Harp

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On 5/23/06, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> My native, East-Texas word for it is simply "harp." Playing the harp
> was way too country for Saint Louis. So, I know only the standard
> "harmonica" from there. However, in Los Angeles, there are (or were)
> black country-music clubs on the East Side where, once again, the
> term used was simply "harp."

Interestingly enough, the song that John Lennon pulled out the harp
for on the 6/1/63 BBC broadcast was "I Got To Find Baby" by the great
St. Louisian Chuck Berry. (There's no harp on the original, of course
-- Lennon transposed the sax solo to that instrument.)


--Ben Zimmer

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org