Dave Van Ronk/Elijah Wald – The Mayor of MacDougal Street |
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Dave
Van Ronk and book review links |
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Now also available in Japanese, in French and Italian as Manhattan Folk Story and in German as Der König von Greenwich Village. The inspiration for the Coen Brothers' film Inside Llewyn Davis. "The Mayor of MacDougal Street is one of the dozen best books ever written about a New York life and time: dense with wisdom, humor, judgment, and an amazingly vivid recreation of the rites and rituals and characters of a whole lost world and scene." "a wise and very funny book." "In Greenwich Village, Van Ronk was king of the street, he reigned
supreme." "In the engine room of the NY Folk Scene shoveling coal into the
furnace, one Big Man rules. Dog faced roustabout
songster. Bluesman, Dave Van Ronk. Long may he howl." |
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"Charming, evocative autobiography by one of the key figures in
the mid-20th-century folk revival. . . . A must for those with an interest
in the music, and of great appeal as well for anyone who enjoys a roistering
life story recounted in a lively narrative voice." "Dave Van Ronk's memoirs uncannily evoke
the life, times and voice of an artist I dearly loved." |
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Dave
Van Ronk was a founding father of the 1960s folk and blues revivals,
but he was far more than that. For one thing, he was a marvelous raconteur,
one of the funniest and most quotable figures on the Village scene.
His stories of the fifties and sixties, populated by legends like
Mississippi John Hurt, Rev. Gary Davis, Brownie McGhee, and young
friends like Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs and Joni Mitchell, have a vibrant
humor and keen insight unlike any other history of that period. Dave
honed his This is an honor that would have made him particularly happy, because much as he loved music, he loved the Village almost as deeply. From the time he moved there in the early 1950s until his death in February of 2002, he never considered living anywhere else. Indeed, his memoir ends in the late 1960s, as much because of the change in the neighborhood as the change in the music scene. All his old friends were moving to places like Woodstock or the West Coast, and he found this sad and inexplicable. He loved New York, and that love comes through in his memoir. |
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Dave grew up in Brooklyn and |
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Unlike many histories of the folk revival, which begin when Bob Dylan and Joan Baez hit the scene, Dave's is more than half finished by the time Dylan shows up (to spend much of his first year sleeping on Dave's couch). By then, Dave was already ruling the booming block of folk clubs that gives the book its title, and Dylan would tell early interviewers that his dream was to some day be as popular as Dave Van Ronk . . . |
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When the Kingston Trio were followed by
Peter, Paul and Mary (a group that for a moment |
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To buy a copy: I of course recommend that everyone buy from their local bookstore, and if you need to buy online, you can still support independent bookstores by buying it from Indiebound. Here is some other Ronkiana you might want to check out: Thoughts on Dave, Dylan, and Robert Johnson, by Elijah Wald A lengthy interview with Dave. The Smithsonian/Folkways album of his last concert, complete with new songs and wonderful stories, ". . . and the tin pan bended, and the story ended . . ." A comprehensive, illustrated Van Ronk discography. Mark Greenberg's Sidetracks, featuring my commentary and spoken song notes for the Rootstock CD. PRESS COVERAGE FOR THE MAYOR OF MACDOUGAL STREET : Review by Robert Christgau, for the Village Voice Bonus track: "Take
a Whiff on Me" |