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From: Ken Ficara
Date: Sat, 17 Jan 1998 22:41:51 -0500
Subject: Re: Whammer Jammer

>Although you may have hoped for a "new" arrangement or approach to WJammer, I
>would bet that whomever requested it probably was tickled to death to hear it
>note for note. I've heard various interpretations of Jammer, but none so

I suppose that's an approach. But personally, if that person had wanted to
hear it note for note, s/he should have gone home and listened to the
record. That's certainly not why I listen to live music. It wasn't the lack
of a new arrangement that was a problem, it was the fact that a lot of it
was *exactly* the same. Most of the blues performers I really enjoy seeing
live don't play things the same way two nights in a row, never mind for 20
years.

>right on as the original. Also, the way the song is written and arranged
>doesn't lend itself to a lot of off the cuff improvisation.

Huh? What is it, an opera? Come on. He plays the whole intro section by
himself, and it's the kind of thing that any of the Walters or SBW couldn't
play the same way twice probably if they tried. And the main part of the
song is pretty much a boogie. What about it makes it less suited for
improvisation than, say, Juke? I'm sure he could have managed to work out a
new turnaround or two over the intervening decades. Anyway, I seem to
remember a few harp-l posters a while back pointing out the several songs
that he drew on in composing it.

I understand your point, that maybe that's what his audience wants to hear.
Which is his affair, but it smells like the McCartney syndrome to me. I
remember seeing Paul McCartney about eight years ago and he did a bunch of
old Beatles songs, each one with the exact intro, solo, etc, and while I
knew why he was doing it -- audience demand -- it still seemed sad and was
very unfulfilling. I wish Magic Dick/Bluestime all the success in the
world, but I won't be going to see them too often.

Ken

=====================================================================Ken Ficara fica~cm.org
Every goodbye ain't gone.

. Junior Wells, 1934-1998

For more quotes, see: http://www.panix.com/~ficara/quotes/quotes.cgi