RE: Pilsbury Dough Boy Speaks

[Jack Ely <IMS_ELY@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>Ok here's the text of the John Popper letter.  ...

8<---

Date: Tue, 17 May 94 14:58:21 -0500   date of original usenet post
> To all the harmonica players, Internet "Bulldogs", & anyone else
> interested, etc; Everyone, it has come to my attention that there is a 
> series of debates going on "Internet".  At the heart of these debates are 
> several issues I will address each in turn.

> Firstly, the facts; I have never been nor do I intend on going to a 
> "Harmonica convention" in Chicago or anywhere else for that matter.

How can you denounce Harmonica Conventions if you've never been to one?
Try one - you might like it. Kind of like saying I have never tasted ice 
cream, nor do I intend to.

> It seems to me that harp players enjoy being a persecuted race, which 
> enables them to separate themselves from other musicians and go around like 
> half-cocked gun fighters deciding who "the best harper is".  This is the 
> silliest premise I've ever had to deal with and is precisely the reason why 
> I will never go to a harmonica convention.  ...
8<---

Harmonica conventions are not gun fights. There has been only 1 serious 
harmonica competition in the U.S.A. in recent years. That was the 1991 World 
Harmonica Championships/SPAH Festival in Detroit - which was hosted by SPAH, 
and cosponsored by IHO and Hohner. And there was plenty of non-competitive 
harmonica there.

> All my love and faith,
> John Popper.

This thread is getting a little tiresome but I couldn't resist responding to 
this the second time around.

       Jack Ely - Columbus, Ohio  --Internet--> IMS_ELY@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

P.S. - I am one who is impressed with what John Popper did on the VH1 TV 
segment a few weeks ago - only time I ever heard or saw him play.