The soft bigotry of low expectations.
Must I be the one to rain on this parade?? Yes, we all want that moment when the hobo breaks out unexpected and amazing chops, like when Ted Williams revealed he was a voice-over talent extraordinaire. We love those movie-like moments. This ain’t one of them.
This guy is not a good piano player. So, stop getting so excited for the guy, he’s not going to clean up and be flipping his tuxedo tails over the piano bench, inducing standing ovations with his magic fingers. The best thing he can do is clean up, get straight and sober, get a job and then practice piano at night.
Like the guy who has the “golden voice” and broke out of being a druggie and homeless and is now running for President? I had such high hopes for this piano player. He has all the right sympathies going his way. They took his kid away and his wife died. He needs to set up a jar on his piano and make a living that way, may be more lucrative than cleaning up every day and having to answer to a boss. He’s found his niche, another street artist.
Well, he is better than me.
If he can play “Chopsticks” he’s a better pianist than I.
or me.
or whatever – I can’t play at all.
The world has never seen a busker before, have they?
Not the most conventional instrument to busk with, so a point for originality.
Goes “viral”? You mean he’s got a virus? He should have taken up the ukulele.
Coming from one who has played the piano for 60 years . . . he’s got some chops hidden in there someplace.
The fact that he remembered as much as he did of that Bach piece he played means he had years of lessons as a child.
Makes you wonder what happened.
Also, the piano, exposed to the elements like it was, can not be expected to sound very good . . . I’m surprised the wooden keys are not swollen and unplayable from rain/humidity.
Many of the chords he’s playing are not chords, they are just a slap with hopes that it sounds passable, like Arthur Spooner playing Chariots of Fire.
Could he clean up and practice and get good? Maybe.
But don’t upload this video with the word “amazing” associated with it.
What’s amazing is this guy has to tote around that piano everywhere he goes. Most bums I see push around a shopping cart. This guy pushes around a piano. AMAZING!
Yeah, but he’s still better than John Tesh!
From the description on the YouTube video: “The man is playing on one of the public pianos that have been installed downtown.”
Just FYI.
He must have had training as a young man, but Bach just did a few turns in his grave after that performance.
He’s out of practice to say the least.
Q: Why not choose an easier piece to perform?
A: It’s probably the only piece of music he can half remember.
If It was my store, I wouldn’t want the city putting a “public piano” on the sidewalk right out side the door. Not unless the city pays someone who can actually play to sit out there and perform.
Q: Will he sleep in the piano than tonight?
What too insensitive? What about the sensibilities of the public trying to window shop and being subjected to this bum or someone even worse banging away on the keyboards. I guess it’s better than the homemade drumming guys crowding the sidewalk, but not by much.
6 seconds and he sounds like he has a cat helping him play. What’s he got a couple extra dead fingers hitting random keys?
Boulder, Colorado is jam packed full of these guys. Pearl Street Mall is their mecca.