Re: Subject: [Harp-L] re: Today?s lesson

[martin oldsberg <martinoldsberg@xxxxxxxxx>]

Yes, as Eliabeth hints, perhaps being from Sweden has prevented me from more thorough incursions into Pimpdom -- although we appear to have a few of them here as well; but Mama never wanted me to hang out with those boys, and ... just as well. 
  My pimp-images may mostly come from Hollywood and I´m perfectly willing to concede the point that the influence here was from artists to pimps, not the other way. (I only said they had "the fashion sense of pimps"; and I still think that the minute you detect significant sartorial overlapping between yourself and Mr Pimp, regardless of causality, you ought to seriously consider a wardrobe adjustment.)
  
  
  But more harmonically important, no matter how many Oscars, Grammys, Handy Awards and what have you, that´s been bestowed on Jr Wells, his performances here, the two times I saw him in the 70´s, were simply despicably bad. And, sadly, it was not at all a question of having an "off night", but more an idea that you had a certain license here not to perform good music, but instead you could "clown around" or whatever their stupid antics could be called, because these stupid Swedish bozos liked you anyway. And you got paid for it no matter how. It was a question of contempt, and that was my point, not to subtly put, I admit, that they could not have done the same thing in Chicago.
  
  Some of the blues players that hit the European scene in the 60´s and 70´s appeared thoroughly pleased that they could come this far and still be appreciated by people who knew about their music, and hence gave their best in the concerts (Johnny Shines stands out as a fine example, but there were several). Some were of the slightly super-annuated kind and a bit the worse for wear, but you could excuse them.
  Wells & Guy put on the airs as some sort of divas and devoted considerably more of their interest to the Swedish girls in the audience than doing what they were supposed to.
  I felt this very strongly at the time, due to a high regard for the music, and just had to live w/ the fact that this jerk strutting around on an ego-trip was the same guy who had played on "Standing ´round and crying". 
  Two chances he got, but never again. C´est tout.

/Martin
 
--- On Thu, 1/29/09, EGS1217@xxxxxxx <EGS1217@xxxxxxx> wrote:

From: EGS1217@xxxxxxx <EGS1217@xxxxxxx>
Subject: Subject: [Harp-L] re: Today?s lesson
To: Franze52@xxxxxxx
Cc: martinoldsberg@xxxxxxxxx, harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
Date: Thursday, January 29, 2009, 6:17 PM



Martin, perhaps being from Sweden, simply has it backwards. Junior Wells & Buddy Guy weren't copying Pimps, it was the other way around.
 
And as far as 'originality' is concerned,  Jr. Wells last album before his death was nominated for a Grammy, and he won the WC Handy award in 1996. >From this review from the 1970's it seems Martin's quite in the minority with his opinion of JW's playing during that era, although anyone can have an off night, n'est-ce-pas?:
 
"Robert Palmer, a music critic of The New York Times, saw a 1978 performance at the Bottom Line in Greenwich Village and wrote that their set included a ''breathtaking country blues, done as a duet, some gritty slow blues in a more urban vein, and some chunky, convincing funk.'' ''Mr. Guy tended to be subdued and delicate on guitar and passionate vocally,'' he added, ''while Mr. Wells proves once again that he was the only performer who convincingly bridges the gap between old-fashioned Delta blues and the soul stylings of James Brown, without slighting either.'' 
 
Elizabeth
 
Message: 11
Date: Thu, 29 Jan 2009 08:27:47 -0500
From: "Frank Franze" <Franze52@xxxxxxx>
Subject: [Harp-L] Chucks Caucasian Pimps
To: "harp-l" <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>

Check out Chucks caucasian pimps...
http://tinyurl.com/awemyl
 
<http://tinyurl.com/awemyl>

------------------------------
"Message: 15
Date: Wed, 28 Jan 2009 05:16:48 -0800 (PST)
From: martin oldsberg <martinoldsberg@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [Harp-L] re: Today?s lesson
To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx

Hmm, I´m not so sure ... The groove is great, but the harmonica playing here is not particularly impressive, to my mind. (And, less importantly, about dressing well: the fashion sense here is that of pimps. Is that cool?) 
  There´s much to be said for economy in playing, but there´s also something to be said for originality.
 Jr Wells could play great at times, but seemed to get so caught up in mannerisms -- vocal and instrumental -- that this became more or less a rarity. I saw him and Buddy Guy here in Sweden a couple of times  in the 70s, behaving and playing so abominably, that in Chicago they´d probably been taken out and shot. Here the docile audience just tried to clap in time, thinking "this is probably how it´s supposed to sound".
  Pity, ´cause they were both talented.
 
 /Martin"



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