Joke: The robber was caught on the security video: "Everybody put your hands up! I've got an accordion and I know how to use it!"
The 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica -- "The timbre of the accordion is coarse and devoid of beauty, but in the hands of a skilful performer the best instruments are not entirely without artistic merit."
The accordion gets no respect. It is the Rodney Dangerfield of musical instruments.
For most of my life I thought of the accordion as weird and uncool. Lawrence Welk. Myron Floren. Whatever.
I remember how nerdy and feminine it seemed to me as a kid. Each summer there would be Sunday afternoon river baptisms at our church camp, and the singing was accompanied by a nice lady squeezing out "O happy day, that fixed my choice..."
Our family friend was a lifelong song evangelist, a man of honor whose piano skills were legendary. Yet in my mind, I associate him with the squeezebox he so often played. So uncool.
But that was before the guy in Nirvana used it one time. That was before John Mellencamp started using it on almost all of his recordings. And that was before I fell in love with folk music around the world.
Check them out on You Tube: Bob Hallett of Great Big Sea, Buckwheat Zydeco, Flaco Jimenez and 100 others. Cajun, Tex Mex, Irish -- it's common for accordion videos on You Tube to have more than 100,000 viewers.
And Roland has developed its line of V-Accordions -- digital accordions that are "selling like hotcakes," according to my friends at Washington Music Center, one of America's largest music retailers.
For six years now, I've had my own cheap Chinese-made model (someday I'd like to own a nicer one), and I play it with our Irish band "That Raucous Crew." That band has become one of the unexpected blessings of my life.
So let's hear it for the lowly squeezebox. There are millions of us who love it, even if there are billions who don't. :)
The best accordion joke ever is the old Far Side cartoon where the new arrivals in Heaven are given harps, and those descneding to Hades are greeted with, "Welocme to Hell - here's your accordion." Being a mere dilettante when it comes to playing the accordion, I have developed enormous respect for those who can play it well; it's a demanding instrument, filled with physical and psychological challenges. (And I have a hard time knowing what face to make when I play mine; I have a feeling I usually look like I'm in pain. Which, to some degree, I am.) But I love playing mine nonetheless, and, like Gary, would love to have a better one (or at least one that works less erratically!) than mine. But I think it's a singularly wonderful instrument.
ReplyDeleteYes, Roger, I've also seen that cartoon. And I admire the great players I see here and there. I need to practice more!
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