Re: [Harp-L] Re: Harp-L Digest, Vol 47, Issue 1

[BiscuitBoy714@xxxxxxx]

Here's sumpin" that'll get some uproar. When I  play Cross Cut Saw, or Blues 
with a feeling, or any of the other blues  standards, I do my own licks. I've 
never ever tried to copy any of those tunes.  I haven't even 
heard.........well yea I've heard 'em, but I just play what comes  in my head 'cause it feels 
good. Magic Dick ruined my life.....He  He........really tho, I learned to play 
all of his licks before I got to  Butterfield, or any of the other greats. 
The way I figured it, Magic Dick and  Jimmy Hall (Wet Willie) already went to 
school on those guys so I just learned  what they knew and rocked on. Their 
licks were permanently etched in by brain  before I went back to Little Walter and 
so on. I played along with some of Sonny  Terry, Brownie Magee's stuff about 
a month ago for the first time. I have to  admit that some of it I couldn't 
just play first time but in about 15 minutes I  could do all of those licks. 
Maybe not the tone, but real close. I learned to  play without any amp straight 
through the PA, and I feel like my tone is where I  want it to be anyway. On 
the other hand I was in Maine a couple of weeks ago and  the young lady's father 
I met was a huge J Geils freak. I had my bag 'o' harps  with me and jammed 
along with Bloodshot and the Live album. In no shape or form  could I do House 
Party, or First I look At The Purse or any of the other songs  on those albums 
without copying Magic Dick. It's all in where you learn. I put  the licks to 
Wammer Jammer (I've said before I know) in a Hank Williams Jr. song  because I 
heard it in my head at practice one night and did it that way because  I 
thought it sounded cool. It truly was a tribute to the master that I  learned from. 
I didn't do it because I couldn't come up with my own licks  believe me. I've 
written my own stuff and I'll play what I feel on it, (God if I  could just 
get it clean enough to pass my own muster) but every once in a while  I'll do 
somebody else's licks in my own song to pay tribute. It aint 'cause I  can't 
improvise trust me. I don't have to prove anything to anybody, but I do  respect 
everybody and the way they play. <Shrug> That shrug is a tribute  to Patrick 
Krupa by the way.
          Find Dixie Dregs  album........cue Take It Off The 
Top..........turn up way loud.........start  day.
                   Randy
       BiscuitBoy Blues
 
In a message dated 7/1/2007 1:58:53 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
celticguitar1@xxxxxxxxxxxx writes:

This is  someone you probably know-I'd be surprised if you didn't, in fact- 
taking  whole 12-bar choruses note-for note from Little Walter and Sonny Boy 
II  and slipping them into other songs without attribution. This appears to a 
 
case of covering up a defiency in improvising to make oneself  look  better 
than one really is. I now doubt copyright infringment happened, but  in my 
view this practice is artistically dishonest. That's all I'm saying.  Making 
your own musicial statement, for better or worse, is the goal as  far as I'm 
concerned.

-Glenn


 



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