kazoo
Invented by
Warren Herbert Frost in 1883 (who had it patented as “this instrument or toy”)
and further refined by George D. Smith in 1902, the kazoo is a membranophone, a
device which alters the sound of the voice by means of a vibrating membrane.
The submarine shaped metal or plastic kazoos are played by humming into them -
different syllables make for different ‘buzzing’ sounds.
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prime example
the story
Electric
Ladyland was the first studio album Jimi Hendrix would produce himself, which
meant this time he could go wild. Chas Chandler had left the building and with
him went the three-minute-45RPM-restrictions. Crosstown Traffic, a heavy rock
song in which Hendrix compares his love interest to busy traffic (“so hard to
get through to you”), is one of the few songs on the album to feature the
original Experience trio, with Noel Redding on bass and Mitch Mitchell on drums,
plus Dave Mason on backing vocals.
For this song, Hendrix wanted a heavier guitar sound, like a speaker had blown out. Instead of actually slicing up a guitar speaker (like Link Wray and Dave Davies had done before him), he used a makeshift kazoo made of a comb and tissue paper to play in tandem with his lead guitar.
For this song, Hendrix wanted a heavier guitar sound, like a speaker had blown out. Instead of actually slicing up a guitar speaker (like Link Wray and Dave Davies had done before him), he used a makeshift kazoo made of a comb and tissue paper to play in tandem with his lead guitar.
other examples
Paul McCartney wrote Lovely Rita about Meta Davies, a female traffic warden who gave him a parking ticket outside the Abbey Road Studios, where the Beatles were recording Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Instead of becoming angry, McCartney accepted the ticket and expressed his feelings in this song. As for the name change, McCartney later said “Well, she looked like a Rita to me”. After the line “and the bag across her shoulder made her look a little like a military man”, Lennon, McCartney and Harrison play a kazoo made of comb and paper to simulate a military brass band. Pink Floyd were watching the Beatles record this song and curiously enough, David Gilmour also plays kazoo to imitate a brass band on Corporal Clegg, from Pink Floyd’s second album, A Saucerful Of Secrets, released one year after Sgt. Pepper’s.
Jesse ‘The Lone Cat’ Fuller was the original one-man band, playing twelve string acoustic guitar, harmonica, kazoo, cymbal and fotdella, an invention of his own which consisted in playing six bass strings with his feet. Some of his songs were covered by Bob Dylan and the Grateful Dead among others but his most enduring cut is probably San Francisco Bay Blues. First recorded in 1954, it was covered by both Paul McCartney and Eric Clapton for their MTV Unplugged shows. It was Clapton however who said before the song “This is the first and last time you’ll ever see this” - referring to the kazoo he was about to use.
Jesse ‘The Lone Cat’ Fuller was the original one-man band, playing twelve string acoustic guitar, harmonica, kazoo, cymbal and fotdella, an invention of his own which consisted in playing six bass strings with his feet. Some of his songs were covered by Bob Dylan and the Grateful Dead among others but his most enduring cut is probably San Francisco Bay Blues. First recorded in 1954, it was covered by both Paul McCartney and Eric Clapton for their MTV Unplugged shows. It was Clapton however who said before the song “This is the first and last time you’ll ever see this” - referring to the kazoo he was about to use.