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From: "Richard W. Rinn"
Date: Wed, 14 Apr 1999 02:00:36 +0100
Subject: Re: Mick Jagger Harmonica: Who can resist? (LONG RETORT TO MANY REPLIES)

>Keith Relf is the guy who turned me on to harp. Listen to "New York City
Blues",
>recorded during the Beck era. I still love this solo. It is nothing fancy,
but
>contains great phrasing and perfectly captures the mood. He describes
staring
>down a big, black shiny shotgun in the hands of his girlfreind's dad and
then
>sings "This is how I was, Oh No,..." and then lays down the perfect harp
track.
>IMO, this is way better than "generic, British Invasion stuff".

Yep, know it well. I mean, he may have had a few good moments, but in
general, I just think he's pretty average... I prefer Van Morrison's
playing with Them. Different strokes for different folks, then...


>No offense to Jack Bruce (I am a huge Cream fan - love the harp on "From
Four
>Until Late" and "Train Time") but I can't put him in the same league as
Magic
>Dick.

Hmmm... Is this leading into techno-battle territory?! If they're both
good, they're both in the same league. They may be good in different ways,
some more easily quantifiable than others, but good is good.


>You want Soul?

Shooooo 'nUFF!


>Have you heard the Bluestime albums?

Nope.


>Jack Bruce is a
>fabulous musician and his phrasing is great, but his harp playing (at least
with
>Cream) is fairly basic stuff.

Well it must be the phrasing that turns me on, plus just the sound of the
harp, which echoes the sound of his singing voice (which I love).


>Magic Dick, on the other hand, is a true monster
>on the harp - the extent to which I have only realized in recent years. He
is
>one of those guys that I couldn't fully appreciate until I really started
>learning the subtleties of different embouchures and articulations.

To be honest, that's pants. Music can mean a lot of things to a lot of
people. In my opinion, the single most pointless is the one where other
musicians are impressed on a technical level. Steve Cropper eats Steve Vai
on guitar to these ears any day. The technical level doesn't matter ONE
IOTA if you can put your thing across well with what you've got. I mean, it
may be fun in a trainspotterly type of way to musician types of above
average intelligence, who want somewhere to aim their grey matter, but it's
just a side-line. Like the paint job on your car versus the running,
comfort, reliability, safety (and quality of elephant catching aparatus).

I must re-iterate however that I do not class Magic Dick with the soul-less
(dare I say it) John Popper (ooh!) type stuff. When I hear his harp
playing, I enjoy it on a personal, human level, so technique can't be the
only thing on his mind (surely not, with a monicker like that!).

I hope I'm putting myself across well enough here... I'm not saying that
the learning of different techniques, or adding further hues to your
pallette is pointless, just that having these things does not necessarily
add anything of any real value (!). Oh, man, I give up.


>As I start to push into middle age, I am learning a couple of things: As I
get
>older, my Dad gets smarter and smarter and as I learn more harp, Magic Dick
gets
>better and better.

Tell me, do you dig Howlin' Wolf's harp playing? When I'm driving in my
car, listening to a tape, and the Wolf comes on and blows some harp, that
really makes me feel good. That's all I need.





Richard.