I don't get it with Dylan. I really like his stuff, but the harp is usually pretty grating. You'd think that, after all this time, even without conscious practice, he would have improved by accident.
Edit: the clip won't play for me, so perhaps I've got him all wrong and it sounds good. I guess I'm basing my comment only on a small sample. But it's a small sample of bad (as in bad) harp.
Last Edited by on Feb 06, 2012 3:16 PM
I think its because he's coming from a different angle he use to play 1st position folky stuff but now he's in a full blown blues band. It looks like he's switched from a Green Bullet to a Sennheiser mic with a bass roll of to make it less grating .sounds good to me
I totally agree with the straw's original comment. Dylan was an early model and inspiration for me learning to play harp. At the time, the only harp influences I had were Sonny Terry and him. There was no way I could even begin to sound like Sonny Terry, so I mostly learned Dylan's stuff (not too hard!). Listening to it now, its no wonder I made no progress for so long. If only Adam, youtube and Itunes were around thirty years ago! ---------- Lucky Lester
Now don't get me wrong, but I came into the Bob appreciation society quite late in life having somehow skirted around him listening to just about everything else.......but I personally found this performance very mediocre.... However, I recognise him for the great talent he IS, and feel that it dosen't really matter what Bob does these days, he can definitely afford to rest on his laurels. Sounded a bit like he had a throat infection maybe, I found his singing a bit painful to listen to actually, and was wanting it to end quickly. As for the harp.....definitely he has his own 'style', and I don't expect anything else really, but I think he does a much better job on his earlier stuff. my $0.02 worth.... :~} ---------- One of Rubes's bands, DadsinSpace-MySpace
IMO Dylans harp fits his overall sound perfectly. Too many harp players just spew perfectly technical notes, riffs, that make no sense to the song. On a side note I see my old austin friend and rhythm guitarist charlie sexton is looking good on that gretch guitar. It is a trip to see this video for me. Charlie on guitar and Dylan, who is a fan of my music, on the big stage with all the stars in the audience, Scorcases who wanted me to play harp on the soundtrack for the movie the color of money, me playing to nobody in my studio for hours a day, living in musicial isolation with spontobeat, not a date on the calender, and about to get on my bicycle and pedal to work at 6:20am :-) This will be a sort of sureal day for me. Man I wish I was sitting with my instruments right now. This would be a great song- Life is good! Walter ---------- walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year. " life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
ps: I use to wedge my harp in walls, bookshelfs, and such until I saw an album cover with Dylan and a harp rack around his neck. That by itself changed my life with playing harp and guitar together. Walter ---------- walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year. " life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
Dylan is Dylan. I'm a huge fan. There is a Bootleg Series album released after the Scorsese film, that is great, with his earliest recordings and some fine stuff, e.g."Sally Gal" from the period where he was first in New York playing backup harmonica in the Village. Don't kid yourself, he can play. I think he plays exactly what he wants and it works with what he does. Now his voice in this clip is pretty rough; that's another debate entirely, but my position is that he sings great too. ----------
From a harper's view,that clip was horrible. Something a 1 month student could do. It was atypicalIMHO. I like Dylan's playing on his earlier stuff. Technically horrible,but somehow it works musically. Dylan put his own unmistakable stamp on the harp.
"I don't get it with Dylan. I really like his stuff, but the harp is usually pretty grating. You'd think that, after all this time, even without conscious practice, he would have improved by accident."
I feel the same way about John Mayall. Although he's not a bad player,he never got any better since "Room To Move".
the guy cant win, if he came out with every walter or soony boy lick in the book he'd get slated for being white.
i think the wry grin and the swagger give say it all. very few get to play by their own rules and win, he knows what he's doing, knows exactly what he's done and he just dont care.
Harpers always love to bash on Dylan--somehow, I think he don't really give a shit--bash away, harpers--he's still Dylan--and he's still great! ----------
