James Moore AKA Slim Harpo Born: January 11, 1924 in the parish of West Baton Rouge, Louisiana. As a figure in the post-war rural blues, his music is often described as Louisiana swamp blues. As a teenager, his parents died, leaving him to raise one brother and three young sisters. As a result of this tragedy, Moore left school in the 10th grade and attempted to earn money as a dock hand in New Orleans. Eventually he returned home to Baton Rouge were he worked as a day laborer. Throughout his music career, Moore maintained his work ethic by running a trucking business, in the 1960s, as he recorded and performed.
Moore’s first musical instrument was the harmonica, which he had mastered by his teen years. After work, on the weekends, he would play at local bars and other public venues. He taught himself to play the harmonica and was influenced by Jimmy Reed, who recorded on the Excello label.
In 1948, he married his wife Lovell and became a full time musician. Through the 1950s, he toured Southern Louisiana, including his hometown of Baton Rouge where he would play and record with his brother-in-law, Lightin’ Slim1. It was also Lightin’ Slim who introduced Moore to Jay Miller, the record producer at Excello records. At that time, Moore went by the pseudonym Harmonica Slim. It was only after Moore had begun to record for Jay Miller that his name was changed to Slim Harpo. Miller signed Harpo to the Excello label where he would have some success.
In 1957, Slim Harpo began to record at the Excello studio in Crowly, Louisiana. While Slim Harpo’s harmonica playing was exceptional, his voice was not powerful enough to carry the lead. Therefore, Miller suggested that he sing through his nose creating the nasal timbre in Slim’s recordings. His first record was ‘I’m A King Bee’, which became a hit. Slim Harpo’s style centered around a nasal voice and amplified harmonica. The flip side of the album was the song ‘I Got Love If You Want It.’ Slim Harpo’s subsequent albums lacked the success of his first recording with the exception of ‘Rainin’ In My Heart.’
In January of 1966, Slim Harpo returned to the charts with ‘Baby Scratch My Back’ which hit No. 1 on the R&B chart on February 26, 1966, and remained No. 1 for two weeks. The song also peeked at Number 16 for 8 weeks in March on the Billboard Hot 100. It maintained its strength to be voted the No. 3 R&B recording for the year. This is even more significant if one takes into account the dominance of Motown on the R&B charts. According to Baton Rouge singer John Fred, Slim Harpo wrote ‘Scratch My Back,’ at the back of Tommy’s Record Shop. The record rekindled Slim Harpo’s career and introduced his music to a wider audience. ‘Scratch My Back’ is almost a dance tune, which is the reason it appealed to a larger audience. Harpo’s blues harmonica and nasal voice roll over a layered rhythmic foundation. The increased use of percussion in the song gave it a driving rhythm. According to Miller, ‘Even when we had drums we used a lot of sound effects… like for instance ‘Baby Scratch My Back,’ gee wee, we had some percussion.’ Also attributing to the success of the record was the advertising on WLAC in Nashville, Tennessee. The station reached 38 states with Slim Harpo’s ‘Scratch My Back’ while advertising the mail order label.
The success of the song lead to a concert appearance with James Brown at Madison Square Gardens in 1966. Later Slim Harpo appeared at Whisky A-Go-Go in L.A. and the Apollo Theater in 1968. ‘Scratch My Back’ was covered by Otis Redding. Other artists also have honored Slim by covering his music. This would include such artists as The Rolling Stones, who covered ‘I’m A King Bee’ and ‘Shake Your Hips.’ Also, Hank Williams Jr. had a country hit with ‘Raining In My Heart’ and the Kinks who recorded ‘Got Love If You Want It.’ Slim Harpo died on January 31, 1970 in Baton Rouge General Hospital following a heart attack.
1 The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Ed. Colin Larkin. Vol. 2. 1992.
— (Blues Foundation press release, 1997.)