[Harp-L] I agree with Rob Paparozzi



Rob Paparozzi wrote:
You will NEVER really be a Bluesman if you see only things in only Black Vs White.....

In 1967 I wrote a fan letter to BB King in which I said something like "I'm just a white teenager, but your music moves me very deeply."


A week later I got a letter back from Mr. King thanking me for my fan letter, but very pointedly, and kindly, saying "This music is not about black or white."

Wish I could find that letter now.

That being said, when I hear a white guy trying to sound like their conception of what a black guy sounds like, I cringe. That doesn't mean that a white musician has to 'sound white' whatever that is, or that a white musician can't introduce characteristic elements of roughness - heck, Elvis was a master of a rough sound when that was appropriate.

White musicians who imitate their misconceptions of a black sound are no more convincing than children imitating the sound of a foreign language with gibberish.

But there are singers like Billy Vera, who were completely accepted by the Apollo audience without ever, EVER trying to sound black. Billy just plain sounds real, as does Delbert McClinton. Neither of those guys try to do anything other than be themselves.

I think that might sort of be what BB King meant.

K




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