[Harp-L] Sugar Blue on alternate tunings

["John F. Potts" <hvyj@xxxxxxx>]

Here's an excerpt from the Sugar Blue interview I was referring to  
and which was the subject of recent comment by Mr. Hunter:

Steve:Do you use any specially tuned harmonicas?

Sugar:No, man I don't cop out.That is equipment for cop-out artists.I  
can't stand that crap!If you wnat to play something that is not on  
the harp, and you don't have it in your head and in your chops, it  
seems like everyone wants to take the "easy" or lazy way out these  
days.These special tunings keep people from really studing to come up  
with something new.Special tunings are nothing but garbage!It is like  
music made easy have you ever read that sci-fi story "Marching  
Morons"?They give everyone a scalpel that was special made and they  
instantly became a great physician!I have messed around with them and  
they are cute, but why mess around with something that has been right  
since Adam and Eve.Leave them alone!I am an old head man.If you want  
to do new things, you have got to dig deeper into the faith the more  
research listening and playing that you do about yesterday, the more  
you are going to find out about tomorrow.

Here's the link for the entire interview (which was conduced in 1994  
when SB may have been lost in space): http://bluzharp.tripod.com/ 
sugar.html

Not saying that I necessarily agree with him, but when SB talks about  
harp, i generally listen pretty closely.  I am a really big SB fan.   
If you want to know why, check out the MP3 album called "Another Man  
Done Gone"  available on Amazon.  It's a compilation of all the cuts  
from his long out of print first two albums released in France on the  
Blue Silver label.  Incredible stuff!

JP