Slim Harpo

James Isaac Moore, professionally known as Slim Harpo, was so naturally gifted a musician that he was credible whether he was singing gutbucket urban blues, R&B, or country blues. Even a partial list of artists and bands that have covered Harpo's songs indicates the broad sweep of his influence, starting with the Rolling Stones (who even paraphrased Harpo's song "Got Love if You Want It" for the title of their first live album, Got Live if You Want It) and continuing on through the Kinks, Van Morrison and Them, Dave Edmunds (in Love Sculpture), the Jeff Beck-era Yardbirds, Alex Chilton, and the Moody Blues, who took their band name from a Harpo track. His oft-covered song "I'm a King Bee" has become part of the lingua franca of blues rock; "Rainin' in My Heart" has found favor with blues and country singers through the years.

Harpo's first single, 1957's "I'm a King Bee," features lascivious double-entendre lyrics ("I'm young and able/to buzz all night long"); a laconic vocal that would become Harpo's signature; a solid, stomping rhythm courtesy of drummer Clarence "Jockey" Etienne; some tasty, lowdown harmonica work by Harpo; and Clinton "Fats" Perrodin's ostinato top-string bass lick simulating a bee's buzzing sound. The flip side, "I've Got Love if You Want It," is a variation on the Bo Diddley rhythm, right down to the Jerome Green-style maracas supplying some extra rhumba juice to the upbeat affair. Harpo's second single, "Wonderin' and Worryin' " b/w "Strange Love," was the first evidence on record of Jimmy Reed's influence on Harpo's style, both in the heavy groove and in the propulsive harmonica work.

These worthy efforts were finding little success on the sales front (although in Britain an entire generation of young rockers was eating up Harpo's work). That changed in 1961, when Harpo and Miller came up with "Rainin' in My Heart," a measured shuffle with a decidedly country feel, a haunting, minor-key harmonica intro and fills, a mid song narration not uncommon to country singles of the day, and a weary vocal that conjures a portrait of a man entrenched in deep regret over his mistreatment of the good woman who left him.

Rather than capitalizing on their good fortune with more recordings, though, Harpo and his producer, J. D. Miller, began feuding over his contract; at one point Harpo bolted for the Imperial label in New Orleans, but the sessions went unissued after Miller threatened a lawsuit. Harpo then returned to Miller's studio in Crowley, but three years and a moment had passed by the time Excello issued a feisty instrumental, "Buzzin'," which featured Harpo's gutsy, Little Walter-style harmonica lines bouncing off Al Foreman's angular single-and multistring guitar solos redolent with quotes from jazz, blues, and pop styles in rapid succession. Despite the flop of "Buzzin'," Harpo persisted, and in 1965 he and Miller came up with another chart winner. "Scratch My Back" is about as perfect an example of swamp music as anyone has ever put on record, its identifying features being a murky ambience, an irresistible, slinky, mid-tempo groove, some engaging chicken-pickin' guitar work by either James Johnson or Rudolph Richard, some odd woodblock licks that surface in the song's last few bars, and a low-key, spoken vocal by Harpo so benign in its delivery you could almost overlook its salacious message -- as a vocalist, Slim Harpo was nothing if not subversive, really one of a kind in that department. One of the final sessions Harpo cut with Miller produced one of their best efforts, the relentless "Shake Your Hips," a John Lee Hooker-style boogie number that cooked mightily but didn't do much for Harpo's commercial fortunes (it resurfaced in 1972 as "Hipshaker" on the Stones' Exile on Main Street album). In 1970 Harpo was contracted to tour Europe and had plans to record in London with some of the British musicians who numbered him among their influences. Neither event happened. A couple of weeks after an early January recording session in Baton Rouge, the 46-year-old Harpo, still a young man in seemingly good health, suffered a massive heart attack and died on January 31.

Hip-O's The Best of Slim Harpo provides the best overview extant of the artist's enduring legacy. All of the above-mentioned recordings are included on this 16-song overview, along with other interesting, nonhit studio sides, including a slow-boiling talking blues, "Blues Hangover," and a slow, R&B-flavored instrumental, "Snoopin' Around," which features saxophonist Willie "Tomcat" Parker. Almost half of the songs on The Best of can be found on the reissue of Harpo's first Excello album, Slim Harpo Sings Rainin' in My Heart, which also includes other interesting fare such as "Moody Blues" and quintessential swamp rock prototypes in "Buzz Me Babe" and "Don't Start Crying Now." An excellent package is further augmented by three bonus tracks, two of which -- "My Little Queen Bee (Got a Brand New King)" and "Late Last Night" -- are unavailable on The Best of. The Excello Singles Anthology includes much of the above and is another fine overview. There's a lot more Slim Harpo material where this came from, but these three albums serve his memory well. (DAVID MCGEE)

From 2004's The New Rolling Stone Album Guide