In memory of Long John Baldry

What would have become of us if John William Baldry – whom everyone simply called Long John – hadn’t listened so intently on that cold winter’s evening in 1964 at Twickenham Station in London? Who among us would then be sitting here today, even giving a certain Roderick David Stewart from Highgate, London, a second thought? Fortunately, however, Long John had listened very carefully that evening and heard the melodious sounds of a harmonica.
Baldry, who was on his way home from a concert, was waiting for the train at Twickenham Station. It had been a long evening, but Long John had enjoyed it and heard a number of good songs. Humming the melodies of the past few hours softly to himself, the then 23-year-old sat down on a bench. There was hardly a soul to be seen at the station at this late hour. An almost ghostly silence reigned, broken only now and then by the wind rustling through the station.

Suddenly there was another sound, a sort of hum, quite melodic, but only very faint. Long John lifted his head and tried to work out where the sound was coming from. He looked around, got up from his bench and walked towards the sound, which – the closer Baldry got – turned out to be the sound of a harmonica. And then he saw him, the young man who was also sitting on one of the station benches, holding both hands in front of his face and moving them slightly back and forth from time to time. The sound soon turned out to be the song ‘Smokestack Lightning’ by Howlin’ Wolf.
Baldry pricked up his ears more and more. He liked what the young man was doing with his harmonica. They struck up a conversation and walked a few metres together.
Long John was with the Hoochie Coochie Men at the time and hired the young Roderick as a backing singer for a weekly wage of 35 pounds.

“When you think about how my harmonica playing was back then, Long John must have been drunk,” Rod laughed many years later as he recalled that evening. “Or maybe it was me – but I was playing better than ever before.”
Be that as it may, this event certainly marked the start of that magnificent career, which continues to this day. Every Rod Stewart fan on earth must be eternally grateful to Long John Baldry for listening so closely back then, in the winter of 1964.
And it was that very same John William Baldry who passed away 21 years ago today from complications of pneumonia.

Of course, Rod has never forgotten the man who discovered and nurtured his talent. “I owe Long John so much; he discovered me and turned me into a singer and entertainer. I loved him whilst he was alive, and was devastated when he died. I carry a photo of him in my wallet, and I can tell you, not a day goes by when I don’t think of the bloke,” Rod wrote in his autobiography in 2012.

It’s not just Rod, but all of us, who owe Long John Baldry so much. As I said, without him, we most likely wouldn’t all be sitting here today listening to Rod’s albums and music. Long live Long John!