

29510-521: The bass harmonica, and the chord harmonica. In the 21st century, radical new designs have been developed and are still being introduced into the market, such as the Suzuki Overdrive, Hohner XB-40, and the ill-fated Harrison B-Radical. Diatonic harmonicas were designed primarily for playing German and other European folk music and have succeeded well in those styles. Over time, the basic design and tuning proved adaptable to other types of music such as

29737-420: The blues, country , old-time and more. The harmonica was a success almost from the very start of production, and while the center of the harmonica business has shifted from Germany, the output of the various harmonica manufacturers is still very high. Major companies are now found in Germany ( Seydel and Hohner – the dominant manufacturer in the world), South Korea ( Miwha , Dabell ), Japan ( Suzuki , Tombo –

29964-405: The boycott hurt the band's commercial performance, but the author Richie Unterberger suggests that the effects have likely been overestimated by other authors, since "most of the people who bought Spoonful records were average teenage Americans, not hippies". In an article recounting the June   1967 Monterey International Pop Festival , the author Michael Lydon suggested that the Lovin' Spoonful

30191-473: The burgeoning folk rock scene and in establishing Dylan as a bona fide rock star, rather than a folksinger. "Like a Rolling Stone" managed to reach the Top 5 on both sides of the Atlantic. Five days after the release of "Like a Rolling Stone", on 25 July 1965, Dylan made a controversial appearance at the Newport Folk Festival , performing three songs with a full band. He was met with derisive booing and jeering from

30418-424: The club, and Marra offered to book the Lovin' Spoonful at the venue. The Night Owl was formerly an after-hours bowling alley at West 3rd and MacDougal Streets , which Marra had recently converted into a 125-person capacity coffeehouse and restaurant for folk music acts. The band made their first live performances in late January 1965 at the Night Owl, holding a two-week residency. One show, which Jacobsen recorded on

30645-413: The commercial success of the Byrds' cover version of Dylan's " Mr. Tambourine Man ", along with Dylan's own contributions to the genre on the albums Bringing It All Back Home , Highway 61 Revisited , and Blonde on Blonde , initiated an explosion of emulators and imitators. Their success led record producer Tom Wilson to add electric guitar, bass, and drums overdubs to " The Sounds of Silence ",

30872-548: The concert-production collective Family Dog Productions , the event combined rock music with light shows and psychedelic drugs , and it marked one of the earliest events in the emerging San Francisco scene ; Jacobsen reflected, "That whole idea of going and listening to music and getting high started there". In attendance at the Longshoreman's show were members of the Grateful Dead , an acoustic-folk group, who were inspired by

31099-448: The concurrent offshoot of country rock . This successful blending of country, folk and rock styles led to pioneering country folk records by folk-influenced singer-songwriters such as John Denver and Neil Young during the 1970s. Country folk music usually displays a softer, more "laid-back" feel than the majority of country music and is often complemented by introspective lyrics, thus preserving its folk singer-songwriter roots. Since

31326-507: The conspicuously English folk rock music of the Albion Band, a group that also included Hutchings. In Brittany folk rock was developed by Alan Stivell (who began to mix his Breton, Irish, and Scottish roots with rock music) and later by French bands like Malicorne . During this same period, folk rock was adopted and developed in the surrounding Celtic cultures of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Brittany, and Cornwall, to produce Celtic rock and its derivatives. A subgenre originally arising from

31553-540: The constraints, they recorded some Sebastian compositions which Jacobsen had rejected for inclusion on their debut album, including "Didn't Want to Have to Do It" and "Warm Baby". While Do You Believe in Magic contained just five original compositions, eleven out of twelve tracks on Daydream were original. Kama Sutra released the album in March   1966 and it reached number ten on the Billboard Top LPs chart, making it

31780-502: The country, "diatonic harmonica" may mean either the tremolo harmonica (in East Asia) or blues harp (in Europe and North America). Other diatonic harmonicas include octave harmonicas. Here is the note layout for a standard diatonic in the key of G major: Each hole is the same interval (here, a perfect fifth ) from its key of C counterpart; on the diatonic scale, a G is a perfect fifth from C. The interval between keys can be used to find

32007-503: The degree of this problem. An even more serious problem with wooden combs, especially in chromatic harmonicas (with their thin dividers between chambers), is that, as the combs expand and shrink over time, cracks can form in the combs, because the comb is held immobile by nails, resulting in disabling leakage. Serious players devote significant effort to restoring wood combs and sealing leaks. Some players used to soak wooden-combed harmonicas ( diatonics , without wind-savers) in water to cause

32234-471: The development of a minor key harmonica. There are two types of minor key tunings, "natural minor" suitable for folk and contemporary music, and Latin American music, and the "harmonic minor" suitable for some famous Japanese pieces. The harmonica started to gain popularity in Hong Kong in the 1930s. Individual tremolo harmonica players from China moved to Hong Kong and established numerous harmonica organizations such as The Chinese Y.M.C.A. Harmonica Orchestra,

32461-416: The development of the musical genre of folk rock. By 1966, the group were "one of the most highly regarded American bands", and they were the year's third-best-selling singles act in the U.S., after the Beatles and the Rolling Stones . As psychedelia expanded in popularity in 1967, the Spoonful struggled to transition their approach and saw diminished sales before disbanding in 1968. Before they founded

32688-464: The drummer Joe Butler . They both played in the Kingsmen, a band led by Boone's brother, Skip, before Boone quit in mid-1964 to spend time visiting Europe. Skip and Butler changed the band's name to the Sellouts and moved to Greenwich Village, holding a residency at Trude Heller's club as one of the neighborhood's earliest rock groups. In December   1964, at the insistence of Butler, Boone went to

32915-515: The earliest appearance of the ringing guitar sound that would become a mainstay of early folk rock. This use of cyclical, chiming guitar riffs was repeated on DeShannon's late 1963 recording of her own composition " When You Walk in the Room ". The following year, both songs would become hits for the Liverpudlian band the Searchers, who chose to place even greater emphasis on the jangly guitar playing in

33142-448: The early 1960s folk and country-influenced music of singer-songwriter artists such as Bob Dylan and Bobby Bare , as well as from folk revivalist vocal groups like the Kingston Trio. During the late 1960s, many folk rock artists including Dylan, Ian and Sylvia , and the Byrds began to incorporate a strong country influence into their music, drawing heavily on Hank Williams , Merle Haggard , and Buck Owens amongst others, resulting in

33369-546: The early 1960s include Judy Henske , Richard and Mimi Fariña , and the Mugwumps , the latter of which were a New York band featuring future members of the Lovin' Spoonful and the Mamas & the Papas. Also of note are the Australian band the Seekers , who had relocated to England in 1964 and reached number 1 on the UK Singles Chart with " I'll Never Find Another You " in February 1965. Unterberger has noted that, although it

33596-448: The early folk-rock music emerged during a time of general global upheaval, the Vietnam War , and new concerns for the world by young people. In the United States, the heyday of folk rock was arguably between the mid-sixties and the mid-seventies, when it aligned itself with the hippie movement and became an important medium for expressing radical ideas. Cities such as San Francisco, Denver , New York City and Phoenix became centers for

33823-476: The era. Bands whose music was significantly folk rock in sound during the mid-to-late 1960s included Donovan , the Lovin' Spoonful, the Mamas & the Papas, the Youngbloods , Love , and, in their early years, Jefferson Airplane . In the mid-1960s, singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot began moving his folk songs into a folk-rock direction with recordings such as the percussion-driven "Black Day in July" about

34050-468: The expanding popularity of the harmonica was a New York-based radio program called the Hohner Harmony Hour , which taught listeners how to play. Listeners could play along with the program to increase their proficiency. The radio program gained wide popularity after the unveiling of the 1925 White House Christmas tree, which was adorned with fifty harmonicas. The harmonica's versatility brought it to

34277-400: The festival's purist folk music crowd, but in the years since the incident, Dylan's 1965 Newport Folk Festival appearance has become widely regarded as a pivotal moment in the synthesis of folk and rock. Dylan followed "Like a Rolling Stone" with the wholly electric album Highway 61 Revisited and the non-album single " Positively 4th Street ", which itself has been widely interpreted as

34504-457: The few people Sebastian knew with a car and driver's license – offered to drive him to the session. Sebastian was not a trained bass player and, after struggling to play the part, he suggested that Boone play instead, but neither musician's contributions ended up on the final album. We were still trying to come up with a name when I ran into Fritz Richmond , a friend and musician. I asked him for suggestions. Fritz asked what we sounded like. I said

34731-462: The first bands to craft a distinctly American sound in response to the British Invasion was the Beach Boys ; while not a folk rock band themselves, they directly influenced the genre and at the height of the folk rock boom in 1966 had a hit with a cover of the 1920s West Indian folk song " Sloop John B ", which they had learned from the Kingston Trio , who had learned it from the Weavers . Much of

34958-531: The first big rock band to get busted for weed. There was no playbook in effect. The record company, the management company – they didn't have an operating procedure for what you do, especially if one of your members has an immigration issue. – Steve Boone , 2018 At a meeting with San Francisco police and the District Attorney , Yanovsky was threatened with deportation back to his native Canada. Belli expressed that Yanovsky and Boone were unlikely to win on

35185-464: The folk and country -influenced recordings featured on the Everly Brothers ' 1959 album Songs Our Daddy Taught Us . The moment when all of the separate influences that served to make up folk rock finally coalesced into an identifiable whole was with the release of the Byrds' recording of Bob Dylan's " Mr. Tambourine Man ". The term "folk rock" was coined by the U.S. music press to describe

35412-453: The folk rock band Pentangle in the late 1960s. Other notable folk rock artists with roots in the progressive folk scene were Donovan , Al Stewart , John Martyn and Paul Simon . They were doing things nobody was doing. Their chords were outrageous, just outrageous, and their harmonies made it all valid. You could only do that with other musicians. Even if you're playing your own chords you had to have other people playing with you. That

35639-432: The folk rock culture, playing on their central locations among the original folk circuits. The "unplugged" and simplified sound of the music reflected the genre's connection to a critical view of a technological and consumerist society. Unlike pop music's escapist lyrics, arguably a fantasy distraction from the problems in life, folk artists attempted to communicate concerns for peace, global awareness, and other touchstones of

35866-423: The folk-protest music with which he had been previously associated. On 20 July 1965, Dylan released the groundbreaking " Like a Rolling Stone ", a six-minute-long scathing put-down, directed at a down-and-out society girl, which again featured Dylan backed by an electric rock band. Released just as the Byrds' cover of "Mr. Tambourine Man" topped the charts in the United States, the song was instrumental in defining

36093-545: The folk-trio Peter, Paul and Mary . Around the time he began booking electric acts, Marra moved the venue's stage towards the front street-facing window to draw in passers-by, and he printed a large color photo of the Lovin' Spoonful and placed it in the club's window, which helped elevate the band's local popularity. On June   7 and 8, 1965, the Lovin' Spoonful performed at Club 47 , a folk music club in Cambridge, Massachusetts . Boone remembered feeling hesitant to perform at

36320-522: The following morning by the Lovin' Spoonful's road manager, Rich Chiaro. Cavallo and Charley Koppelman flew out to meet the band to begin managing the situation, and they hired Melvin Belli to be their attorney. Sebastian and Butler were not immediately informed of the nature of the bust, and the band's May 21 performance at the University of California, Berkeley 's Greek Theatre went forward as normal. We were

36547-451: The gap between folk and rock. Mr. Tambourine Man's blend of abstract lyrics, folk-influenced melody, complex harmonies , jangly 12-string Rickenbacker guitar playing, and Beatles-influenced beat, resulted in a synthesis that effectively created the subgenre of folk rock. The song's lyrics alone took rock and pop songwriting to new heights; never before had such intellectual and literary lyrics been combined with rock instrumentation by

36774-404: The genre with many bands consequently featuring six or more members in their regular line-ups. A few bands are also known to rely on keyboards to simulate the sound of folk instruments . Lyrics in the genre commonly deal with fantasy , mythology , paganism , history and nature . Sources Harmonica Reeds are tuned to individual pitches. Tuning may involve changing a reed's length,

37001-582: The group for the first time on a jukebox : "I decided, kind of then and there I think, that I was gonna quit the Knob Lick Upper 10,000, and go to New York City, and produced electric folk music." As part of his effort to switch focus towards production, Jacobsen recorded demos for musicians in the Village, including Sebastian's compositions "Warm Baby" and "Rooty-Toot". From 1962 to 1964, Steve Boone played bass guitar in several Long Island rock bands with

37228-493: The harmonica are the comb, reed plates, and cover plates. The comb is the main body of the instrument, which, when assembled with the reed plates, forms air chambers for the reeds. The term "comb" may originate from the similarity between this part of a harmonica and a hair comb. Harmonica combs were traditionally made from wood, but now are also made from plastic ( ABS ) or metal (including titanium for high-end instruments). Some modern and experimental comb designs are complex in

37455-475: The harmonica in jug bands , of which the Memphis Jug Band is the most famous. But the harmonica still represented a toy instrument in those years and was associated with the poor. It is also during those years that musicians started experimenting with new techniques such as tongue-blocking, hand effects and the most important innovation of all, the second position, or cross-harp. A significant contributor to

37682-416: The harmonica more economical to mass-produce and more sanitary. Though the plastic reeds in these harmonicas produced a less distinctive (and, to many ears, inferior) sound than their metallic counterparts, Magnus harmonicas and several imitators soon became commonplace, particularly among children. The patent for the plastic comb was awarded to William Kratt of Wm. Kratt Company in 1952. During World War II,

37909-680: The harmonica. Two types of cover plates are used: traditional open designs of stamped metal or plastic, which are simply there to be held; and enclosed designs (such as the Hohner Meisterklasse and Super 64, Suzuki Promaster and SCX), which offer a louder tonal quality. From these two basic types, a few modern designs have been created, such as the Hohner CBH-2016 chromatic and the Suzuki Overdrive diatonic, which have complex covers that allow for specific functions not usually available in

38136-471: The hole in the mouthpiece to the selected reed-plate, though one design—the "Machino-Tone"—controlled airflow by means of a lever-operated flap on the rear of the instrument. Also, a "hands-free" modification to the Hohner 270 (12-hole) lets the player shift the tones by moving the mouthpiece up and down with the lips, leaving the hands free to play another instrument. While the Richter-tuned 10-hole chromatic

38363-451: The idea of having to change their name to The Monkees and were worried that their ability to create and play their own music would be limited by the venture. They declined the offer. Rafelson later said that the Lovin' Spoonful was the only existing group considered for the show before they began auditioning individual actors and musicians in September   1965. In November   1965,

38590-441: The impetus to start recording with an electric backing band. As the 1970s dawned, folk rock evolved away from the jangly template pioneered by the Byrds, but their influence could still be heard in the music of bands like Fairport Convention and Pentangle . The Byrds themselves continued to enjoy commercial success with their brand of folk rock throughout 1965, most notably with their number 1 single " Turn! Turn! Turn! ". By

38817-547: The instrument while performing on another instrument with their hands (e.g., an acoustic guitar) often use an accessory called a neck rack or harmonica holder to position the instrument in front of their mouth. A harmonica holder clamps the harmonica between two metal brackets, which are attached to a curved loop of metal that rests on the shoulders. The original harmonica racks were made from wire or coat hangers. Models of harmonica racks vary widely by quality and ease of use, and experimenting with more than one model of harmonica rack

39044-412: The ire of the band, who had regularly sought to distance themselves from drug associations. "Daydream" remained on the Hot 100 for twelve weeks, peaking at number two for two weeks in mid-April. The single was kept from the top spot on Billboard 's chart by the Righteous Brothers ' song " (You're My) Soul and Inspiration ", but it reached number one on Cash Box magazine's chart and also reached

39271-545: The jangly sound of the electric twelve-string guitar . Many musicians in the collegiate and urban folk movements were already familiar with acoustic twelve-string guitars via the music of folk and blues singer Lead Belly. However, the Searchers' use of amplified twelve-strings provided another example of how conventional folk elements could be incorporated into rock music to produce new and exciting sounds. The Beatles' lead guitarist , George Harrison , also influenced this trend towards jangly guitars in folk rock with his use of

39498-531: The key transitional albums The Times They Are A-Changin , Another Side of Bob Dylan , and Bringing It All Back Home , he was a key architect of Dylan's electric sound. He is perhaps even better known, however, for first discovering Simon & Garfunkel at the tail end of the folk movement and then transforming them into folk-rock superstars with the unauthorized rock remix that made a number one hit out of their previously underappreciated song, "The Sound of Silence". Music critic Richie Unterberger has noted that

39725-489: The last time. Yanovsky died of a heart attack two years later. Sebastian has remained active as a solo act, and Boone, Butler and Yester began touring under the name the Lovin' Spoonful in 1991. The first time I heard Zal [Yanovsky] was at Cass Elliot 's house. Cass was forever the Jewish matchmaker, she was matching up boys to play in bands like a house afire. And she had us nailed as, "Oh, these guys have to work together." – John Sebastian , 2012 The co-founders of

39952-493: The layout of a piano or mallet instrument, with the natural notes of a C diatonic scale in the lower reed plate and the sharps and flats in the upper reed plate in groups of two and three holes with gaps in between like the black keys of a piano. Another version has one "sharp" reed directly above its "natural" on the lower plate, with the same number of reeds on both plates (therefore including E ♯ and B ♯ ). Horn harmonicas are available in several pitch ranges, with

40179-417: The lowest pitched starting two octaves below middle C and the highest beginning on middle C itself; they usually cover a two- or three-octave range. They are chromatic instruments and are usually played in an East Asian harmonica orchestra instead of the " push-button " chromatic harmonica that is more common in the European and American tradition. Their reeds are often larger, and the enclosing "horn" gives them

40406-401: The lyrics of which derided early 1960s rock and roll while extolling the Beatles and other new music – and the three musicians jammed different Chuck Berry and R&B numbers. Sebastian invited Boone to Jacobsen's apartment afterwards, where Boone met Jacobsen as well as Jerry Yester of the Modern Folk Quartet , a local folk music group. That week, Boone attended Sebastian's performance at

40633-433: The manufacturer of the popular Lee Oskar harmonica, and Yamaha also made harmonicas until the 1970s), China (Huang, Easttop, Johnson, Leo Shi, Swan, AXL), and Brazil (Hering, Bends). The United States had two significant harmonica manufacturers, and both were based in Union, New Jersey . One was Magnus Harmonica Corporation , whose founder Finn Magnus is credited with the development of plastic harmonica reeds. The other

40860-466: The merits of their case and that their only way to avoid charges was to cooperate with authorities. The two initially balked at the idea, but they relented to avoid Yanovsky being deported, something they expected would lead to a breakup of the band. Yanovsky and Boone cooperated with authorities to name their drug source, directing an undercover operative to their source at local party. In exchange, all charges were dropped, their arrest records were expunged,

41087-437: The mid-1960s. The popularity and commercial success of the Byrds and Bob Dylan's blend of folk and rock music influenced a wave of imitators and emulators that retroactively became known as the folk rock boom. Although he started out as a jazz musician, the young, African-American Columbia Records producer Tom Wilson became known as the "mid-wife of folk-rock" for his seminal work behind the scenes. As Bob Dylan's producer during

41314-470: The morning at The May Fair Hotel in Piccadilly . The next night, following their performance at the Blaises Club in Kensington , the band befriended Jones as well. After flying to Stockholm to perform on Swedish television, the Lovin' Spoonful proceeded to Ireland to attend the 21st-birthday celebration of Browne on April   23. Browne, who then regarded the Lovin' Spoonful as his favorite band, delayed his party by seven weeks in order to coincide with

41541-475: The music of these British bands, and the Beatles in particular, had on young Americans was immediate; almost overnight, folk—along with many other forms of homegrown music—became passé for a large proportion of America's youth, who instead turned their attention to the influx of British acts. The influence of these acts also impacted on the collegiate folk and urban folk communities, with many young musicians quickly losing interest in folk music and instead embracing

41768-458: The note layout of any standard diatonic. The distinguishing feature of the tremolo-tuned harmonica is that it has two reeds per note, with one slightly sharp and the other slightly flat. This provides a unique wavering or warbling sound created by the two reeds being slightly out of tune with each other and the difference in their subsequent waveforms interacting with each other (its beat ). The East Asian version, which can produce all 12 semitones,

41995-515: The opinion of Roger McGuinn of the Byrds, writers who attempt to define the origins of folk rock "don't realise that the Beatles were responsible as far back as 1963". He cites " She Loves You " as one of the first examples where the Beatles introduced folk chord changes into rock music and so initiated the new genre. These songs were all influential in providing a template for successfully assimilating folk-based chord progressions and melodies into pop music. This melding of folk and rock 'n' roll in

42222-429: The original genre draws on music of Europe and North America, there is no clear delineation of which other culture's music might be included as influences. The American folk-music revival began during the 1940s; building on the interest in protest folk singers such as Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger , it reached a peak in popularity in the mid-1960s with artists such as Bob Dylan and Joan Baez . In 1948, Seeger formed

42449-453: The output of Fairport Convention. This followed the trend explored by Steeleye Span, and exemplified by their 1972 album Below the Salt . Acts in this area included Gryphon , Gentle Giant and Third Ear Band . In Germany Ougenweide , originally formed in 1970 as an acoustic folk group, opted to draw exclusively on High German medieval music when they electrified, setting the agenda for future German electric folk. In Brittany, as part of

42676-430: The overtly English folk rock of the Albion Band and Celtic rock . "Folk rock" refers to the blending of elements of folk and rock music, which arose in the U.S. and UK in the mid-1960s. The genre was pioneered by the Byrds, who began playing traditional folk music and songs by Bob Dylan with rock instrumentation, in a style heavily influenced by the Beatles and other British Invasion bands. The term folk rock

42903-486: The perceived difference in tone generated by the vacuum tubes . Players perceive tubes as having a "warmer" tone and a more "natural" overdrive sound. Many amplifiers designed for electric guitar are also used by harmonica players, such as the Kalamazoo Model Two , Fender Bassman , and the Danelectro Commando . Some expensive handmade boutique amplifiers are built from the ground up with characteristics that are optimal for amplified harmonica. Harmonica players who play

43130-401: The primary harmonica manufacturers were based in Germany and Japan, the enemies of the United States and the Allied forces in the war. During this time, Finn Haakon Magnus, a Danish-American factory worker and entrepreneur, developed and perfected the molded plastic harmonica. The plastic harmonica used molded plastic combs and far fewer pieces than traditional metal or wood harmonicas, which made

43357-477: The producer Erik Jacobsen . In May   1966, at the height of the band's success, Yanovsky and Boone were arrested for marijuana possession in San Francisco. The pair revealed their drug source to authorities to avoid Yanovsky being deported to his native Canada, an action which generated tensions within the group. Due to disagreements over their artistic direction, the band fired Yanovsky in May   1967, replacing him with Jerry Yester , and Yanovsky commenced

43584-457: The project as a "goofball album" which distracted the band and stalled their progress. On April   12, the Lovin' Spoonful arrived at Heathrow Airport to begin their ten-day tour of England and Sweden. Problems which arose during negotiations with the British Musicians' Union forced the band to limit the number of appearances they made in Britain. In the tour's first week, the band played concerts in Birmingham and Manchester , appeared on

43811-458: The reed plate, but they may also be welded or screwed in place. Reeds fixed on the inner side of the reed plate (within the comb's air chamber) respond to blowing, while those fixed on the outer side respond to suction. Most harmonicas are constructed with the reed plates screwed or bolted to the comb or each other. A few brands still use the traditional method of nailing the reed plates to the comb. Some experimental and rare harmonicas also have had

44038-461: The reed plates can greatly affect tone and playability. The main advantage of a particular comb material over another one is its durability. In particular, a wooden comb can absorb moisture from the player's breath and contact with the tongue. This can cause the comb to expand slightly, making the instrument uncomfortable to play, and to then contract, potentially compromising air tightness. Various types of wood and treatments have been devised to reduce

44265-428: The reed plates held in place by tension, such as the WWII-era all-American models. If the plates are bolted to the comb, the reed plates can be replaced individually. This is useful because the reeds eventually go out of tune through normal use, and certain notes of the scale can fail more quickly than others. A notable exception to the traditional reed plate design is the all-plastic harmonicas designed by Finn Magnus in

44492-494: The release of " Subterranean Homesick Blues ", and the newfound popularity of the Byrds, whose folk rock cover of Dylan's song " Mr. Tambourine Man " reached number one in North America that month. The term "folk rock" had been coined in the June   12 issue of the American music magazine Billboard by the journalist Eliot Siegel, who used the term principally to describe the music of the Byrds. Siegel also counted "the Living Spoonfull" [ sic ] as an act working in

44719-441: The rock 'n' roll derived repertoire of the British Invasion. Future members of many folk rock acts, including the Byrds, Jefferson Airplane , the Lovin' Spoonful, the Mamas & the Papas , and Buffalo Springfield, all turned their backs on traditional folk music during 1964 and 1965 as a direct result of the influence of the Beatles and the other British Invasion bands. Author and music historian Richie Unterberger has noted that

44946-449: The same notes because its tuning is closer to the note layout of a typical East Asian tremolo harmonica or the Polyphonias. The pitch pipe is a simple specialty harmonica that provides a reference pitch to singers and other instruments. The only difference between some early pitch-pipes and harmonicas is the name of the instrument, which reflected the maker's target audience. Chromatic pitch pipes, which are used by singers and choirs, give

45173-558: The slang terminology for the most common positions (1st being 'straight', 2nd being 'cross', 3rd being 'slant', etc.). Another technique, seldom used to its full potential, is altering the size of the mouth cavity to emphasize certain natural overtones . When this technique is employed while playing chords, care must be taken in overtone selection as the overtones stemming from the non-root pitch can cause extreme dissonance. Harmonica players who amplify their instrument with microphones and tube amplifiers, such as blues harp players, also have

45400-429: The slot, i.e., as a closing reed. This difference in response to air direction makes it possible to include both a blow reed and a draw reed in the same air chamber and to play them separately without relying on flaps of plastic or leather (valves, wind-savers) to block the nonplaying reed. An important technique in performance is bending , causing a drop in pitch by making embouchure adjustments. Bending isolated reeds

45627-437: The songs. In addition, a number of DeShannon's songs from the period, including "When You Walk in the Room", displayed a greater degree of lyrical maturity and sensuality than was usual for pop songs of the time. This heightened degree of emotional introspection was inspired by her love of Bob Dylan's folk songwriting and represents one of the first attempts by an American artist to absorb folk sensibilities into rock music. In

45854-495: The soulful sounds the instrument can bring out. The "wail" of the blues harp typically requires bending. In the 1970s, Howard Levy developed the over bending technique (also known as "overblowing" and "overdrawing".) Over Bending , combined with bending, allowed players to play the entire chromatic scale. In addition to playing the diatonic harmonica in its original key, it is also possible to play it in other keys by playing in other "positions" using different keynotes. Using just

46081-410: The start of 1966, however, the group had begun to move away from folk rock and into the new musical frontier of psychedelic rock . The folk rock sound of the Byrds has continued to influence many bands over the years, including Big Star , Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers , R.E.M. , the Long Ryders , the Smiths , the Bangles , the Stone Roses , and Teenage Fanclub , among others. Five days before

46308-670: The television programs Top of the Pops , Ready Steady Go! and Thank Your Lucky Stars , played on BBC Radio and attended a party at the London home of the Irish socialite Tara Browne . The band's time in England allowed them to interact with many of Britain's top musicians. On April   18, they performed an invite-only show at the Marquee Club on Wardour Street, Soho, central London. Several of Britain's top performers were in attendance, including John Lennon , George Harrison , Ray Davies , Brian Jones , Steve Winwood , Spencer Davis and Eric Clapton . The band were warmly received, and Lennon and Harrison joined them afterwards into

46535-489: The template for a flood of "collegiate folk" groups between 1958 and 1962. At roughly the same time as these "collegiate folk" vocal groups came to national prominence, a second group of urban folk revivalists, influenced by the music and guitar picking styles of folk and blues artist such as Woody Guthrie , Lead Belly , Brownie McGhee , and Josh White , also came to the fore. Many of these urban revivalists were influenced by recordings of traditional American music from

46762-422: The top spot in Canada. The song's success expanded the Lovin' Spoonful's popularity such that they were often able to headline their concerts rather than perform as a support act. When the band toured the American South with the Beach Boys from April   1 to 9, 1966, the two groups alternated top billing. Though the Lovin' Spoonful had achieved quick success in North America, they remained generally unknown in

46989-470: The tour but found it physically exhausting. Sebastian additionally missed his girlfriend, Loretta "Lorey" Kaye. Near the tour's end, in an effort to raise his own spirits, he composed " Daydream " while riding on the bus through North Carolina, drawing inspiration from the Supremes' 1964 singles " Baby Love " and " Where Did Our Love Go ". A stop in Savannah, Georgia inspired the beginnings of "Jug Band Music", which Boone later said "recalled pleasant visions of

47216-422: The tour" for him and his bandmates. At the conclusion of their tour with the Supremes, the Lovin' Spoonful departed directly for Los Angeles, having been invited by Phil Spector to appear in the concert film The Big T.N.T. Show . After filming on 29–30   November, the band remained in Los Angeles to do several weeks of a residency at the Trip, a short-lived nightclub on Sunset Boulevard . During their stay,

47443-454: The traditional design. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, harmonicas not uncommonly had special features on the covers, such as bells , which could be rung by pushing a button. Wind-savers are one-way valves made from thin strips of plastic, knit paper, leather, or Teflon glued to the reed plate. They are typically found in chromatic harmonicas, chord harmonicas, and many octave-tuned harmonicas. Wind-savers are used when two reeds share

47670-402: The two did not need to appear in court and there was no publicity related to their arrest. Their drug source was in turn arrested and served a brief jail sentence. After the drug case went to court in December   1966, knowledge of Yanovsky and Boone's bust became more widespread. The underground press was especially critical of the band. By early   1967, the Lovin' Spoonful's shows on

47897-489: The way that they direct the air. Dispute exists among players about whether comb material affects the tone of a harmonica. Those saying no argue that unlike the soundboard of a piano or the top piece of a violin or guitar, a harmonica's comb is neither large enough nor able to vibrate freely enough to substantially augment or change the sound. Among those saying yes are those who are convinced by their ears. Few dispute that comb surface smoothness and air tightness when mated with

48124-401: The weight near its free end, or the stiffness near its fixed end. Longer, heavier, and springier reeds produce deeper, lower sounds; shorter, lighter, and stiffer reeds make higher-pitched sounds. If, as on most modern harmonicas, a reed is affixed above or below its slot rather than in the plane of the slot, it responds more easily to air flowing in the direction that initially would push it into

48351-507: Was Wm. Kratt Company, which, founded by German-American William Jacob "Bill" Kratt Sr., originally made pitch pipes and later, in 1952, secured a patent for combs made of plastic. Both companies ceased harmonica production. The only recent American contender in the harmonica market was Harrison Harmonicas, which folded in July 2011. It was announced soon thereafter that the rights to the Harrison design had been sold to another company to finish production of orders already placed. In October 2012, it

48578-403: Was a real transition. During the second set, the band received a warm response from the remaining crowd. In retrospect, the author Richie Unterberger describes the Lovin' Spoonful's appearance as a "watershed" moment in the history of folk rock. The rock journalist Paul Williams attended the shows, and his review of the performances for the magazine Folkin' Around marked his earliest work as

48805-453: Was about to change again, that the four-man band that actually played their own instruments and wrote their own songs was the thing." Yanovsky contacted Bob Cavallo , the former manager of the Halifax Three and the Mugwumps, who agreed to manage Sebastian and Yanovsky's group even though they had not yet performed publicly, had no songs and did not yet have a band name. In 1964, Sebastian lived in an apartment on Prince Street in Little Italy ,

49032-402: Was also influential in developing Celtic rock during the late 1960s, with his albums The Hurdy Gurdy Man , Barabajagal , and Open Road , the latter of which actually featured a song entitled "Celtic Rock". The subgenre was further popularised in 1973 by Thin Lizzy , who had a hit with " Whiskey in the Jar ", a traditional Irish song performed entirely in the rock idiom. Throughout

49259-422: Was changing, that maybe they had finally found us." Sebastian composed the song the following night, and the band worked together at the Albert to finish its arrangement. The Lovin' Spoonful was enthusiastic about "Do You Believe in Magic" and hoped to record a demo of the song to flog to record companies. In June   1965, Jacobsen fronted a session with his own money at Bell Sound Studios in New York, where

49486-463: Was coined in the June   12, 1965, issue of the American music magazine Billboard by the journalist Eliot Siegel. Siegel used the term principally to describe the music of the Byrds, who had issued their debut album in the U.S. that month. In the same article, he wrote that Billy J. Kramer , Jackie DeShannon and Sonny & Cher had all started incorporating "folk-oriented material on singles", and he listed Rising Sons , Joe and Eddie and

49713-502: Was not deliberately created; it evolved organically out of some of the band members' own folk music roots and their desire to emulate the Beatles. The band's folk influences, lack of experience with rock music forms, and Beatleseque instrumentation all combined to color both their self-penned material and their folk derived repertoire. The band themselves soon realized that there was something unique about their music and, with Dickson's encouragement, they began to actively attempt to bridge

49940-419: Was not strictly a folk song, "I'll Never Find Another You" was heavily influenced by Peter, Paul and Mary and featured a cyclical, twelve-string guitar part that sounded similar to the guitar style that Jim McGuinn of the Byrds would popularize later that same year. There are also a few antecedents to folk rock present in pre-British Invasion American rock 'n' roll, including Elvis Presley 's 1954 cover of

50167-438: Was not until 1956 and the advent of the skiffle craze that the British folk revival crossed over into the mainstream and connected with British youth culture. Skiffle renewed popularity of folk music forms in Britain and led directly to the progressive folk movement and the attendant British folk club scene . Among the leading lights of the progressive folk movement were Bert Jansch and John Renbourn , who would later form

50394-418: Was obvious. And it started me thinking about other people. —Bob Dylan reflecting on how the Beatles influenced his decision to record with an electric backing band Beginning in 1964 and lasting until roughly 1966, a wave of British beat groups, including the Beatles , the Rolling Stones , the Dave Clark Five , Gerry & the Pacemakers , the Kinks , and Herman's Hermits amongst others, dominated

50621-405: Was on recording as quickly as possible, and a majority of the songs were jug band and blues covers taken from their typical live set list. The album's five original compositions were all credited to Sebastian, including " Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind? ", which he based on a experience as a child at summer camp when he fell in love with twin sisters. Pointing to the success of the Beatles and

50848-569: Was released in 1991 and would be considered a thrash metal album with some folk influences, unlike Cruachan's early work which embraced the folk element as a defining part of their sound. It was not until 1994 and 1995 that other early contributors in the genre began to emerge from different regions of Europe and beyond. Among these early groups, the German band Subway to Sally spearheaded a different regional variation that over time became known as medieval metal . Despite their contributions, folk metal remained little known with few representatives during

51075-502: Was revealed that a Beloit, Wisconsin , investment corporation, R&R Opportunities, had bought the assets of Harrison Harmonicas and that a feasibility study was under way to assess the possibilities of continued production of the Harrison B-Radical harmonica. Recently, responding to increasingly demanding performance techniques, the market for high-quality instruments has grown. Some time before Hohner began manufacturing harmonicas in 1857, he shipped some to relatives who had emigrated to

51302-631: Was still in need of a drummer, and Boone suggested Jan Buchner, a part-timer with the Kingsmen who came at the recommendation of both Skip and Butler. Buchner, who went by the stagename Jan Carl, was the manager of the Bull's Head Inn, a small inn located in Bridgehampton on Long Island, and which he offered as a rehearsal space during the inn's winter closure. The band rehearsed at the Bull's Head for several weeks in December   1964 and January   1965, and they also played at local bars in Bridgehampton at night. In late   1964 and early   1965, to keep earning money before his new band had earned

51529-405: Was unable to appear at the festival due to complications related to the drug bust. Folk-rock Folk rock is a fusion genre of rock music with heavy influences from pop , English and American folk music . It typically combines elements of folk and rock music together, it arose in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom in the mid-1960s. In the U.S., folk rock emerged from

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