Re: [Harp-L] George Carlin on white blues man...




On Oct 4, 2007, at 11:34 AM, Buck Wolf wrote:


Really, what Carlin was talking about was white movie stars who think their stardom automatically make them musical artists.

I know. But he touched on an issue that comes up around here and in the blues world. People struggle for authenticity and confuse an art form's roots with what happens to it when it becomes part of the culture. Similar arguments about authenticity were made in ballet as recently as the early 60s (and is perhaps are still advanced by some) namely that black women couldn't dance ballet because they had the wrong body shapes. And what about classical music? Isn't it patently absurd to say that a black musician can't play Mozart because he's not white? The list goes on and on. Sadly so many forget that we're all human beings and have many more similarities the differences. Are you old enough to remember the STAR TREK in which there were people from a planet that were half black and half white? Some were black on the left side, some on the right. And that was cause for fighing. It's just silly.


Wasn't this just a not so subtle jab at Bruce Willis and Dan Aykroyd?

A not so subtle jab, I'd say. :-)


And say what you want about Aykroyd's harmonica playing. Still, many blues players say that Aykroyd's done a lot of good for blues players.

Well I'm not embarrassed to admit that the BLUES BROTHERS skits, the movie, and the soundtrack were my on-ramp to Blues Highway. I always liked the bluesier rock and roll but didn't really know that its roots went deep into American culture. I thought that sound came from England.


Bob




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