Re: [Harp-L] Re: Bob Dylan

[Roy Germon <rgermon@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Heh heh.  Just because a few people made popular music
using only 50% of their gluteous maximus on the harp
parts (hmmm...that's an image I didn't mean to evoke)
doesn't mean squat.  None of these people are "harp
players".  What Alanis and Bob have in common is that
they are complete artists...song writers first and
foremost, singers next, and harp players about last. 
Feel free to derride their harp playing all you want. 
It's not their art.  It's like making fun of oranges
because you dont like the stringy membrane parts. 
Well, they may not taste good on their own, but they
help to hold it all together.

I'm going to go on a limb here and say that I have a
lot of respect for both Alanis and Bob, and I like
both of their music.  They have both been true to
their art in a way that the Britney Spearses of the
world never could.  Both have used a bit of harp to
successfully make their music better.  I think
sometimes people who have worked hard to be proficient
at the harp can be a bit jealous of the success of
others who are clearly less proficient. 

As for harp and respect, boy, this discussion gets
tired fast.  Who cares.  If you go out and earn
respect, you will get it.  You can get a harp for $5,
and if you can breathe, you can play a I chord in 1st
position.  It's the ultimate folk instrument.  That's
a plus, not a minus.  People look up to guitar players
because EVERYONE plays guitar, and most people quite
badly.  They can relate to guitar players, and they
understand how hard it is, so they revere Clapton and
Van Halen as gods.  Instead of discouraging crappy
harp players, we should be hoping the harp becomes as
ubiquitous as the guitar so that Levy and Del Junco
and Ricci can be the musical heroes of the next
generation.  Bad harp players dont hurt the harp. 
They push the harp into the collective conscious of
the public making them more receptive to the true
achievers of the instrument.  I had never heard of Del
Junco before I started playing crappy harp myself, and
now he's my musical role-model.

And think about the british blues explosion.  I'm no
historian, but, it seems that it was guys like Mick
Jagger and Robert Plant playing half-assed harp on
covers and derivative originals that reached a whole
new audience and opened the doors for the true blues
legends to achieve success in that market.  

Well, I think so anyway.
Roy