Mueller Lake Park Outdoor Amphitheater
Sour Grapes as Parades Are Rained On
RECEIVED Mon., Oct. 3, 2005
Dear Editor,
In regard to the Bob Johnston piece by Louis Black [“Momentum and the Mountainside Sound,” Music, Web Extra, Sept. 30], this is a guy so caught up in his past that his world ended 30 years ago. Having known him, he is usually too warped in fantasy to deal with reality. Yes he was involved with genius, especially “8:05” by Moby Grape and “Two-Step Mamou” by Wayne Toups, but he overpowers with his flawed memories of the past. That was why he was fired from Dylan involvement by Albert Grossman. He walks around in a fantasy land of the past and would probably have great conversations with Kim Fowley. That was probably why his interview on No Direction Home, the Martin Scorsese documentary on Dylan, was such a small snip. He's just a guy who had his 15 minutes of fame and should accept it. Dylan's moved on. Bob Johnston tells great stories in the Longhorn back in Nashville, but all too often he gets the facts wrong.
By the way, all of the artists he worked with produced themselves, and Bob just hung out in the control room. That's why label execs used him. Ask anybody who was involved and wants to be honest about it.
In regard to the Bob Johnston piece by Louis Black [“Momentum and the Mountainside Sound,” Music, Web Extra, Sept. 30], this is a guy so caught up in his past that his world ended 30 years ago. Having known him, he is usually too warped in fantasy to deal with reality. Yes he was involved with genius, especially “8:05” by Moby Grape and “Two-Step Mamou” by Wayne Toups, but he overpowers with his flawed memories of the past. That was why he was fired from Dylan involvement by Albert Grossman. He walks around in a fantasy land of the past and would probably have great conversations with Kim Fowley. That was probably why his interview on No Direction Home, the Martin Scorsese documentary on Dylan, was such a small snip. He's just a guy who had his 15 minutes of fame and should accept it. Dylan's moved on. Bob Johnston tells great stories in the Longhorn back in Nashville, but all too often he gets the facts wrong.
By the way, all of the artists he worked with produced themselves, and Bob just hung out in the control room. That's why label execs used him. Ask anybody who was involved and wants to be honest about it.
Jim Nash
[Louis Black responds: Bob Johnston produced Highway 61 Revisited; Blonde on Blonde; Nashville Skyline; New Morning; Sounds of Silence; Bookends; Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme; Leonard Cohen's Songs From a Room and Songs of Love and Hate; Johnny Cash At Folsom Prison; Sunday Morning Coming Down; Dr. Byrds and Mr. Hyde; and Geronimo's Cadillac among many, many more, and Mr. Nash would have us believe, "By the way, all of the artists he worked with produced themselves and Bob just hung out in the control room." If one were to accept that Johnston did nothing and his involvement with so many great albums was an accident (which I quite simply don't) then if nothing else you have to grant him savant status for ending up in the right control rooms so often.]
