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PREMESSA: LA SUPERIORITA’ DELLA MUSICA SU VINILE E’ ANCOR OGGI SANCITA, NOTORIA ED EVIDENTE. NON TANTO DA UN PUNTO DI VISTA DI RESA, QUALITA’ E PULIZIA DEL SUONO, TANTOMENO DA QUELLO DEL RIMPIANTO RETROSPETTIVO E NOSTALGICO , MA SOPRATTUTTO DA QUELLO PIU’ PALPABILE ED INOPPUGNABILE DELL’ ESSENZA, DELL’ ANIMA E DELLA SUBLIMAZIONE CREATIVA. IL DISCO IN VINILE HA PULSAZIONE ARTISTICA, PASSIONE ARMONICA E SPLENDORE GRAFICO , E’ PIACEVOLE DA OSSERVARE E DA TENERE IN MANO, RISPLENDE, PROFUMA E VIBRA DI VITA, DI EMOZIONE E  DI SENSIBILITA’. E’ TUTTO QUELLO CHE NON E’ E NON POTRA’ MAI ESSERE IL CD, CHE AL CONTRARIO E’ SOLO UN OGGETTO MERAMENTE COMMERCIALE, POVERO, ARIDO, CINICO, STERILE ED ORWELLIANO,  UNA DEGENERAZIONE INDUSTRIALE SCHIZOFRENICA E NECROFILA, LA DESOLANTE SOLUZIONE FINALE DELL’ AVIDITA’ DEL MERCATO E DELL’ ARROGANZA DEI DISCOGRAFICI .

DON  ” SUGAR CANE ” HARRIS
keep on driving

Disco LP 33 giri , MUSIDISC / MPS , MPS 15060 ,  1970 , france

ECCELLENTI  CONDIZIONI, vinyl ex++/NM , cover ex++.

 Beginning his career as the guitar playing
half of the 1950s rock duo, Don
& Dewey, Don “Sugarcane” Harris, put down the guitar and picked
up the violin after the lack of success for Don
and Dewey (oddly enough the group’s songs became hits for other artists
such as the Righteous Brothers and the Premiers). Classically trained as
a violinist, Harris’ skill at improvisation began attracting attention
from the rock world and soon he was appearing on records by John Lee Hooker,
Frank Zappa and Johnny Otis. In 1970 Harris joined forces with British
Blues musician John Mayall when the latter was forming his first all American
backing band. In addition to joining the backing bands of Mayall, Zappa
and others, Harris has also recorded a series of albums for labels such
as Epic and Polydor.

Etichetta:  MPS – musidisc europe
Catalogo: MPS 15 060
Data di pubblicazione: 1970
Matrici: MU 15060 A / MU 15060 B

• Supporto:vinile 33 giri
• Tipo audio: stereo
• Dimensioni: 30 cm.
• Facciate: 2
• Laminated gatefold / copertina apribile laminata , original poly inner sleeve

“[…] When
actually he was to come, it was November. I wote him to bring along an
over-coat as Villingen is 1000 metres high and there was already snow
in the Black Forest. When on the eve of his departure to Germany Don with
his new coat stepped out of a shop in Venice, near Los Angeles, some bloke
threatened him with a gun (‘it was a big one – a real canon’) and coat,
car, money, violin, bass, and – ‘this was the worst’ – lovely ring changed
their owner. ‘I literally lost everything but the ticket to Europe.’ And
that is why two day later Don ‘Sugar Cane’ Harris stood chilly and trembling
in the Black Forest’s snow in white beach shoes and in a summer-shirt
Californian style and with a single US-dollar only. He had to borrow the
violin from a music shop in Donaueschingen, the pick up from Volker Kriegel,
and the coat from the son of an MPS employee (J. E. Berendt, excerpt from
the liner notes).”

Track listing

Side 1

1. keep on driving
2. blues on the moon
3. which way is the bathroom ?
4. desiree

Side 2

1. almost broke
2. coitus interruptus
3. remember the past

Performers

Don ‘Sugar Cane’ Harris  – violin, bass guitar
Volker Kriegel – guitar
John Taylor – electric piano
Tony Oxley – drums and amplified percussion
                                                                   

Don “Sugarcane” Harris, a pioneering rock violinist who played 

                                           
with artists ranging from Little Richard to Frank Zappa to John 

                                           
Mayall, died last week. He was 61.  

           

                                                
Harris’ body was discovered Tuesday night in the room he 

                                           
rented in South-Central Los Angeles. His longtime musical partner 

                                           
Dewey Terry said he died of natural causes after a long struggle 

                                           
with pulmonary disease.  

           

                                                
The Pasadena native’s career began with doo-wop and rhythm 

                                           
and blues groups and went on to encompass early rock ‘n’ roll, jazz 

                                           
and underground rock.  

         

                                                
“He really put rock ‘n’ roll violin on the map, and I think he’s still 

                                           
probably the best rock ‘n’ roll violinist there’s ever been, Papa John 

                                           
Creach notwithstanding,” musicologist Barry Hansen, a.k.a. radio 

                                           
personality Dr. Demento, said Thursday.  

                 

                                                
Harris, who was given his nickname by bandleader Johnny Otis, 

                                           
started out in the doo-wop group the Squires, which included his 

                                           
childhood friend Terry. The two began playing rock ‘n’ roll in 1956 

                                           
as Don & Dewey. Signed to the Los Angeles label Specialty 

                                           
Records, home of Little Richard and Lloyd Price, they wrote and 

                                           
recorded a series of singles that included “Justine,” “Farmer John,” 

                                           
“Big Boy Pete” and “I’m Leaving It All Up to You.”  

                    

                                                
None were nationally successful, but versions of the songs 

                                           
recorded later by the Olympics, the Premiers, Dale & Grace and 

                                           

the Righteous Brothers became hits. In addition, Harris and Terry 

                                           
played in Little Richard’s backing band on tour in Europe, along 

                                           
with a young guitarist named Jimi Hendrix.  

                 

                                                
The Beatles-led British invasion dried things up for groups such 

                                           
as Don & Dewey, who went their separate ways in the mid-1960s. 

                                           
Later in the decade, Harris found an unlikely niche, contributing to 

                                           
four albums by rock renegade Zappa and then joining English 

                                           
rock-blues founding father Mayall. He also recorded his own 

                                           
albums of jazz-influenced improvisation, and in the early 1970s with 

                                           
another Mayall sideman, guitarist Harvey Mandel, in the blues-rock 

                                           
group Pure Food and Drug Act.  

             

                                                
“As a violin player, he really was in a category all of his own,” 

                                           
Mayall said this week. “He played with an aggressive, electronic 

                                           
[style], the same sort of vitality that an electric guitar would have.”  

         

                                                
Harris also contended with a drug habit for much of his career.  

         

                                                
“He had a wonderful sense of humor, a very gentle sort of 

                                           
person,” said Mayall, who had sought Harris out after being 

                                           
impressed by his playing on the Don & Dewey single “Stretchin’ 

                                           
Out.”  

                             

                                                
“The only thing that stood in his way was his unreliability with the 

                                           
drug thing, which was sort of his downfall,” Mayall added. 

                                           
“Occasionally he would disappear. You just had to take that as it 

                                           
came. . . . He never had a phone number. You usually had to leave 

                                           
a message for Dewey’s mother or something like that and somehow 

                                           
the word would get back and he’d call in.”  

                  

                                                
Harris and Terry got back together in 1975 and played together 

                                           
until a year ago, when Harris’ health declined. Terry had made new 

                                           
recordings of the duo in recent years in his home studio, but none 

                                           
have been released.  

               

                                                
Harris, who is divorced, is survived by a daughter and two sons. 

                                           
Services are scheduled for Saturday at 3 p.m. at Rose Hills 

                                           
Memorial Park in Whittier.  

Discography
 

Don (Sugarcane) Harris, a violinist, singer and songwriter who

              
played blues, jazz and rock, was found dead on Dec. 1 in his Los

         
Angeles apartment by his landlord, Agence France-Presse reported. He

         
was 61. 

         
His longtime collaborator, Dewey Terry, said Harris had suffered from

         
pulmonary disease for the last few years. 

         
As Don and Dewey, Harris and Terry made a string of brash

         
rhythm-and-blues singles for Specialty Records, featuring Harris on guitar

         
or electric violin. Harris went on to join Frank Zappa’s group in 1970

         
and was featured on the albums “Hot Rats” and “Weasels Ripped My

         
Flesh.” 

         
Harris was born in Pasadena, Calif., and studied classical violin. He also

         
learned guitar, harmonica and piano. 

         
His first group, the Squires, recorded for Vita Records. But he made

         
more memorable recordings with Terry as Don and Dewey,

         
rambunctious rhythm-and-blues songs with titles like “Jungle Hop” and

         
“Koko Joe.” 

         
They toured the West Coast with the Johnny Otis Revue in the late

         
1950’s, and Otis nicknamed Harris “Sugarcane,” reportedly for his

         
reputation as a ladies’ man. Other performers picked up Don and

         
Dewey’s songs, including “Justine” (the Righteous Brothers), “Big Boy

         
Pete” (the Olympics), “I’m Leavin’ It Up to You” (Dale and Grace) and

         
“Farmer John” (the Premiers and, later, Neil Young). 

         
The duo dissolved in the early 60’s, and Harris toured with Little Richard.

         
He joined Zappa in 1970 and then toured and recorded with the English

         
blues bandleader John Mayall. In recent years he reunited with Terry,

         
performing as Don and Dewey in the United States and Europe.