Talk:Little Walter

Technique and Equipment
As someone else noted below Walter used a chromatic harp on some of his best known songs like Blue Midnight. He uses the slide lever to create his characteristic trill, something that's very hard to duplicate on a diatonic harp. While his overall tone and approach to the instrument were widely adopted, his technique remains less widely emmulated or copied because of the continuing preference of most blues players for diatonic harps. Stevie Wonder, who plays a chromatic harp, does seem to have picked up on a lot of Little Walter's technical capability.

It would be great if we could work to have a section on technique and equipment because he was such an innovator in these areas.

ZeroXero (talk) 00:05, 4 January 2013 (UTC)


 * I second this sentiment. This great innovator's technique and equipment should be discussed in the article.  I know there are secondary sources on it out there.   J. D. Crutchfield  &#124; Talk 17:36, 8 August 2018 (UTC)

The assertion that Little Walter was "the first musician of any kind to purposely [sic] use electronic distortion" is unlikely. Little Walter was the first harmonica player definitively known to record with "electric" or directly amplified harmonica, played through a hand-held microphone and guitar amplifier or public address system, in July 1951 (on a Muddy Waters session). However, the date at which Little Walter began playing amplified harmonica through a hand-held microphone and amplifier (which allowed electronic distortion) is speculative or based on anecdote. He may not have been the first harmonica player to play through a hand-held microphone and amplifier or public address system. John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson has been identified in a photograph holding a microphone and harmonica in his hands, and Williamson died in June 1948. More significantly, there are numerous recorded examples of electric guitar amplifier overdrive distortion prior to July 1951. These include sides by Casey Bill Weldon on solid-body lap steel guitar ("You Gotta Do Your Duty"/ Midnight Blues," 1938), Arthur Crudup ("Ethel Mae", 1946), Junior Bernard ("Bob Wills Boogie," 1946), Goree Carter ("Rock Awhile," 1949) and Willie Kizart (on Jackie Brenston's "Rocket 88," April 1951). Even if some of these examples of distorted electric guitar tone were not "on purpose", it does not follow that none of them were deliberate.  However, by 1952 Little Walter and the younger Junior Wells were arguably far ahead of guitar players in exploiting the sonic possibilities of electronic amplification, as exemplified by Muddy Waters' "Standing Around Crying" (with Wells, recorded September 1952, four months after Little Walter recorded "Juke") and Little Walter's "Mean Old World," "Sad Hours," and "Boogie" (recorded October 1952; "Boogie" was not released until 1972; these October 1952 recordings included notable studio reverb, not produced by the amplifier). — Preceding unsigned comment added by E7Maygar (talk • contribs) 21:44, 30 June 2022 (UTC) --E7Maygar (talk) 21:54, 30 June 2022 (UTC)--E7Maygar (talk) 21:56, 30 June 2022 (UTC)

Sonny Boy Williamson
When either John Lee Williamson or Aleck Miller is mentioned, please specify which one. Sonny Boy Williamson leads to a redirect page for both of them.

Hidden text
There is a vast difference between being an influential harp player and 'the most influential' blues musician. Since Little Walter was not even half as influential a blues musician as Bo Didley, let alone Robert Johnson or even the two Sonny Boy Williamsons, the constant (unreferenced) quotation here of Ry Cooder's alleged opinion that Little Walter was "the single greatest blues musician ever" is highly problematic. The point of these pages is to provide information to readers that is as accurate as possible, not to present any one person's opininion no matter how self-important especially when it bears no agreement with widely established information and knowledge. For one, Rolling Stones seems to question the claim that Little Walter was the first musician to amplify the harp: see Rolling Stones biography of Little Walter; and there has been a challenge here to the claim that he was the first musician to apply "electronic" distortion. No blues scholar--and Ry Cooder is not a blues scholar or an authority on the blues--has or would even vaguely consider Little Walter the "most influential" blues musician. Scholars would think of Muddy Waters who gave Walter his first regular band job, and Howlin' Wolf, and certainly T. Bone Walker, before Walter. In fact, most blues scholars, if they were to make a comparison, would consider Willie Dixon, author of Hoochie Coochie man and a half dozen other blues and rock 'n roll standards, far more influential than Little Walter. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.235.123.189 (talk • contribs)
 * Distinction, he did not use electonic distortion. He used electric distortion. Electronic distortion wasn't invented for several more decades. Older valve amplifiers produce THD, total harmonic distortion, very different than electronic distortion.. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.235.123.189 (talk • contribs)

Excellent comment about the outsized claims made by some. Little Walter was without question extremely influential in the subculture of blues harmonica players, although I don't hear his influence at all in the playing of Butterfield or Popper--unless you're going to claim that anybody who blows amplified harp is, de facto, audibly influenced by Walter, which I don't. But you're quite right:  Muddy, Wolf, T. Bone Walker, and, if you buy Elijah Wald's claim in ESCAPING THE DELTA, Leroy Carr, have been far more influential in the larger world of the blues than Walter. This is NOT to downgrade him. He was a genius on his chosen instrument, as Muddy was a genius in the matter of creating a small-ensemble blues band sound. His singing was, for my money, merely competent, where Muddy's was transcendent. (On the other hand, some might argue that he was far superior to either Muddy or Wolf, considered as a pure instrumentalist.) He surely makes the Top Ten all-time list. Well, does he? Muddy, Wolf, B.B., Bessie Smith, Robert Johnson, Sonny Boy (Rice Miller)....Sure. Top 10.74.229.164.106 (talk) 03:43, 10 March 2008 (UTC)

just a short note that as far as I know Walter was one of the very few bluesmen of that period to use a chromatic harmonica (almost everyone uses a diatonic harmonica which means you have tohave one in every key you are working in hence "ammo-belts" and other such) chromatic harmnica gives a very much fuller "organ/brass" type of sound but is much more difficult to "bend" (get quartertone notes). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.14.150.146 (talk) 15:04, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

Copyright concerns
Thanks to contributors keeping an eye out to make sure that material on Wikipedia is legally usable. With respect to the tagging of this article as a suspected infringement of this source, this material does seem to have evolved naturally on Wikipedia. Note this version in 2004. It includes "After quitting school by the age of 12, Walter left Lousiana and travelled wherever he chose, working odd jobs and honing his musical skills with Sonny Boy Williamson and Big Bill Broonzy, among others." The suspected site,, says, "After quitting school by the age of 12, Jacobs left rural Louisiana and travelled around working odd jobs and busking on the streets of New Orleans, Memphis, Tennessee, Helena, Arkansas, and St. Louis, Missouri, and honing his musical skills with Sonny Boy Williamson II, Sunnyland Slim, and Honeyboy Edwards, among others. " Later changes that brought this into line with the external site: the name "Walter" was changed to "Jacobs" weeks later, here. The spelling of Louisiana was repaired here. The word "Busking" was added in 2006, here. The specific streets were added in 2007, here, and later that year the word "rural", here. Of course, other passages also show such natural evolution, but my usual technique at WP:CP is to trace one sentence and see if it clarifies. I think in this case that we can pretty safely grant that the text originated here. Also, the site verifies that material is drawn from Wikipedia, here. Having been given more information, the administrator who originally investigated this material also agrees that it does not seem to be a copyright concern. --Moonriddengirl (talk) 15:20, 17 April 2009 (UTC)


 * I disagree, having found slabs of content obviously copied from this blog site. As a mere casual enquirer, I won't explore it fully but have deleted the section "Legacy" (a mixture of copied and added unsourced content) and "Death" (copied, although separate refs were inserted). Cheers, Bjenks (talk) 08:37, 6 March 2012 (UTC)

Bjenks, you've got the chronology wrong. The content on the blog site you linked to was copied from this wikipedia article, not the other way around. I know, because I wrote much of the current wikipedia entry several years ago. (This was also the case with the original 'copyright concerns' issue above.) At any rate, I've restored the copy you mistakenly deleted. Cheers! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.109.245.70 (talk) 18:06, 7 March 2012 (UTC)
 * OK, apols for that, if due —let's forget the copyright issue for now. However, in writing that Legacy stuff, you extravagantly misrepresented a Bill Dahl citation and added a load of OR. In reducing that to fair content, I invite you to have another go at it, this time using proper verifiability standards and leaving out the list of subsequent artists. I'll leave the Death section alone, not having access to the hard-copy refs, but maybe much of the rest of the article could do with a careful check of the citations. I'll gladly help when I get time. Cheers, Bjenks (talk) 03:49, 8 March 2012 (UTC)

Completeness of recordings (German text from article) moved
The article previously had the following German text:
 * Anmerkungen: Die Serie "Classics" wurde anscheinend nicht fortgeführt. "The Essential" und "The Chess Years" sind sehr selten und dementsprechend teuer. Die erste "Classics"-CD und die "Chess Years" geben einen relativ kompletten Überblick über Little Walters Werk. Unverständlicherweise gibt es bis heute, 40 Jahre nach seinem Tod, noch keine komplette Werksausgabe. Die Doppel-CD "Blues With A Feeling" enthält viele Alternate-Takes (Achtung! Es existiert auch eine Einzel-CD mit diesem Titel!). Hoffe, ich konnte etwas Licht ins Dunkel bringen. Blues & Gruß, Andi Saitenhieb

Translation:
 * The "Classics" series was apparently discontinued. "The Essential" and "The Chess Years" are very rare and thus not cheap. The first "Classics" and "Chess Years" provide for a relatively complete overview of Little Walter's work. Unbelievably even 40 years after his death there is still no complete collection of his life's work. Double CD "Blues With A Feeling" contains many alternate takes. (Single CDs under the same title are also available!) Hope I could shed a little light into the darkness. Blues & Greetings, Andi Saitenhieb

Definitely would need to be rewritten for NPOV. --SidP (talk) 16:12, 10 May 2009 (UTC)

Discography
The current (12 June 2009) Little Walter discography section is a list of albums (some with track listings) and no other information. Many of these albums have been discontinued. It would be more useful to readers of this type of article to have information about currently available albums, including dates, label info, etc. As with other articles about musicians, a better place for a more extensive list of albums and tracks is in a separate discography page. Ojorojo (talk) 21:29, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

There is (from what I can tell & verify) a quite extensively researched singles discography, including the session musicians on each studio session, the date (or at least month & year), the single catalog number when applicable (Checker) and even cross-referencing with later LPs or CDs released by Chess on the same songs by a man named Jonathan Lloyd (jonathan_lloyd@msn.com) Might I suggest you add this to the singles discography section? It will be a very useful addition to the abridged information currently listed (only the charting singles & chart position). Personally I'm loathe to add it as it's not my research info (jonathan_lloyd@msn.com) and I'm unversed on how to go about editing your pages. Please consider adding this catalog info. Vanessa Edwards Foster (talk) 17:38, 23 January 2012 (UTC) [User:moonflowrr] Vanessa Edwards Foster 1/23/12

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