Re: [Harp-L] Re: Mama Thornton




On Dec 14, 2009, at 5:44 AM, Steve Baker wrote:


I can understand some of the less favorable comments posted here about the harmonica playing in this video but would like to put it in a historical perspective.

Ok, remember, I was only talking about this video.


We're talking about 1965 here

Ok, I was 23


, when segregation was a fact of life in the USA

Yeah, too bad that the 1% that ran everything got all 200 million(at that time) of us painted with that brush.


(listen to J.B. Lenoir's songs on the subject) and Afro-American blues musicians were not generally being asked to appear on TV. It's only thanks to Horst Lippmann, the initiator of the AFBF and the man who brought the blues to Europe, that these artists were given the chance to do so.

My hats off to Horst for that. It gave Europe an opportunity to see blues in it's truest form. Why it even made Europeans experts on the American scene in general.


In many cases these German TV recordings are the only existing film material showing them in their prime rather than much later in life and offer invaluable insight into their music.

From the musicans' viewpoint: When the nice man (who has brought you to Europe, put you up in a series of comfortable hotels and paid you a handsome fee to perform your music to respectful and enthusiastic audiences) then even manages to arrange a TV appearance, you'd probably go along with the producer when he says "I've got this great idea, why don't you all play harp and take turns at the mic ....".

Personally I'm immensely grateful to Horst Lippmann und the German TV station SWF for giving us the opportunity to see some of the seminal artists of the blues in action, even if it's staged in this dated and artificial manner and then took 40 years to emerge from the vaults. Is there any comparable American footage of these artists from the same era?

Probably not. And probably not for the same reason I gave in my initial response some hours ago. I may be the only person alive to say this, but the information highway is overloaded with stuff that has no merit. While I considered this video somewhat of a 'saveable' piece of film, I still think the playing was kinda lame.


smo-joe


Steve Baker www.stevebaker.de www.bluesculture.com




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