That's meant to be Bob Dylan playing harmonica. But this is a general plea against the cavalier "I play guitar and sing, why not a bit of harmonica too" approach that has plunged the neck rack into infamy and brought serious harmonica players (many of whom sport a neck rack) nothing but shame. SHAME, I SAY.
Thanks, gents. I love Bob Dylan. 'Silvio' is the soundtrack to my life. His radio show is the only reason I listen to radio. But let's face it, as an ambassador for the harmonica-playing community, he hurt us bad.
Ever heard of Hans Olsen, a blues guy in Phoenix? He plays guitar and harp on a rack. One-man show. His harp tone is absolutely killin'. Dude can bring it.
If you can get one in XXL Xtra Tall--I'll take one--it could really confuse the audience at an open mic I like to go to--since I play guitar and harp on a stick. . .
"Thanks, gents. I love Bob Dylan. 'Silvio' is the soundtrack to my life. His radio show is the only reason I listen to radio. But let's face it, as an ambassador for the harmonica-playing community, he hurt us bad."
I feel the same about Dylan. For me my little soundtrack was Subterranean Homesick.... He perked my initial interest on harmonica but damn man his acoustic tone literally hurts and deafens my ears if my speakers are on too loud!
Favorite album of all time is "Time Out of My Mind".
Hm....I wonder if Bob Dylan is sitting around today drawing silhouettes of Elwood holding a pen and a blank sheet of music, and contemplating t-shirts?
Like Dylan, don't like his harp playing, but don't condemn all rack playing harp players. Listen to Jimi Lee sometime. The guy can play guitar, sing and blow a very serious harp. He is excellent. ---------- /Greg
I had just been thinking about posting a call-out to MBH users that play guitar and racked harp to see if there was interest in posting videos and sharing ideas/songs.
Anybody out there interested, or are we going to let them paint us all with the "Dylan" brush?
HonkinOnBobo, I'd be honoured - but I doubt it would sell.
Greg's point ("but don't condemn all rack playing harp players") is quite correct. As I said, the problem is that Dylan's idiosyncratic squawking (along with Johnny Cash, Neil Young and others) have done the image of harmonica, and neck rack players, a disservice - despite their sundry achievements as artists.
Did Bob Dylan, Neil Young and Johnny Cash really do harmonica playing a disservice? I wonder how many harmonicas were sold during their boom years? I remember music shops having a good range of harmonicas then. The adverts for Blues Harps had Johnny Cash on them. You could never play guitar like Jimi Hendrix, drums like Ginger Baker or keyboards like Keith Emerson, even if you saved up for months/years to afford the instruments in the first place. On the other hand, a harmonica cost a few shillings and you could play as well as your heroes in no time...
...But that Johnny Cash TV product placement was very cheesy, Elwood, I admit.
Last Edited by on Jan 05, 2010 5:07 AM
Gwythion, ditto. Same can be said of Popper. The latest generation of young people think he is the best ever, and many want to play harp. Same is true with Jack Johnson and the ukulele.
I never heard anything bad about dylan's harp playing until around a year ago when i started lurking around harp forums. I heard plenty about his vocals...lol. Actually, everybody i hang with thinks dylan is cool when he plays harp and guitar together..they think it's incredibly hard. I used to also.
I don't think the typical fan could care less about technical harp prowess at a dylan concert or when listening to his albums.
In another thread, someone said Springsteen's fame was out of proportion to his talent, or something like that. This thread implies the same of Dylan. I would suggest the world has spoken on both of these guys and their levels of fame speak EXACTLY to their talent level as the people who buy music have determined it. Like it or not, talent isn't all about technical prowess. Greatness isn't about chromatic harmonica playing on a single diatonic harp, even in the harmonica world, although there is one who stands out as the exception to that. Levy is not just a technical wizard though...face it, there's more there.
It's pretty easy to get tunnel vision when learning a single new thing, as perfectionism begins to take over the quest for technical improvement on a new instrument. I'm sure neither Springsteen nor Dylan care one way or another about their impact on the harmonica world..in fact Dylan even implies this on the Hohner website interview..he says he doesn't think he had much impact at all.
I am absolutely positive there are people who learned to play first position harmonica BECAUSE of Bob Dylan..not in spite of him. I know some of them. You probably do too.
Sometimes, new musicians spend so much time trying to copy licks and album tracks they don't realize there is art in writing your own stuff. Being able to copy others helps your skills, to be sure. But, song-writing is a real art form and both Springsteen and Dylan have "it" when it comes to that form. The world at large doesn't give a hoot about their harp skills. Musicianship can and does exist within those who have mediocre skills on numerous instruments. A good musician will play within his/her ability and the music rules the show. The delivery will be the icing on the cake. This is where both those guys shine..stage presence and delivery of their guts through music.
Flame suit on.
oh..HAPPY NEW YEAR! Almost time to go back to work after surgery on the 17th of December.
I hope everybody is getting a great start on 2010.
Last Edited by on Jan 05, 2010 10:21 AM
I think Dylan and Springsteen both write brilliant lyricists. Some of my favorite songs are Dylan covers. And I like a lot of Springsteen's own versions of his songs. I do not, however, like many of Dylan's own versions of Dylan's songs. That's OK though. The fact that he has had the tremendous career that he has despite his singing and harp playing just speaks to his immense talent as a song writer. I had a friend though, who recently went to one of his shows, who said Dylan is pretty much shot and he phoned it in.
For the record, I consider myself much better at writing songs than actually performing them. I'm always pushing songs off on my friends.
