24 January 2010

carry that weight

The Brisbane Sunday Mail carries a story about Huey Lewis and the News. Seems that Huey "was taught to play harmonica by his mum's tenant, Billy Roberts, a folk singer who wrote the classic Hey Joe, made famous by Jimi Hendrix. Roberts gave him a bunch of old harpsichords and with that skill under his belt, Lewis set off hitchhiking across America and then across Europe and North Africa, singing for his supper."

The story goes on, "'I was playing on the streets of Marakesh (Morocco), playing harmonica and surviving," he recalls.'

Presumably the skill he acquired was how to turn harpsichords into harmonicas, by taking them to Europe, where they know about these sorts of things.

Meanwhile, blood pressures around the country are rising as another fake squealer ruins a perfectly good tennis match. I would have thought a squeal that has two definite syllables was less an expression of effort and more a deliberate attempt to unsettle the other player, not to mention millions* of viewers.

* millions = "at least one"

2 comments:

Ann ODyne said...

The Hey Joe by Patti Smith made Jimi's pretty famous again too, also, as well.
Little known fact that Gary McDonald is a Very Excellent harp player,possibly pipped, just, by Brod Smith.

That grunt at the Thwocks is to hide the sound of the ball hitting the racquet so that the opponent cannot judge where/how it is coming at 'em. an eastern-bloc trick apparently.

phil said...

But yes, of course, and also agreed.

As to the second, balls to that.

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