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66
Session early 1969
On his return from New York, Harpo and E
XCELLO
realised that
Mohair Sam
was not going to become the size of hit to
match all their expectations and requirements. Soon there was a recording session at Woodland in Nashville and another
single, E
XCELLO
2305, coupling
That's Why I Love You
, where Slim recounts how his baby's been good to him, for once,
and provides his trademark harp solos, with the contrastingly soft, soulful, swampy ballad
Just For You
. This took Slim
well away from the blues form – a song about the lovelight burning in his heart and his eyes full of tears as he thinks
"we've been together so many years."
It could have been an important stylistic development in Slim's career, had it sold.
However, when the single was released in the spring of 1969 it received surprisingly little attention or sales. Lovell
Moore remembered going to the Nashville sessions and how the songs she and Slim had written were translated onto
tape:
"I would write a song, he would get out his guitar and play it. Then he would go in the studio and play it just with
harmonica and guitar, to let the session musicians hear how he wanted it to be played, you know. And the studio musicians
would play – they caught on right away. It really wasn't hard to record like that."
It is probable that Slim also recorded other songs at
this session, notably
Mutual Friend
, a sparse blues reflect-
ing on the good times with a woman who has now left. It
has an extended contemporary guitar solo by a player who
has not been identified.
As the year 1969 unfolded, it proved to be one of
Harpo's busiest, giving him ever wider-ranging experi-
ences on both the East and West Coasts as well as in the
recording studio. It wasn't long before Slim was back in
front of the New York crowds, playing gigs at the rock ven-
ues Fillmore East and the Electric Circus as well as smaller
university gigs at Hunter College early in 1969. Slim's New
York agent went into overdrive, the booking information
from Universal Attractions playing to a very different mar-
ket than Slim's down home blues following:
"Blues is hap-
pening in today's complex society... 'The Harp' likes to
entertain people, and feels that being in the profession is
an education in itself. Slim enjoys playing on stage and
grooving for all types of cats... Slim the person is a beautiful
cat who blows his mind over trucks and trailers. To experi-
ence the beautiful cat's life expressed in blues form catch
'The Harp' when he does his thing on the underground cir-
cuit."
Even so, while he was at his highest profile, Slim was
still peddling the line of his agent, telling Jim Delehant
for a June 1969 feature in 'Hit Parader' magazine,
"I'm
just a country boy, but I like to see the rest of the world."
Harpo was still in New York on February 28 for two nights
at the Fillmore East with British bands Ten Years After and
John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. 'Billboard's' Fred Kirby re-
ported that they followed,
"Slim Harpo, a top notch
Louisiana bluesman who, appearing with a new backup
group, The Weight, reached into his bag of top E
XCELLO
num-
bers to come up with the rocking 'Te-Ni-Nee-Ni-Nu' and the
country blues 'Rainin' In My Heart.' Also his hits 'King Bee'
and 'Baby Scratch My Back.'"
From New York, Slim flew to California where he
played the Whisky-A-Go-Go in Hollywood from March 5 to
9. From March 27-29 he was playing a Sunset Boulevard
club, Thee Experience, with Alice Cooper.