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Strings Attached: The Life and Music of John Williams (The Guitarist) by Williams Starling - New Biography

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Jim

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Nov 10, 2012, 10:18:23 PM11/10/12
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Saw this new book on the John Williams recordings site and just ordered
a copy, I hope it's a good read.


http://tinyurl.com/b4jt7fo


JPD

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Nov 10, 2012, 10:43:33 PM11/10/12
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Not yet released in the USA, I think. I've had it on order from
Amazon for weeks.

Murdick

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Nov 11, 2012, 6:51:44 AM11/11/12
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What music?

himmelhoch

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Nov 13, 2012, 11:33:38 AM11/13/12
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More music than you have ever produced! Have some respect!

S

Murdick

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Nov 18, 2012, 9:48:24 AM11/18/12
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Himmelhock, I believe respect must be earned. You need to listen to and study music. I can't think of a moment in my life when I have played as badly as John Williams.

John Nguyen

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Nov 18, 2012, 10:56:42 AM11/18/12
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On Nov 18, 9:48 am, Murdick <lutem...@aol.com> wrote:
> Himmelhock, I believe respect must be earned. You need to listen to and study music. I can't think of a moment in my life when I have played as badly as John Williams.

Wow, this is funny! I didn't know John Williams playing sax too :-)

John Nguyen

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Nov 18, 2012, 1:43:58 PM11/18/12
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On Nov 18, 9:48 am, Murdick <lutem...@aol.com> wrote:
> Himmelhock, I believe respect must be earned. You need to listen to and study music. I can't think of a moment in my life when I have played as badly as John Williams.

This bad?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzz-MywbJlw

Charlie

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Nov 18, 2012, 2:13:11 PM11/18/12
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On Sunday, November 18, 2012 9:48:25 AM UTC-5, Murdick wrote:
> Himmelhock, I believe respect must be earned. You need to listen to and study music. I can't think of a moment in my life when I have played as badly as John Williams.

Yes, Kent, I too believe respect must be earned. Have you listened to the youtube of Sueno that John posted? Let's hear your rendition so we can compare the two. If you play it better than John Williams, you will have earned my respect.

Charlie

ronaldg...@gmail.com

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Nov 18, 2012, 2:57:22 PM11/18/12
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I am sure Seth can speak for himself, but he did study at one of the best music schools in the country and is an excellent player. John Williams is a legend. Those in glass houses shouldn't throw stones... Just saying.

John E. Golden

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Nov 18, 2012, 5:37:51 PM11/18/12
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I would sell my soul to the devil to play that badly!

Regards,
John E. Golden

thomas

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Nov 18, 2012, 5:53:40 PM11/18/12
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It was good up to the tremolo part. Then he got all JW again.

Jonathan

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Nov 18, 2012, 6:33:59 PM11/18/12
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On Sunday, November 18, 2012 9:48:25 AM UTC-5, Murdick wrote:
> Himmelhock, I believe respect must be earned. You need to listen to and study music. I can't think of a moment in my life when I have played as badly as John Williams.

Have you had a mental health check-up lately?

Murdick

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Nov 18, 2012, 8:09:28 PM11/18/12
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Thomas, it was a wooden performance from beginning to end. The only time JW plays with any musical sense at all is when he plays with a a group of real musicians. Then he tends to imitate some of the phrasing. I think he may be a idiot-savant. But then Russell is the same way. It could be that when you are rewarded at a very early age for merely playing the guitar technically well, you don't develop.

Murdick

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Nov 18, 2012, 8:11:59 PM11/18/12
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On Saturday, November 10, 2012 9:18:24 PM UTC-6, Jim wrote:
I'll be interested to hear if anyone actually reads this book. Have you ever heard JW talk about music? It's like a foreign subject to him.

Matt Faunce

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Nov 18, 2012, 8:32:27 PM11/18/12
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On 11/18/12 9:48 AM, Murdick wrote:
> Himmelhock, I believe respect must be earned. You need to listen to and study music. I can't think of a moment in my life when I have played as badly as John Williams.

I give respect from the beginning, and only disrespect when disrespect
is deserved, Murdock!

I also applaud an artist when he first enters the stage. Do you?

--
Matt

Richard Yates

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Nov 18, 2012, 9:07:20 PM11/18/12
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Be careful what you ask for. Kent sold his and devil didn't pay off.

Murdick

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Nov 18, 2012, 9:41:25 PM11/18/12
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You are right about that, Richard.
Message has been deleted

himmelhoch

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Nov 18, 2012, 10:07:55 PM11/18/12
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On Sunday, November 18, 2012 2:57:22 PM UTC-5, ronaldg...@gmail.com wrote:
> I am sure Seth can speak for himself, but he did study at one of the best music schools in the country and is an excellent player. John Williams is a legend. Those in glass houses shouldn't throw stones... Just saying.

Thanks :)

Thomas Scharkowski

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Nov 19, 2012, 5:21:27 AM11/19/12
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Am Sun, 18 Nov 2012 11:13:11 -0800 schrieb Charlie:

> Yes, Kent, I too believe respect must be earned. Have you listened to
> the youtube of Sueno that John posted? Let's hear your rendition so we
> can compare the two. If you play it better than John Williams, you will
> have earned my respect.
>
> Charlie

Hi Charlie,

there is a proverb in german:

"Man muss kein Huhn sein, um beurteilen zu können, ob ein Ei schmeckt"
This is roughly: "You need not be a hen to judge if an egg tastes good"


Thomas





Charlie

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Nov 19, 2012, 6:43:04 AM11/19/12
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Thomas,

Your analogy of not having to be a hen to know if an egg taste good does not apply here. Kent, the hen, said his playing, the egg, was never as bad as John Williams. I asked him to prove it to me. He is evidently a hen claiming his eggs taste pretty good. So, as I said to Kent, prove it. Let's hear a sample of his playing.

JMF

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Nov 19, 2012, 8:14:44 AM11/19/12
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On 11/19/2012 11:21, Thomas Scharkowski wrote:
> Am Sun, 18 Nov 2012 11:13:11 -0800 schrieb Charlie:
>
>> Yes, Kent, I too believe respect must be earned. Have you listened to
>> the youtube of Sueno that John posted? Let's hear your rendition so we
>> can compare the two. If you play it better than John Williams, you will
>> have earned my respect.
>>
>> Charlie
>
> Hi Charlie,
>
> there is a proverb in german:
>
> "Man muss kein Huhn sein, um beurteilen zu k�nnen, ob ein Ei schmeckt"
> This is roughly: "You need not be a hen to judge if an egg tastes good"
>
>
> Thomas

A similar proverb in English is from Samuel Johnson:

"You may abuse a tragedy, though you cannot write one. You may scold a
carpenter who has made you a bad table, though you cannot make a table.
It is not your trade to make tables."

(For the record I'm a fan of John Williams -- this is only about the
proverbs)


Paul Magnussen

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Nov 19, 2012, 12:14:30 PM11/19/12
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Thomas Scharkowski wrote:

> there is a proverb in german:
>
> "Man muss kein Huhn sein, um beurteilen zu können, ob ein Ei schmeckt"
> This is roughly: "You need not be a hen to judge if an egg tastes good"

And in English:

"You don't have to be able to lay an egg to know a bad one."

Paul Magnussen

thomas

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Nov 19, 2012, 2:57:03 PM11/19/12
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I agree with Kent that JW plays woodenly, although the youtube linked above is not quite as wooden as some others I've heard from him. I disagree with Kent that JW plays "badly".

Obviously JW has the chops to make a piece sound however he wants it to sound. Therefore, he must actually hear the music that way. I don't like it much, but he does. That's his esthetic choice.

You can't criticize players like Yamashita and Williams on technical grounds, because they can play anything they want. They just hear music differently than some other music lovers do.

Murdick

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Nov 19, 2012, 6:52:55 PM11/19/12
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I agree with everything you said, Thomas. BTW,I have learned a great deal about technique by watching JW play.

Richard Jernigan

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Nov 20, 2012, 12:06:13 PM11/20/12
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I never know what to expect from John Williams. Some of his playing is expressive. His flawless technique lets him inflect the music subtly. He never wears his heart on his sleeve, but I find some of his Barrios stuff quite nice, though not in the same league as Alexander-Sergei Ramirez. Other times he sounds like a midi player. It can be infuriating.

RNJ
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