[Harp-L] Dylan at the Santa Monica Civic

[dmf...@yahoo.com]

I saw Dylan perform at the Santa Monica Civic last night. The last time he played there was in the late 70's and before that in the mid-60's. The Civic doesn't even have rock and roll anymore except on very rare occassions or for awards shows, so it was definitely an "event" like atmosphere. Fans were camped out from the night before to get the first spots in line for the general admission festival seating within.

By the time Dylan took the stage every square inch of the floor was filled with people. I saw a lot of concerts at the Civic back in the day including Pink Floyd (twice!) but I've never seen it as full as this. It normally holds about 3,500 but I'd say this was at least twice its normal capacity.

Dylan opened up with "Rainy Day Women" aka "Everybody Must Get Stoned". The next song was "It Ain't Me Babe" followed by "Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again". Then he played a string of newer songs I wasn't familiar with. Then he played the traditional blues "Rollin & Tumblin". Then "Ballad of a Thin Man" ("Mr. Jones"), a couple more unfamiliar songs, and then he closed the show with "Like a Rolling Stone" and "All Along the Watchtower".

Dylan did not pick up a guitar all night. But his band was quite good with one Strat, one Tele, Fender Bass, Drums, a utility player who switched between fiddle, mandolin and acoustic guitar, and Dylan himself on keyboards all night and occassional harmonica.

Dylan's harp playing was absolutely atrocious. I used to kind of like his playing, but this was bad - really bad! He seemed to be using the harp more as a percussion instrument than anything else, often playing one note repeatedly without regard to whether it was even a "right" note.

This was puzzling because, suprisingly enough, Dylan's keyboard playing was very very good! He was rocking the joint, constantly propelling the entire band with a relentless forward momentum. I was quite impressed!

Don't even get me started on his singing. Even if you knew every word to his songbook, you might not have recognized his lyrics until several choruses into each song. He garbles, mumbles, gargles and moans, sings behind the beat, indistinctly and mushmoushed until the singing becomes like an impressionist interpretation of the words you thought you knew. But it was interesting!

Overall it was a very enjoyable night.
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[Rob Paparozzi]

I guess Dylan loves keepin us on our toes as usual,-)

>Rainy Day Women" aka "Everybody Must Get Stoned". "Stuck Inside of Mobile

>with the Memphis Blues Again".

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,-)

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

[Jonathan Metts]

"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

[Rob Paparozzi]

Ah Johnathon...you are mistaken,-)
Charlie McCoy plays Harmonica very NICELY on Blonde on Blonde on:
"Obviously 5 Believers"

then on "Most Likely You go your way, I'll go mine" he plays BASS and
Trumpet Riffs on the Chorus with his right hand, same take no overdubs!!!!

This was mentioned in Al Kooper's book...Al play some great ORGAN on both
these LP's

Best,-)
Rob P

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jonathan Metts" <jona...@nintendoworldreport.com>
To: <har...@harp-l.org>

[Richard Hammersley]

I haven't see him for decades but "Modern Times" features the tightest
band he (or anyone else) has had in a good while and is fabulous. No
harp though.

Richard Hammersley
Grantshouse, Scottish Borders
http://www.last.fm/music/Richard+Hammersley
http://www.myspace.com/rhammersley
http://www.myspace.com/magpiesittingdown

[Jonathan Metts]

Okay, that was the one song I wasn't sure about because sometimes there is
harp over Dylan's vocals, and I know he hates overdubs. But certainly McCoy
doesn't play harp on Highway 61 Revisited, and nearly every song on that
album has a harp part (by Dylan), some of them awesome. Anyway, thanks for
the clarification.

Jonathan

[Rob Paparozzi]

Your welcome Jonathan, your right he allows NO ONE to play harp on highway 61 but himself,-)

A few years back, I got a call to play on a Judy Collins record she called:
"Judy Sings Dylan"....when I arrived she came up to me and said, "I know your work and you are a terrific player " BUT when we do 'Like a Rolling Stone', I'd be SO happy if you could really play what Bob played", I told her that I'd try my best but BOB's sound was SO unique it'd be TUFF...

I comprimised took out my 1st position harp and tryed to keep it in that vein...but it was tuff...bottom line is she loved it and as my reward, she said I could play like Paul Butterfield or better yet 'Rob Paparozzi' on "You gotta Serve Somebody",-) Ahhhh the life of a session harp player in NY can be trying to say the least......but does have it's rewards.,-)

Best,

[dmf...@yahoo.com]

It was indeed an excellent show overall with a very high level of musicality.

Every song he played was musically interesting, even when I was completely unfamiliar with the tune and couldn't understand a word he was saying.

The band rocked hard with Dylan himself providing the instrumental impetus on keyboards. A good example was their rendition of "Rollin' & Tumblin", nothing fancy, no exceptional solos, but rhythmically intense with lots of feeling and dynamic shifts that raised it way above the level of any ordinary blues band.

I learned today that Dylan hasn't played live guitar in years because of carpal tunnel syndrome. That's why he played keys all night.

On harmonica he had a few good moments but many more that just left me scratching my head wondering "what was he thinking?" But the crowd loved every second of it.

By the way, I forgot to include "Highway 61 Revisited" in the setlist. That was a good example of a song where even though I knew the lyric by heart I still couldn't understand what he was saying!