Controversy in the world of harmonica
The harmonica community blew their tops recently when actor Tim Chalamet revealed it took five years and two top harmonica coaches to prepare for his role as Bob Dylan in the recent biopic. Although he's disclosed that only two years of this were dedicated to learning the harmonica, the Dylan debates rage on.
The Bob Bashers would rather hear a cat in a mangle than Dylan blow his harp and they make their opinions loud and clear, the popular Facebook group ‘Modern Blues Harmonica’ being a furnace of Dylan dissing.
Comments such as “I could’ve nailed it in a week”, or “My three year old daughter could play better” are common.
But why all the fuss?
After all, go and stop someone on the street and ask them to name one harmonica player. It won’t be Little Walter, or James Cotton.
This popularity may be the problem. It seems the public has chosen Dylan as the global ambassador of harmonica, but the guy can’t really play.
If the serious players are questioning Dylan’s lack of musical technique or abilities as a harmonicist, the fans don’t care. Here’s Mike Johnson from a website called ‘Untold Dylan’:
“If we’re looking for a ‘soothing, pleasurable tone’ then we’re best off staying well clear of Bob Dylan, for even his most gentle and melodic songs are seldom soothing, and the pleasure that arises from listening to them comes from quite a different source.”
This opinion appears to be supported by harmonica player and writer Kim Field in his excellent book ‘Harmonicas, Harp Players and Heavy Breathers’:
“His harmonica interludes helped keep his music elemental. The mouth harp also accentuates the pervasive loneliness of much of Dylan’s music…
His crude but instantly recognisable style has become such a part of the rock and roll vernacular that a crowd of rock performers have tried to co-opt it.”
Okay, perhaps we can’t forgive him for inspiring Bono to pick up a harp, but all publicity is good publicity. Could Dylan have really popularized the instrument for all the wrong reasons?
Here’s legendary session guitarist Barney Kessel when asked about the Dylan phenomenon:
“He can’t sing, he can’t play guitar, he can’t play the harmonica.”
Many serious harmonica players agree. They appear to see Dylan as an imposter- an insult to a long line of master blues harmonica players, The skyscraper of Chicago talent is the aesthetic by which, in their eyes, all harmonica players are judged.
But what might Dylan think of this?
With 125 million albums sold worldwide and a shelf full of grammy awards, why should he give a monkey’s?
In a recent interview for the podcast 'Harmonica Happy Hour', Ross Garren, one of the players who taught Chalamet, wisely points out that in Dylan’s early years he covered many Deep Blues songs but frequently chose not to play harp. Perhaps this was an artistic choice out of respect for the Old Masters or just a throw-away decision at the time. Dylan isn't known for doing what’s expected of him.
In the same interview Liam Ward, founder of the hugely popular Learntheharmonica.com higlights the problem of Dylan having to fly the flag for an instrument that often functions as an accessory to his songwriting.
He seems more at home using the harmonica as an occasional texture to his songs.
Here’s Mike Johnson again:
“It was clear from the start that while he often used the harmonica as a way of filling in some beats between verses, blowing just a few notes, that thin, vulnerable, amateur-sounding harmonica was an essential component of the feeling tone of a song. It was an integral part of appearing ‘young and unlearned’, the frail kid talking truth to power with nothing but a guitar and a quavery harmonica he doesn’t seem to know how to play. It was all part of the image.”
Johnson goes on to compare Dylan’s playing to Charlie Parker or John Coltrane which may be a step too far, but it’s clear the majority of the world loves Dylan’s harmonica playing.
The Dylan discussion appears to reveal an oversight—the failure to recognize the harmonica's dual nature. Originally created as a folk instrument, some individuals have become exceptionally skilled at playing the tin sandwich in a non-folk manner.
Are we to judge Dylan’s harp by the standards we’d assign to these players?
After all, an artist chooses many tools to create a pallette.
Perhaps we should be grateful Dylan chose our instrument and showed us how to be amateurs.
He might inspire further generations to pick up a harmonica.
Ed Hopwood
Dylan made brilliant use of the emotive power of the harmonica. He didn’t try to wow us with complicated blues riffs, he played spare, bare & raw, to add power to his lyrics. And it works.
Bob's the harp Goat.