RE: [Harp-L] Why all this discussion of Popper?

["Bill Hines" <billhines4@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

He's a lightning rod here for a lot of reasons. He's probably the most
well-known harp player by the *general* public rock fan types, at least
as the focal instrument, not the accompaniment style that
springsteen/neil young/dylan/etc use. I think that gets under some folks
skin as we know that some of our heros here (Howard Levy, on and on, so
many) are better harp players (again, subjectively, opinions are a
personal thing!) and more deserving of that fame perhaps. 

He also has the name 'Blues' in his band but doesn't play blues
normally. Etc. Every few months, someone mentions his name again and it
all starts all over, same posts saying the same thing, over and over. I
have a personal vow to not contribute to those (but I just did sort of,
to let you know what this is all about), and just ride the storm out
until it passes again, suggest you do the same, haha. In this type of
list with so many members, there's always going to be a certain signal
to noise ratio, so be in the habit of just skimming past stuff you
aren't interested in, rather than let it bother you. There is so much
excellent stuff on harp-l, minor annoyances like this still make it well
worth my while. So let it go, it's the only way to get along, I'm sure
there are others that enjoy the give and take on those topics. Some
folks don't like all the gear talk, to each his own. Go on a nascar
forum and mention Jeff Gordon, go on a football forum and mention
Terrell Owens, etc. Every topic has its lightning rod(s), harp-l is
pretty large, it's just part of our world :^)

Here's a prediction - it will die out, and then someone will mention him
around Thanksgiving and it will all start again. Circle of life, hakuna
matada.

Bill Hines
Hershey, PA

-----Original Message-----
From: harp-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx [mailto:harp-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Jim McBride
Sent: Thursday, August 25, 2005 3:33 PM
To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [Harp-L] Why all this discussion of Popper?

Hello all. I'm new to the list and don't want to stirr up a lot of
controversy, but I really don't understand all this discussion about JP.
I've heard this kind of discussion before - and you might as well add in
similar discussions about Neil Young and Bob Dylan. In my opinion if
someone can play music of any kind and people like it and pay money to
hear it, then thats fantastic. Who am I, or anyone else, to judge which
music is better. We can certainly tell which styles are more technically
challenging to play, but technical ability doesn't necessarily make good
music. 
 
Especially with the harp we should embrace all players. If its harp and
someone is getting paid to play it then thats one hell of an
accomplishement. Neil Young sold a whole lot of records with "Heart of
Gold". The harp on that song is very simple but it sounds great and
people love it. Its not technical, but its musical ... and isn't that
the goal of all of our playing? A lot of young people have never heard
harp except for JP. He's introducing a whole group of people to the harp
that might not otherwise have ever had any exposure to it. He has a
commercially successful band that is fronted by a harp player. Enough
said.
 
Keep on harping all,
Jim McBride