[Harp-L] Re: Dylan at the Santa Monica Civic

["Jonathan Metts" <jonathan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

"Both of these are off of BLONDE on BLONDE,   IMO w/ HIGHWAY 61 his best two
LP's...and CHARLIE McCoy is on BOTH,-) on Gtr, Bass, Trumpet and GOOD
Harmonica,-)"

I'm pretty sure (not 100%) that Charlie McCoy does not play harmonica on
either one of those albums.  Dylan has never used another harp player in the
studio, nor has he ever had anyone else playing harp in his touring bands.

"Thanx for the Cool Review....sounds like it's time for him to STOP
tourin,-)
Best,
Rob P"

I respectfully disagree.  I've seen Dylan eight times since 2001, and almost
all of them were great shows.  The quality isn't perfectly consistent, but
it rarely is with concert tours.  He always plays harp on at least one song,
occasionally a lot more than that, and sometimes it's really beautiful.
Sometimes he just uses it as a pitch pipe before the song.  It really varies
widely.  But he can definitely still play, and some people prefer his
current harp style to the sloppy, folky sound of his 60s performances.  For
instance, there's a beautiful little harp solo at the end of "Spirit on the
Water" from his most recent album; sadly, it's the only harp on the album,
and the one before that had none at all.

I think it speaks for the overall experience that jazzman had an enjoyable
time despite complaints about the vocals and harp.  There's also the fact
that Dylan packed out that venue to overflow capacity.  I for one am
overjoyed that people like Bob Dylan, Neil Young, and Stevie Wonder are
still recording new music and still touring for their millions of fans.

Jonathan Metts
Harp-L's Dylan Apologist
Boulder, CO