My late significant other absolutely loved Dylan. when we met, she secretly bought a harmonica and instruction booklet so as to understand me better. how could i not love her?
anywaaaay..
To make her kids move, i used to sing,loudly, "Don't Staaand in the Doorway, Don't Block up the Haall" :-) ---------- MP affordable reed replacement and repairs.
"making the world a better place, one harmonica at a time"
click user name [MP] for info- repair videos on YouTube. you can reach me via Facebook. Mark Prados
Last Edited by on Sep 19, 2012 6:42 PM
yes you know i don't consider his harp playing something to aspire to...but some little while ago i was subjected to 'all along the watchtower' while out driving. i decided he was not just randomly blowing on the harp but actually making those sounds with intent. i mimiced him to discover what he was doing...to my surprise i discovered the note i was struggling to find was the space between the noise he was making...man, it just put me on my ear! i mean, ive heard plenty of times that music is about the spaces but this was the most clear demonstration i have ever had...and i would not have learned it if i hadn't decided to copy bob dylan...so its true what it says in the desiderata "listen to others, even the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story".
apart from that i love some of his songs..."if you see here say hello" i've liked recently, except for that reference to Tangiers. also buckets of tears..and too many others to recall...i haven't paid him much attention for the last 25 years or so... i once declined an opportunity to go to a Dylan concert...i think it was a significant moment for me...so thats another deep lesson via Bob. his shows are notoriously patchy anyway, i dont think id go even if i did get off on arena gigs
but yeah..i think highway 61 revisited is maybe one of the most amusing songs in that dry manner i enjoy..."you can do what you want Abe but the next time you see me coming you better run" yeah i still like that one...actually i think i still like that whole album...takes a lot to laugh, takes a train to cry etc wonder if i have it? i'm gonna give it a spin if i do
Thanks SuperBee. I am not what one would call a Dylan fan as our household was too busy working & raising a family at the height of Dylans popularity. I am of a similar vintage to Mr Dylan although my exposure to his music is fairly recent. Of course I had heard his stuff over the years but apart from Blowin in the Wind I could never fathom out any reason for his popularity or appeal. But, I am now respecting very much that he is a great storyteller & poet plus I am mellowing to his overall sound.
I bet that Dylan more than any other artist( possibly more than all other artists combined) has had an influence on people taking up the harmonica? Hohner must love him.
The thing I like about a lot of his works are 1) they are great compositions 2) fairly easy to play/sing 3) have very wide audience appeal.
It is too easy to be dismissive of his harp playing & vocals which are only a part of the Dylan magic. ---------- HARPOLDIE’S YOUTUBE
I always liked that guy. Even when I was too young to know who had written those songs and who the guy was, I thought his songs back when I was very young (early 60s) sounded like the way the bible reads.
Most of the people who tend to write Dylan off have no idea whatsoever about what a huge impact just a few of those songs in the sixties had on other songwriters and performers, and of course that's not just all about influencing a handful of folk luminaries back in the day, he inspired a lot of other big talents from diverse backgrounds and disciplines to step up their own game.
There are certain songs that he wrote later on that have a kind of a vivid, sideways humor, and a particular gravity, the combination of which teeters on the ridiculous, but not only do the songs work, they also become some of his best and most classic works.
Like the fire breathing bearded tight rope walking lady sword swallower at the carnival on the edge of town he makes it look pretty easy.
how annoying, i dont have highway 61 anymore... but i did look through the list of songs i do have...i was right...too many to recall. some of those big ones are just kinda ridiculous now but there are a lot of "unsung" heroes in the dylan songbook
It's hard for me to comprehend how someone could NOT be a Dylan fan. I guess if you're young enough, and didn't come up in the sixties, when Dylan ruled the world and influenced every one who wasn't sound asleep in a cave somewhere, musicians and otherwise, you might be oblivious to his impact. Personally, I stopped listening to him, and to lots of other music, in the seventies, and didn't connect again til the gospel albums - and I'm not a fundamentalist Christian. If you have any doubt about the influence of those albums, just watch the 2005 movie The Gospel Songs Of Bob Dylan, available on netflix if you do that. Now we all know about the relationship between gospel and blues, don't we? In that movie you'll hear some of the world's most acclaimed gospel artists acknowledging Dylan's power and influence as an artist, as a song writer, as a musician. Can he play harp? Of course he can play harp, but you might not like his way of playing it. Yet again, his way of playing it influenced untold numbers of musicians. Is he a blues man? No, not specifically. He's one of those world shaking artists that can't possibly be pigeon holed, like it or not. Any Dylan fans? If there's anyone alive who can't learn something from Dylan the artist, I'd say that person is among the walking dead. ---------- Matthew
Well, Bobby came along in the time of the stiff in the grey flannel suit, George Wallace, J Edgar, etc. Pete Seeger along with a number of other musicians, actors, writers and anyone else who didn't fit in had already been blacklisted a few years back. Mainstream america was pretty straight and square all the way around. The idea of women being able to pursue a serious career back then was not much more than a joke. There was no such thing as being gay back then. If you were a homosexual you were considered to be mentally aberrant according to mainstream psychology. Blacks in the south and in other parts of the country lived with a constant threat hanging over their heads, especially if they wanted to vote or improve their childrens' education. Instead of the sad, isolated losers and pathetic freaks that we know them to be today, The KKK in some locales were like a big militant political party that had saturated local and state governments and which had a fairly strong influence over legislation and elections. Then add to that the ever present menace of a balls out wide open nuclear war. Pretty fucked up around here I would say, and that's right around when Dylan started to be heard and kind of put his finger on a few things that a lot of people had just been dying to hear all along.
I remember once when I was sitting in a house down in florida drinking with a bunch of haitians and one of them slipped a cassette into his machine and a song started playing. Everyone just all at once stopped talking and dropped what they were doing and started singing along with this slow ballad that came on. I forgot what the name of it was, and I haven't ever heard it again, but they were all transformed by that one song, and each one of them knew all the words and had this far away look in their eye while they softly sang that song. It might sound silly, and I can't tell you what it was like, you had to be there to appreciate the effect, but It was like the whole damn room just levitated.
That's the kind of song every songwriter wants to write. Something that's got that anthemic thing. You play it and it stops time. If you write just one song like that there will be people who will love it forever. Dylan didn't just write one song like that, he wrote upwards of a half a dozen or more, some would say many more. Not too shabby.
he was a sort of negative inspiration to me. as i heard his harp playing in the early 60's when i was just starting to try and play i decided that if HE could do it SO COULD I. in later years i have tried to duplicate what he did on a few things and believe me, it's not so easy if you take it seriously and try to do what he did. he engineered his style to be pretty much the exact opposite of the blues harp guy like the walters, sbII, etc. he did not want to be in their shadow.
but part of the total beauty of the man is in his songwriting and the fact of so many artists covering his material. one of the coolest covers we do is of "tangled up in blue", in A, with me doing an expanded harp part at front, middle, and end. it's so killer. ---------- http://www.reverbnation.com/jawboneandjolene
May God bless and keep you always May your wishes all come true May you always do for others And let others do for you May you build a ladder to the stars And climb on every rung May you stay forever young Forever young, forever young May you stay forever young.
May you grow up to be righteous May you grow up to be true May you always know the truth And see the lights surrounding you May you always be courageous Stand upright and be strong May you stay forever young Forever young, forever young May you stay forever young.
May your hands always be busy May your feet always be swift May you have a strong foundation When the winds of changes shift May your heart always be joyful And may your song always be sung May you stay forever young Forever young, forever young May you stay forever young
------------------------
How can you not love a guy who can write like that?
On a separate note, this months cover story in Rolling Stone is a lenghty interview with Bobby. a great read for any Dylan Fan.
Lastly, just watched Scorcese's film bio of Dylan, No Direction Home. It's a must see too. i particularly love the way Bob played the members of an annoying media like a stradivarius.
Last Edited by on Sep 20, 2012 4:32 AM
Everybody's got their Dylan favs..this is one of mine, written by Bob a full four decades into his career, when alot of artist's tanks are empty.
Written for the film Wonder Boys. Won Dylan an Oscar.
For me this is one of those songs. Relevant more than ever. There are chunks of it where he expresses exactly how I feel. If you could wear a groove into a CD there'd be one on mine at tthis track.
Video is a bit wacky unless you've seen the movie.
I don't often listen to Dylan these days, but his songs were a huge influence in my early life as a 60s teenager: he validated my emerging ideology. Dylan needs to be viewed as a songwriter/poet. Pretty voice? nope. Great harp player? nope. Major cultural icon? you betcha!
I love Dylan--I don't sit and listen to him anymore--the way I did in the 60's--but I still love to hear him now and then and I sing a couple of his songs.
I even love the way he plays harp--just try to get that sound--it's harder than you think. One of the things I like most about him and his music is that I don't get the feeling he gives a shit if some people don't like him. . . ---------- Oldwailer's Web Site
I have been a big Dylan fan since 1964. I am not too familiar with his newer stuff, but the older Dylan, to me, is classic. A lot of folks rag on his harp playing, but some of the first harmonica I ever did was because of Dylan. As Super Bee says, sometimes it is not the note but the space between the note and the intent. I appreciate and admire his harp playing even though I no longer play that way.
i was going to mention that 'Things Have Changed' is my fav newer Dylan tune. newer meaning within the last two decades. i first heard it as a sound track tune in a movie called 'Wonder Boys' w/ Michael Douglas,Francis McDormand, a deliciously fetching Katy Holmes, and the excellent Robert Downey Jr.
Douglas is driving and smokin' a joint to this tune. great scene! ---------- MP affordable reed replacement and repairs.
"making the world a better place, one harmonica at a time"
click user name [MP] for info- repair videos on YouTube. you can reach me via Facebook. Mark Prados
Last Edited by on Sep 20, 2012 12:19 PM
This is a clip from Dylans recent release. I couldn't help noticing how similar in part the tune is to the Tom Paxton 60's tune 'The last Thing on My Mind'. Can anyone else hear this?
I might be one of the only few here who admits that Dylan is the reason that I got started on the harmonica back in 1974. It wasn't until much later that I found the old greats. As for Dylan's playing, what can I say-- I like it. Even today, if you make it to a Dylan show, the crowd goes wild every time he plays just as they did in 1974. Granted, it may only be 6 or 7 notes over and over again, but what the heck--Dylan is blowing them. -- 99
"Things have changed" is a great Dylan song -- and in fact quite a lot of the material from "Time out of mind" and "Love and theft" is outstanding. Maybe he wore us out with a few not so very interesting records during a longish period and it´s hard to muster the same enthusiam as for the 60´s material? "Highlands" is a high point in his career. And mercifully lacking in harmonica.
@honkinonbobo forever young was dylans best workIMHO....and he took his pen name from the greatest poet of all time...dylan thomas...as far as his harp playing,he plays through a rack like neil young and his playing is decent but will not make any top 100 lists...
