Expecting Rain

For me, his best harp work he's ever done is on John Wesley Harding, unbelievable harp playing.
Then i would say Blonde On Blonde

don't know after that. His playing the Bootleg series vol 4 1966, the acoustic side is amazing. the electric side is too

Great harp on You're A Big Girl Now - think that's what edges it over the Biograph outtake.

Every grain of sand album version

What Can I Do For You studio version. Harp playing from the depths of his soul.

I agree that he sounded good on Oh Mercy. But I think the best ever performance of a single song is "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" at Manchester in 1966. That playing sends chills up my spine.

Every Grain Of Sand

Mr Tambourine Man, Sheffield, 1966.

Agreed. One of my favorites too.

Also, there's a scene in 'don't look back' when he's on a train and a live version of "don't think twice" is playing, there's an amazing harp solo in that, just incredible.

And then there's the "what can i do for you?" from Toronto 1980.

What's interesting and somewhat odd about Bob's harmonica playing is that in the first few albums, he does some really wonderful blues harmonica work, cross-harp style, (think of the very first song off the first album, in fact) - and he seems to have abandoned that sound after the first few albums, largely. THe harmonica playing in 65-66 is evocative and intoxicating in its own way, but not nearly as technically accomplished as that early work. And he's done some nice harp playing since (I saw 'what can i do for you' in '80 in person, in Albany, and it was fantastic) but it's still too bad he hasn't gone back to that cross-harp stuff he did so well way back when...

(cross-harp, by the way, is when you play, for example, a harmonica in the key of A while playing a song in the key of E- those bluesy notes , flatted thirds and sevenths, are emphasized)

What Can I Do for You? from Slow Train...

Slow Train Coming doesn't have any harp (or indeed that song!) I don't think, but that's a very heartfelt solo.

Make that Saved...

Even though I am not really into the '66 tour, I have to agree. Sheffield's "Tambourine Man" contains his best harp work! Absolutely brilliant!

nice observation - that technique could be really useful i think for anything post infidels. would like to have seen it in TOOM.

i was curious about that point, so i found this interesting reference:
http://dylanchords.info/harp/harpkeys.htm

I think his center stage harp work from the last few years is his best.

Hm... 'What Can I Do For You,' live or in the studio, is probably my favorite Dylan harp work. Alternately, the playing on Tangled Up in Blue, on LP or in 2011, is pretty spectacular.

to me his best harp work is on the outtakes to Harry Belafonte's Midnight Special song... freaking awesome

I'm not saying it's the 'best' - but the return of the harmonica to prominence for those final phrases after the guitar at the end of Spirit on the Water always gives me a twinge of joy.

speaking of harps and harmonicas --- how is it these terms are both used so frequently? was harp a colloquial term similar to the fiddle/violin relationship? or was there a period in time that the harmonica was called a harp so it just stuck? or is harmonica a modern term?

Here's the etymology for those two words:

harmonica (n.); 1762, coined by Ben Franklin as the name for a glass harmonica, from L. fem. of harmonicus (see harmonic); modern sense of "mouth organ" is 1873, Amer.Eng., earlier harmonicon (1825).

harp (n.): Old English. hearpe, from P.Gmc. *kharpon- (cf. O.S. harpa "instrument of torture;" O.N. harpa, Du. harp, O.H.G. harpfa, Ger. Harfe "harp"). Late Latin harpa, source of words in some Romanic languages, is a borrowing from Germanic. Meaning "harmonica" is from 1887, short for mouth-harp. The harp seal (1784) is so called for the harp-shaped markings on its back.

ahh....so h-a-r-m-o-n-i-c-a is american shorthand for mouth harp. what is wrong with us?

The first break in One Too Many Mornings always sends shivers down my spine.

I'm going to call out the harp solo in Mr. Tambourine Man on the officially released Live 1966: The "Royal Albert Hall" at Manchester's Free Trade Hall. It is glorious!

I'm going to disagree...Sheffield rules the roost.

I Will have to check out Sheffield! thanks