Poppersnappers

[Steve Jennings <100010.1152@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

For anyone who can do sums, I've been 19 since 1973 (Doug, of course, has been
16 since 19something (or should that be 19 since 16something, I never could do
mental arithmetic :-) ) but that's another story :-) (sorry Doug, couldn't
resist) - really who cares?? It ain't about how old your body is, it's about
your mental attitude - I've never met a musician who can ~really~ play who isn't
a hoot to be around - Adler for one, Portnoy, Harman, Estrin, Mars, Levy, Jones,
Doug, Oskar, Hughes the list goes on (and that's just the harp players). The
strange thing is, that all those guys drop their jaws when they hear Howard
Levy, and ~not one~ of them would cross the road to p**s on Popper if he was on
fire!! Kinda makes you think, doesn't it?? Of course, you could say "That's just
the old guys having the s**t scared out of them by the young guys coming along
behind", but I think it might also be worth considering my previous post about
playing music, rather than just playing harmonica, and the implications of that
statement.
<From what I've heard of Popper's recordings, his songwriting (IMAO) is far
stronger than his harp playing right now - and I sincerely hope he manages to
get his playing musical (whatever that means :- ) ) as well as clever, but with
the world and his wife telling him that he's the next best thing to a rampant
orgy in a vat of cream cheese, and with his propensity to believing his own
publicity (see his HIP interview), I have my doubts. This is not to say that he
isn't  VERY impressive the first time you hear him play a solo, but so are most
of the (over)rated guitarists that guitar magazines (and doubtless guitar Net
lists) rave about.

This is not, repeat NOT, intended to be a flame - it is, however, intended to be
a gentle encouragement towards the use of objective critical faculties, or
something. (I'm tempted to say that if you want ~really~ fast playing that is
also musical, you should listen to Doug, but he'll only say that a mere 16
squillion notes a second, in tune, equally loud (or soft) and with astonishing
legato, vibrato and any other ......o, you care to mention, on the chromatic is
just a matter of practise and owning a metronome, so I won't bother. :-) )

Steve (old enough to know better) Jennings
Editor, Harmonica World