George Carlin on the blues

[Ro3b]

Mods: if this topic strays too close to the no politics/controversy rule, please delete it and accept my apologies.

A friend and I have been discussing this video of George Carlin (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dcr8dm9Prkk) (Not embedding because it's pretty raw).

To summarize: "White people got no business playin' the blues ever, at all, under any circumstances. Ever. Ever. Ever."

My predictable reaction was, well, geez, somebody had better tell Johnny Winter and Jimmy Vaughan and Joe Bonamassa and Dan Auerbach and Sean Costello and Seasick Steve and all those other guys who didn't get the memo.

I really hate this attitude. If he'd been more specific and talked about Bruce Willis, I'd be there pumping my fist and going YEAH. But to make such a sweeping generalization shows a really appalling combination of ignorance and snobbery. Very disappointing coming from Carlin.

Eh. Maybe I shouldn't be so sensitive about it. Shrug?

[warren0728]

that was strange...when i first opened this thread and click the youtube video it was joe bonamassa....so i clicked reply to ask if you had changed the video from carlin to joe and in the reply window the video was carlin....so i went back to your original post and sure enough....now it is carlin....strange but true...

as for the carlin thing....not one of my favorite routines....i believe anyone can have the blues....i don't care what color, nationality, etc. you are!

ww

edit: now i see you just linked it instead of embedding...i must have been trying to view it while you were in the process....still not sure why i saw a joe bonamassa video first.... <twilight zone music playin'>

[Ro3b]

Because I've only been up for half an hour and I'm just now pouring my first cup of coffee.

[sunvalleylaw]

I just laid into a friend who can be somewhat arrogant at times about saying this very thing. His point is that there is "black" blues, and "white" blues or i suppose, "not black" blues. I had had a long day anyway and politely told him I thought his point was idiotic, and that I did not listen to blues to somehow divine the heritage of the player anyhow. I suppose a lot of comedy is stereotyping, but I dislike this attitude. Carlin has some good observations, but it is only comedy, and I certainly disagree with him on many points, esp. his rant about the existence of God, and this blues one.

EDIT: My comment on his rant is awfully close to the line I suppose, but the rant was posted in another thread. I certainly respect Carlin and his work, and he did hit on a lot of good observations. I just don't agree with these two and find them . . . annoying. But he is entitled to his opinion.

[street music]

Sun, I'm not fond of the run that Carlin did. Yes, he did some of it for comedy attention but he meant a lot of what he said on stage-straight out!
Blues is another style of music just as Jazz, Country, etc. that's my take on it.

[TS808]

I was never a big Carlin fan...I thought his best comedy was in the 70's really. I know I'm sounding opinionated, but I remember thinking when I first heard his comment about white people not having any business doing the blues, I thought, at that point, he didn't have any business doing comedy.

No question Carlin was one of the greats, but I just think that he was funnier in his younger days, and it seems that the more he dove into political humor, the less I liked him.