[Harp-L] Re: Bob Dylan harp

[Richard Hunter <turtlehill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

It doesn't matter much how well or how poorly Bob Dylan plays harp.  His audience doesn't much care, except that it's one of the things that makes his sound instantly identifiable.  I guess that's one of the lessons here--whether you suck or not, make sure you stand out in the crowd.

Pro musicians are always pissed off when someone who hasn't paid a lot of dues has a huge success.  I remember a producer in NYC telling me in 1981 that if the B-52s made it, it was going to be tough for musicians.  The B-52s weren't the first or last crew who could barely hold their instruments and nevertheless managed to connect with an audience.  Beyond that, the dominant forces in any culture are always trying to define music (or any other kind of art) that doesn't meet their standards out of the picture.  Some of the people on this list are old enough to remember when the dominant culture in the USA considered blues to be the barely competent work of ignorant, untrained musical naifs.  Frank Sinatra once said rock and roll was music for teenage hoodlums.  At my college in 1974, most of the professors in the music department could barely bring themselves to utter the word "jazz."  

The fact is that the audience doesn't care how well you play, in general.  The audience cares about how you make them feel.  One of the great things about music is that it doesn't necessarily have to be done according to anyone's standard of perfection in order to make the audience feel something big.  That's why every musician has the potential to say something really important, no matter how trained or untrained he or she is.

Of course, there are plenty of people on this list, pro and otherwise, who make their reps and in some cases their livelihoods by being very, very good at playing the instrument.  I don't think it hurts, commercially or otherwise.  It's just not the most important thing from the audience's point of view.  What's important to the audience is great songs, a distinctive sound (not lots of sounds, but ONE distinctive sound--the musical equivalent of a brand), and a strongly projected personality that matches the audience's values in terms of attitude, style, fashion, etc.  If you've got that going for you, you don't need to be the best player in the world.  You don't even need to be in the top 10,000.

Some audience's values include top-notch professional musical abilities, of course.  But that's not the audience that supports most pop stars.  For what it's worth, though, I think Dylan makes very memorable music, whether or not he's a technically brilliant player.  (Dylan himself has said "I'm not a musician.  If you want a musician, listen to Segovia.")  I love playing and singing his songs, and I'd be glad to make music with him anytime, whether there was an audience listening or not.

Regards, Richard Hunter  
latest mp3s and harmonica blog at http://myspace.com/richardhunterharp