Over Under Sideways Down Hey!

The origins of this dissertation came about due to the discovery of this newspaper report from 1933 (see below) that expounded Charles Porter’s upside down technique in drinking beer and playing the harmonica. It included a photograph of him drinking pints lined up in front of him. On later research I located a photograph of him playing upside down and, would you believe, on a Crackajack Artist mouth organ (I know that flared back anywhere).

MOST persons find It difficult enough to stand on their head, but to Charles Porter, 40, of Bridge-road, Glebe, as he showed in the bar of a Camperdown hotel today, that is quite a simple way of drinking large quantities of beer. Standing on his head, balanced with only one hand, the “Human Syphon,” as he is called by his friends, swallowed the contents of five mugs of beer with hardly a pause. Half an hour later he repeated the performance. After finishing the last of the first five mugs Porter jumped to his feet and turned a perfect back-somersault. Porter then added the finishing touches to the amazement of the spectators by standing on his head again and playing lustily “Melody in F’ with a mouth-organ. Enjoying a mug of beer later under normal conditions, Porter said that he had first discovered how to drink upside down more than 20 years ago. “I have been doing this trick ever since,” he added. “On one occasion I swallowed seven pints of beer in quick succession on my head without losing my balance.”

(The Sydney Sun, 12 June 1933)

Having tracked down another article on Charles’ accomplishments in PIX I also espied their original photographs. Strange they never printed him playing the mouth organ maybe it was due to the quality of the photograph.

Well, probably many of you have heard of harmonica players blowing in different positions and that’s not just sitting or standing. First position (straight playing) where the key of the harmonica is the same as the song and then, by adopting the circle of fifths, another eleven positions are made available. The most common being second position (cross harp) and third position (double cross harp – used in minor keys), but this ain’t what I’m talking about today, Willis. I’m referring to the practice of playing the harmonica upside down – not while doing a handstand, but holding the instrument with the bass notes to the right instead of to the left. It means the top cover plate which has the hole numbers on is now the bottom plate.

Upside Down Harp

Nearly all of us have done it by mistake. It seems to me every time I pick up one of my harps and place it in my north and south, it’s upside down (like toast always falling butter side down). Did even the great Little Walter do it on his 1966 recording of As Long As I Have You? I reckon so. Hear here.

Apparently, according to a popular 1928 instructional booklet on how to play the blues, you held the harmonica in the right hand! Harpo mimics the technique to a tee. Harpo was a lefty and played the mouth harp upside down. Hear Harpo blow below.

No quotes from Harpo (for obvious reasons). Here’s one from Groucho. “One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas I’ll never know.”

Harpo even began playing the stringed harp backwards with the column (instead of the body of the harp) resting against his shoulder. He soon rectified this as seen above. Danny Kaye had it the wrong way around in the 1945 movie ‘Wonder Man’.

Ooh I’m Looking For Clues

Well there’s a few go-tos to detect if the harp is upside down or not. If the watch is on left or right hand, if they play guitar left or right handed and if there’s reversed writing, then the picture has been inverted. However the main indicator is what hand they hold the instrument.

Paul Butterfield was a lefty and he held it upside down. Sonny Terry, too held it that way, but he wasn’t a lefty. His first experience with the instrument that fits in your pocket, was aged eight and it appears he may have just copied his father.

“Daddy used to keep his harmonica way up on the mantle piece when he wasn’t using it. He go off to work, I’d push a chair over and get up and get it. Play my head off all day”. (Sonny Terry’s Country & Blues Harmonica, 1976)

It is also possible he just picked it up this way due to being blind. He revisited the instrument at sixteen taking it seriously after his good eye was damaged in an accident. Or, even as he suggests, the reason he has the harmonica upside down is because it’s a better way of playing. His book even advises holding it upside down!

“They tell me that’s wrong, you know. If it is, I don’t wanna be right. See, if I hold the bass on the left, and then I start to move on the harp, well, then I ain’t got nothin’ left down there!” (Sonny Terry’s Country & Blues Harmonica, 1976)

A Panoply of Upside Down Harpists

Cham-Ber played upside down because of a Hohner factory error. His first diatonic harmonica bought in Shanghai had the top and bottom plates reversed. Huang believed this technique was advantageous in student learning as they viewed him as if looking in a mirror.

Hohner then customised his chromatic harps with the low notes to the right, but with the slider situated on the right. Cham-Ber of course went on to make his own quality brand of harmonicas, but with cover plates right way up. Only his were customised.

Australian Chris Wilson was a lefty – he played guitar left handed and the harmonica upside down.

Mirror Image

A large number of lefties in the Rockhampton Boys Mouth Organ Band or are there? Perhaps the image was reversed? Not sure that it was as it would make Jack Crossan a left handed conductor. My understanding was the baton was held in the right hand with that hand keeping time and the left hand was used for volume. There are examples of lefty conductors, like Paavo Berglund.

The high elbow action of the boys had military origins and was used especially when marching.

The Crackajack Ladies Mouth Organ Band are marching with high left elbow, but the young lad has the pocket piano in his right hand.

A Hohner catalogue featuring its celebrity artists had Charlie McCoy (circled) holding the harp in his right hand! Don’t believe everything you see – this picture is reversed as observed by the original photo from his recording of Harmonica Jones.

However, Charlie did have a quirky handle on the harmonica. He uses his right index finger initially to grip the instrument and then uses the left to both hold and, uniquely do vibrato.

Charlie never suffered from having the harp upside down when using Hohner’s Old Standby model. He would just feel for the embossed Mr. Hohner on the top cover plate – like using braille.

Howlin’ Wolf holds it in his right hand (bass notes still to the left) and does vibrato with his left (not the only one Charlie). Check out the Wolf on How Many More Years when he realises the harps the wrong way up.

Steve Williams (John Farnham Band), having learnt and mastered the harmonica at a young age, lost interest in music and became a public servant who enjoyed drinking with his mates and having a good time. In his early twenties he was strolling past the Davis House of Music in Russell Street, Melbourne when he felt drawn to an instrument in their front window. In Steve’s own words, “I’m not a spiritual person but something dragged me into that store.” Glinting in the window was a Weltklang saxophone. He had no prior interest in the saxophone, few of his vinyl records had saxophone on them – just a couple of Frank Zappa and John Mayall albums. He had no reason to buy it. That day he had collected his fortnightly pay of $258 and, after he left the shop, all he had was $19 to pay for rent and food. His girlfriend at the time was not impressed. He knew so little about the instrument he purchased, that the next day he returned to the store informing them they had sold him a left handed one.

“I had one book on music which had a picture purporting to be Charlie Parker. It turned out it was Duke Ellington’s alto player Johnny Hodges and as it happened this photo was reversed, so the right hand appeared to be on top. I took the photo with me, and had it gently explained to me that this was Hodges and the photo was back to front.”

When I first started collecting I bought a Super Chromonica online that had the slide button on the left. I believed this was a rare lefties model. But I soon discovered on its arrival, that the cover plates had been switched! Now you can purchase lefties from the Hohner shop.

Behind the head

The first guitarist I observed playing behind their head was Phil Manning from Chain, who also played with his teeth! Do you reckon you could do this with the harmonica? You betcha! Billy Williams from Wagga Wagga did this via a piece of rubber tubing.

Under the sea (I’d like to be)

Over, under, sideways, down
(Hey!) Backwards, forwards, square, and round

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