Thursday, November 3, 2016

Rod Argent's Harmonica

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

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Because I mentioned Rod Argent's harmonica in this picture (I'd never noticed it before), I feel like I should also mention that it's visible in this footage from 1964:


It's on top of his organ at about 1:21 (inexplicably, he doesn't seem to have his Hohner Pianette):


You can just make out some of the holes in the side.  It also looks like there are some guitar picks near the corner of the organ.  Paul Atkinson is standing next to him, so that makes sense.

Anyway, this is just to mention that both of these pictures seem to evidence that Argent played harmonica more during shows than in the studio.  I think "I Got My Mojo Working" and "Work 'n' Play" are the only two Zombies songs that feature it.

This footage is labeled as "Halden 1964," and "NRK" stands for Norsk rikskringkasting (basically, the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation).  Jeg snakker norsk, men ikke godt; I did research.  I lookt up the list of gigs in the Zombie Heaven liner notes, and while I didn't find Halden, the Zombies did tour the Scandinavian countries from 28 November to 8 December 1964.  There's a quote from Colin, and he mentions that it was their first tour abroad, so it's quite remarkable that this - which is (apparently) the only extant footage of the 1960s Zombies performing an actual gig, and not on a television show of some kind - is from such an early period.

I searched the NRK website, but I couldn't even find this footage, let alone at a better resolution or more of it.