From:   "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Fri Oct 11, 2002  1:23 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Harmonica Frank
 
HARMONICA FRANK (By Shaun Mather)

Born Frank Floyd, 11 October 1908, Toccopola, Mississippi
Died 7 August 1984, Cincinnati, Ohio

It's well documented that Sam Phillips was looking for a white man who could
sing, play and feel like a black man. He also knew it needed something else
so I'm sure that when he became aware of Harmonica Frank Floyd he didn't
see fame and dollar bills lighting up his eyes. What he did see was someone
with the "off-beat" character that appealed to him. Floyd's recordings are a
rare case where his personaily actually comes through in his work.
Born in rural Mississippi but pretty much raised in rural Arkansas, he
ran off with the carnival whilst barely in his teens. He started playing
guitar and harmonica, without a rack, choosing to play the harp out of
one side of his mouth, singing out of the other.
Whilst playing with Smilin' Eddie Hill on WMC Memphis in 1951, he came to
the attention of Sam Phillips. He cut Swamp Root and Goin' Away Walkin'
which were picked up for release by Chess Records. The b-side was replaced
by Step It Up And Go and sold well enough to earn him $100 in royalties.
There was a further single, Howlin' Tomcat / She's Done Moved, for Chess in
January '52. Two years later he was back with Sam, this time recording for
Phillips' own Sun label. His first single for the label, released a fortnight
before Elvis' debut, featured a pair of charming left-fielders in Great Medical
Menagerist and Rockin' Chair Daddy. After nothing happened he tried his
arm unsuccessfully across town at Meteor, before recording for his own
F&L label (Rock-A-Little Baby / Monkey Love) which he'd started with
singer Larry Kennon.
He disappeared to Dallas, selling ice cream before being rediscovered in the
early '70s by Stephen LaVere. An album and some tours resulted but really the
world was never ready to accept someone like Harmonica Frank Floyd. Whilst
his eccentric ways and undoubted musical abilty lit a fuse in Sam Phillips'
mind, it did little to appeal to Joe Public.

Available CD's:
Missing Link (Memphis International)
Frank Floyd, Swamproot (Gene's Blue Vault)