9781422287521

11 Red Hot Red

By now, he had also learned the harmonica and was performing at church socials, fraternal organization meetings, cafes, and speakeasies . He also brought along an old steel washtub, which he turned over and kicked with his boot. That was the drum for his one-man band. In the summer of 1929, Lester found his talents in demand at Beekman’s barbecue stand in nearby Goerke’s Corners. Beekman’s had no tables—just a large parking lot where guests ate in their cars. With cars dri- ving in and out, and waitresses clanging by with trays of food, Lester often found himself trying to sing over a great deal of noise. One night he brought along an old microphone, wired it into a radio speaker, and was able to amplify his voice and harmonica over the racket in the parking lot. But Lester’s acoustic guitar couldn’t be heard above the din in the parking lot. So Lester “borrowed” a com- bination radio-phonograph player owned by his father. He took the needle from the phonograph arm and stuck

it into the wood below the strings, so it would “pick up” the vibrations when he played the notes. Then, he ran a wire from the needle through the speakers of the

Make Connections The first song recorded on a phonograph was “Mary Had a Little Lamb” by the inventor of the device, Thomas Edison.

radio. He cranked up the volume as high as it would go and strummed the strings. It worked: the needle heard the notes and amplified them through the radio speaker.