I went to a concert, a live recording session with an audience that was also being broadcast live on national TV. A pretty big deal. It was Bob Dylan conducting "The Band" - only the musicians were way more than just "The Band," there were a bunch of other musicians there with all sorts of instruments, plus some people just singing. Bob Dylan was up there in front of them, at a conductor's podium with a baton, but he also had a microphone attached to the podium so he could sing into it.
The weird thing was, Bob seemed to be looking at the whole thing as a big test, to see how well The Band could perform under adversity. They kicked off with a couple of Bob's songs just to get things really going, but then once they started doing The Band's songs, Bob didn't really maintain a respectful tone at all. It was like he didn't know what to do with that microphone if he wasn't singing into it. He kept saying things very loudly into the mic. At first it was directions or encourangement to various musicians ("pick it up a little, pick it up boys!", "good job, Bobby!" - right during the SONG!). Then he started saying - and again, this is right in the middle of one of the Band guys singing a verse - things like: "hey remember guys! This is being recorded so, no matter what I do you gotta keep right on going!" And then he did this gross kind of coughing and laughing at the same time thing.
It just kept degenerating from there. Pretty soon in the middle of a big chorus awash with warm harmonies he goes, "shut up! SHUT UP! I only wanna hear Sam Posun singing this part right here! Sam Posun nobody else!" And you could see poor Sam Posun (whoever he was, he was this guy in a cowboy hat, t-shirt and woven/braided leather vest with an embarrassed look on his face)...I give Sam a lot of credit, he kept right on singing and tried his best to carry the chorus by himself. But he just couldn't pull it off. His part was this kind of weird diminished sevenths harmony that sounded really awkward without the other sung parts.
The whole thing was just incredibly unfortunate to watch. Bob Dylan - I tell you, I've lost all respect for that guy. What a dick!
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