Across The Savannah

A trip down memory lane and surprising insight into rock & roll began with a phone call. "Would you like to interview a musician? We're a little short on writers here at the paper." And that's how I interviewed a true rock & roll pioneer.

First, the back-story. Let's turn back to the early 60s. Back then, iPod was nothing more than a misspelling of tripod. Back then, I made my own radio, a simple crystal radio—the distilled essence of radio. It didn't even need a battery. At night, when I was supposed to be asleep, I'd tune in WLS in Chicago, a clear-channel blowtorch as the radio guys say, and listen to deejay Dick Biondi spin tunes. The signal came in strong and steady.

The prototype for "crazy" deejays, Biondi played anything to shrieks and howls of how great it was. He entered the history books as the first U.S. disc jockey to play the Beatles in February 1963 with "Please Please Me." Biondi gave me one of my classic memories in music: the first time I heard "She Loves You." Electrifying. Before the Beatles arrived, though, I heard a song on WLS some of you will recall, Bruce Channel's "Hey! Baby." Soaring harmonica licks by a 22-year-old Texas kid made that 1962 tune special. Without that harmonica the song was much less. From the days of crystal radios to the age of the iPod came a chance to meet the man behind the harmonica.

And so it was I got to interview Delbert McClinton who grew up in music-prone Fort Worth. It was there McClinton blended his Texas roots with roadhouse rock, juke-joint blues, Memphis soul, and country. Many of you will remember his 80's hit, "Givin' It Up for Your Love."

I prepared for the interview with some research and was astounded to learn that McClinton played the harmonica on Channel's hit. I asked him what he remembered about recording "Hey! Baby."

"The night we did the song we all knew it was a hit," said McClinton. He recalled how some guy at the studio offered to buy it on the spot for $500 and Channel was going to sell it but they persuaded him not to sell what was sure to be a hit. And what did McClinton earn for playing harmonica on "Hey! Baby?" An astounding $5. That song would pay him back in other ways though.

"Hey! Baby" made a splash and Channel and McClinton toured the United Kingdom in 1962. While there they met the Beatles.

"I didn't really know who Lennon was," said McClinton, "but I realized they were a really good band. That whole English thing was about to explode." And it did. October 1962 the Beatles released "Love Me Do" featuring John Lennon's harmonica. McClinton said as soon as he heard the song he recognized the harmonica notes. Lennon himself said in an interview that the harmonica on "Hey! Baby" made a huge impression on him.

The rest is music history. The British invasion arrived full force, nudged along a tad by McClinton, whose peers acknowledge him as a consummate, enduring musician. McClinton sings in a way Nashville writer Michael McCall describes as "a raspy, ferocious voice that carries in it the history of American popular music."

McClinton has had his hits too. His and Bonnie Raitt's duet, "Good Man, Good Woman," earned both a Grammy in 1992. McClinton's music resume runs deep into some classic blues musicians. McClinton talked to me about his early days and learning to play harmonica.

"I worked in a band in the '60s and we did a lot of backing up for Jimmy Reed, Howlin Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson, Buster Brown, and T-Bone Walker. A parade of great blues guys worked through the Fort Worth/Dallas area, and I learned to play from those guys. They'd tell me things, but I learned just watching them, listening to them, you know."

In an era when groups fade overnight and songs seem written to be forgotten, McClinton has been around a long time. His lyrics and emotion explain his longevity. "Oh I love to do this, so I won't go away." Asked for his favorite song McClinton said, "That's like asking me to pick one of my children as my favorite. As other artists go, I wish I'd written 'Night Life.' It's the story of my life and I just love it. Willie Nelson wrote it in the 60s and it's one of the most recorded songs ever written."

A troubadour, perhaps McClinton sees himself in this song ... the wayfaring life of the musician on the road in a different town every night. "Oh the night life, it ain't no good life. But it's my life. Listen what the blues are sayin.'( Life is just another scene in this old world of broken dreams."

Broken dreams, yes. We all have some, but how rare to have touched music legends ... Bruce Channel, the Beatles, John Lennon, and Bonnie Raitt. From Texas where oilrigs pull energy from the earth, where cotton fields glisten in the sun, Delbert McClinton found his calling where the guitars play.

Email Tom with feedback and ideas for new columns. tompol @earthlink.net