In a mood to stir some shit I guess. A friend forwarded me this link thinking I'd dig it. Ugh! An epic fail to my ears.
I've always felt ambivalent about Popper's playing at best. He's had little to do with Blues - that's ok with me. I just never knew what to make of his playing and his speed. Was he really in control of all those damn notes? If so, though not to my taste, - I had to respect the skill. Hearing this has me thinking - he can't produce a straightforward melody, and he's not even playing what he'd like to, or is trying to play. He's faking his way through it, compensating with his bag of tricks and some top of the harp blow bends.
This is obviously a nod to the Hendrix Woodstock anthem - so yes, I realize he is not going for a completely straight version, - but still, this to my mind betrays a lack of command.
To be fair this other version he did a few years back comes a lot closer to pulling it off. If you dig his style and sound,I suppose he does (pull it off) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4cylgK6iWw (it won't give me the embed code)
I kind of like Popper's playing on his own stuff. But this reminds me of the time that Rosanne Barr sang the anthem before a ball game. I'm sure their heart was in the right place. But some things just shouldn't be. ----------
Overall I'd say it was decent. It's not to my personal taste. I have heard him play better versions. This version seems very discombobulated. My issue with the way Popper plays the Anthem is his tenancy to gliss between every note that has spacing. Personally I think it takes away from the performance maybe a gliss or two but ever damn note? There is another video that is better on Youtube but the embedding is disabled. Anyway until someone of note makes a better harmonica version of the Star Spangled Banner this will have to be the standard we live by Whether we like it or not.
---------- "The only way to get better is to play a little outside your comfort zone every time you play!"
That was awful. If that vid did not have national anthem in the title it would have been absolutely unintelligible to me for pretty far into the song, if at all. I know a blinding amount of notes is his style, but jeez man he's still packing so much stuff in, the song completely loses its essence.
And absolutely no comparison to Hendrix at Woodstock, in my opinion, absolutely none. Hendrix left enough portions of it unchanged that you at least knew what he was playing. And the massive feedback/distortion was brilliantly made to sound like explosions and the general chaos of Viet Nam (at least that's my take on it). I don't hear that here, just somebody trotting out every difficult technique he has mastered to assuage his ego, and in the process losing the song itself. I can only picture the guys standing behind him going WTF???? I agree with you bonedog just an epic fail indeed.
Never been a Popper fan but I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. With this performance he continues to reinforce for me that my choice of paying him zero attention was the right one.
Last Edited by Honkin On Bobo on Sep 18, 2015 12:36 PM
I don’t think this shows a lack of control over the “notes”. I think he is in total control of the notes. I think is shows a lack of control over himself. Call me old fashioned if you will, but I think the Star Spangled Banner should be performed (sung or played) with a certain degree of reverence for the song with which we are all familiar. If you want to throw a little style in there – like a big ending – that’s OK. But when maybe one in ten notes you play is the actual melody you move away from honoring the national anthem and what is stands for and into the “It’s all about me” neighborhood. To me, this was Mr. Popper saying that HE – HIS MUSIC – was more important to him that the people who had to listen to it. At least he did take off his hat. ---------- Tom Halchak www.BlueMoonHarmonicas.com
So maybe this could be the next MBH throw down challenge. Whomever wants to give it go, take a crack at the USA national anthem. You can use either a chrom or diatonic harp. If I remember correctly, I believe the Duke of Wail, who posts here on occasion, plays it for different events in the Phoenix area.
I’ve been thinking of working it out on the chrom and then in the Spring going to the opening anthem tryouts for the local minor league ball team here. The winner of the tryouts gets to play, or sing as the case may be, at the beginning of every home game.
Yeah, it doesn't hold together musically. I'm all for a few ornamental frills, but they have to work within the melody. And he didn't even have to remember the words. That's what trips most people up.
I was going to play the National Anthem at an open mic that fell on the 4th of July once, but my friend saw I'd signed up and said, 'Man, I hope you aren't going to do one of those cheesy Star Spangled Banner Covers' and I lost my nerve. I'd been working on it a couple weeks. :(
What Hendrix did was an arranged piece of music, a real and musically coherent interpretation of the National Anthem. That is why it's dynamic, why it remains exciting, why it does still moves us. What Popper was amateurish, and his high register flourishes didn't disguise that he didn't know where to go on the instrument at times. Nothing he did really grew out of anything else he'd just played. I've given grudging respect to Popper for a unique sound and his ability at writing material where his approach makes sense, but this also under scores his short comings, which would his lack of versatility. If I needed a harmonica player in my band who could perform a variety of styles well and with style, Popper, at his demonstrated skill level, would not be the guy I'd hand the microphone to. ---------- Ted Burke tburke4@san.rr.com
I was trying to find Buddha's cover of Hendrix. I think it was All Along the Watchtower. It wasn't perfect, trying to play a guitar line on harp, but it was pretty darn good, but I can't for the life of me find it on YouTube.
I liked Chris's Purple Haze. Hendrix had dissonance working for him on this track from the git-go, starting with the off-key quote from Winchester Cathedral. And the solo was a conceptually brilliant shot gun marriage of blues phrasings and more dissonance that bordered on pure atonality.It was multitracked, yes, but Hendrix was in full control of the sound he wanted. It was and remains a masterful performance. It certainly wasn't Mancini, it wasn't Ferrante and Teicher. What Chris did was an adroit recreation of the original guitar parts. Harmonically (and unharmonically, we might add) we have the wonderful effect called The Shock of Recognition; we are hearing new things while experiencing a rich memory of the source. Quite the same effect was acheived by Kronos Quartet when they did their own arrangement of Purple Haze. ---------- Ted Burke tburke4@san.rr.com
Ouch...what NOT to do. He MUST have had a few hits, and atleast a couple shots. That'll do it every time. ...terrible! ---------- Yes, there are blues in Hawaii.
Man, a bunch of those first responders are significantly fatter than John Popper! Might be time to drive on past the Krispy Kreme without loading up, fellas.
Yeah... Didn't enjoy that at all. Could that be considered a case of the harp playing the harpist rater than the harpist playing the harp? I mean, I very heard some of his stuff that I've liked, and he's clearly a talented individual.... But this.... Nope... not this.
