[Harp-L] re: Blues in Nurnburg (warning....long)




Here's my 35 Lire on the subject:


I spent my first 18 years fairly evenly divided between N.Y.C. & Italy (or France). While living in Europe I though it would be encumbant on me to absorb and enjoy the cultural difference(s) between there and the U.S. (hereafter erroneously referred to as America). My father, an enlightened American Consul cultivated that aspect in we 3 children and mother.

Don't want to upset anyone's apple cart and beings that hurting people's feelings is not high up on my entertainment list, I will write the following with some trepidation, but it always upset me when Americans would persist in doing everything American whether or not they were IN America.

We always lived ON the economy. Rented 'their' apts or villas, shopped at their stores, rode their transportation, ate their foods, wore their clothes and most importantly wore their shoes (the ULTIMATE dead giveaway). We went to their restaurants, listened to their music. And interacted with THEM attempting to speak their language, and use their money system.

Having been on the list off and on for approx 10 1/2 years (2 on, 1 off, 2 on, 1 off, and the rest on), It has been some years since I have heard this but there used to posts like "Blues is alive and well in Buda-Pesht". This would upset me. The first thing in MY mind was "Oh great, just we need, blues in Hungary. Home of some of the best music there has ever been". Then thoughts like "Ok, good, ruin ANOTHER country why doncha?".

When we lived in various cities in Europe (Trieste, Naples, Genoa, Venice, Paris, Wien), we could get (basically) 3 types of music. There was the local stuff, then there was the armed forces radio out of Heidelberg Ger. (big band) and if you had a short wave (like us), my favorite out of Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Ukraine, Jugoslavia, Greece, and the list goes on.

So, if I were in Klagenfurt Austria, I wanna hear AUSTRIAN music. If in Garmiscch Ger, I want the BAVARIAN stuff. If Lisboa, I want PORTUGESE. If in Paris, I want FRENCH. I sure as he!! don't want AMERICAN. It's just my opinion you understand. Now I DO realize that a lot of this 'so-called' ethnic music is commercialized for the tourist, but if you look around and don't take the typical tourist attitude, you WILL have access to the real McCoy. I have nothing against American bands touring around the world, but to travel around and expect American food, beverage, and music everywhere is not being very fair to the natives.

While on a Med cruise with the SeeBees, most of the men on the ship were listening to piped in music over the ship's pa system. It was the Beatles, and various rock & roll from America. I was out on the fan-tail listening to Morocco, Spain, Greece, Egypt, Turkey, Cyprus, Tunisia, Bulgaria, Roumania. Yeaah, gimme that 'Dracula' music...or that Klezmer stuff.

It's no secret that many peoples from many lands want to emulate Americans and all that America is. They watch movies and TV and get a fixed idea of what America is, but they never get to see the America that isn't. The dirty mill & mining towns with their 125 year old decrepit insul-brick frame rotting down homes. Their initial perception is that America is a pot of gold with limitless funds. And while our middle class is much larger (and usually better off) than other countries, our EXPENSES are high, and we don't ALL live like that. They see situation comedies with unrealistic 'movie-set' atmospheres. This is Hollywood America (or California) America. It's NOT America. What REALLY gripes me is that American males are always made to look like idiots, imbeciles, or morons. It's as if someone is purposely trying to make American males look like Cretins. (But that's a different subject)

Most Americans are poor. At least by American standards. Most are in debt (unusual in some countries).

If I were to go to Germany (for example) I would RELISH...absolutely relish whatever German music I could get. Fake or not. As for blues and jazz. While they ARE basically American, they are derived from a mix of other cultures and don't represent ALL Americans.

Funny story: I had purchased a chromo at the Navy PX. I was 12 1/2 years old. 1 1/2 years later I was playing in an open air cafe in Naples in the corner of the Mergelina bayfront park. We were doing Italian music (Quando si bella Roma, La Stella di Napoli, stuff like that). Invariably, if we got Americans there, they wanted to hear something American. They didn't know 'I' was American and were surprised when I knew the songs. Unfortunately, the band usually didn't, so I would indulge them 'Acapulco'. (and the band would try their best to join in). It was as hilarious as hell. Yes, those were my 'salad' days. Oh to go back to 1956.


smokey-joe





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