The Mayor of MacDougal Street
A Memoir
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $16.34
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Sean Runnette
About this listen
Hear the memoir that served as inspiration for a major motion picture written and directed by the Coen brothers.
Dave Van Ronk was one of the founding figures of the 1960s folk revival, but he was far more than that. A pioneer of modern acoustic blues, a fine songwriter and arranger, a powerful singer, and one of the most influential guitarists of the ’60s, he was also a marvelous storyteller, a peerless musical historian, and one of the most quotable figures on the Village scene.
The Mayor of MacDougal Street is a firsthand account by a major player in the social and musical history of the ’50s and ’60s. It features encounters with young stars-to-be like Bob Dylan, Tom Paxton, Phil Ochs, and Joni Mitchell, as well as older luminaries like the Reverend Gary Davis, Mississippi John Hurt, and Odetta. Colorful, hilarious, and engaging, The Mayor of MacDougal Street is a feast for anyone interested in the music, politics, and spirit of a revolutionary period in American culture.
©2005 Elijah Wald and Andrea Vuocolo (P)2012 Blackstone Audio, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Folk Music
- A Bob Dylan Biography in Seven Songs
- By: Greil Marcus
- Narrated by: Ian Porter
- Length: 7 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Across seven decades, Bob Dylan has been the first singer of American song. As a writer and performer, he has rewritten the national songbook in a way that comes from his own vision and yet can feel as if it belongs to anyone who might listen. In Folk Music, Greil Marcus tells Dylan’s story through seven of his most transformative songs. This is not only a deeply felt telling of the life and times of Bob Dylan, but a rich history of American folk songs and the new life they were given as Dylan sat down to write his own.
-
-
Monstrously Pretentious
- By Steve L on 11-06-22
By: Greil Marcus
-
The Philosophy of Modern Song
- By: Bob Dylan
- Narrated by: Bob Dylan, Jeff Bridges, Steve Buscemi, and others
- Length: 6 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dylan, who began working on the book in 2010, offers his insight into the nature of popular music. He writes over sixty essays focusing on songs by other artists, spanning from Stephen Foster to Elvis Costello, and in between ranging from Hank Williams to Nina Simone. He analyzes what he calls the trap of easy rhymes, breaks down how the addition of a single syllable can diminish a song, and even explains how bluegrass relates to heavy metal. These essays are written in Dylan’s unique prose. And while ostensibly about music, they are really meditations on the human condition.
-
-
Needs chapter headings
- By kaon on 12-22-22
By: Bob Dylan
-
Tarantula
- By: Bob Dylan
- Narrated by: Will Patton, Dennis Boutsikaris - Preface
- Length: 3 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Written in 1966, Tarantula is a collection of poems and prose that evokes the turbulence of its time and provides a unique perspective on Bob Dylan’s creative evolution. It captures Dylan at a crucial juncture in his artistic development, showcasing the imagination of a revolutionary musician who was able to combine the humanity and compassion of his folk music roots with the surrealism of modern art and the intensity of the Delta blues. Angry, funny, and elusive, the poems and prose in this collection reflect the concerns found in Dylan’s most seminal music.
-
-
Dylan at his Weirdest
- By Connor on 12-09-19
By: Bob Dylan
-
Lou Reed
- The King of New York
- By: Will Hermes
- Narrated by: Will Hermes
- Length: 20 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Since his death ten years ago, Lou Reed’s living presence has only grown. The great rock-poet presided over the marriage of Brill Building pop and the European avant-garde, and left American culture transfigured. In Lou Reed: The King of New York, Will Hermes offers the definitive narrative of Reed’s life and legacy, dramatizing his long, brilliant, and contentious dialogue with fans, critics, fellow artists, and assorted habitués of the demimonde.
-
-
Best Biography I’ve Ever Read
- By Sammy Criscitello on 11-21-24
By: Will Hermes
-
Easily Slip into Another World
- A Life in Music
- By: Henry Threadgill, Brent Hayes Edwards
- Narrated by: Ron Butler
- Length: 12 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Henry Threadgill has had a singular life in music. At 79, the saxophonist, flautist, and celebrated composer is one of three jazz artists (along with Ornette Coleman and Wynton Marsalis) to have won a Pulitzer Prize. In Easily Slip into Another World, Threadgill recalls his childhood and upbringing in Chicago, his family life and education, and his brilliant career in music.
-
-
Wow. A hidden gem!
- By Amazon Customer on 12-14-24
By: Henry Threadgill, and others
-
Testimony
- By: Robbie Robertson
- Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews
- Length: 18 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On the 40th anniversary of The Band's legendary The Last Waltz concert, Robbie Robertson finally tells his own spellbinding story of the band that changed music history, his extraordinary personal journey, and his creative friendships with some of the greatest artists of the last half century.
-
-
Believable?
- By steve on 02-13-17
By: Robbie Robertson
-
Folk Music
- A Bob Dylan Biography in Seven Songs
- By: Greil Marcus
- Narrated by: Ian Porter
- Length: 7 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Across seven decades, Bob Dylan has been the first singer of American song. As a writer and performer, he has rewritten the national songbook in a way that comes from his own vision and yet can feel as if it belongs to anyone who might listen. In Folk Music, Greil Marcus tells Dylan’s story through seven of his most transformative songs. This is not only a deeply felt telling of the life and times of Bob Dylan, but a rich history of American folk songs and the new life they were given as Dylan sat down to write his own.
-
-
Monstrously Pretentious
- By Steve L on 11-06-22
By: Greil Marcus
-
The Philosophy of Modern Song
- By: Bob Dylan
- Narrated by: Bob Dylan, Jeff Bridges, Steve Buscemi, and others
- Length: 6 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dylan, who began working on the book in 2010, offers his insight into the nature of popular music. He writes over sixty essays focusing on songs by other artists, spanning from Stephen Foster to Elvis Costello, and in between ranging from Hank Williams to Nina Simone. He analyzes what he calls the trap of easy rhymes, breaks down how the addition of a single syllable can diminish a song, and even explains how bluegrass relates to heavy metal. These essays are written in Dylan’s unique prose. And while ostensibly about music, they are really meditations on the human condition.
-
-
Needs chapter headings
- By kaon on 12-22-22
By: Bob Dylan
-
Tarantula
- By: Bob Dylan
- Narrated by: Will Patton, Dennis Boutsikaris - Preface
- Length: 3 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Written in 1966, Tarantula is a collection of poems and prose that evokes the turbulence of its time and provides a unique perspective on Bob Dylan’s creative evolution. It captures Dylan at a crucial juncture in his artistic development, showcasing the imagination of a revolutionary musician who was able to combine the humanity and compassion of his folk music roots with the surrealism of modern art and the intensity of the Delta blues. Angry, funny, and elusive, the poems and prose in this collection reflect the concerns found in Dylan’s most seminal music.
-
-
Dylan at his Weirdest
- By Connor on 12-09-19
By: Bob Dylan
-
Lou Reed
- The King of New York
- By: Will Hermes
- Narrated by: Will Hermes
- Length: 20 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Since his death ten years ago, Lou Reed’s living presence has only grown. The great rock-poet presided over the marriage of Brill Building pop and the European avant-garde, and left American culture transfigured. In Lou Reed: The King of New York, Will Hermes offers the definitive narrative of Reed’s life and legacy, dramatizing his long, brilliant, and contentious dialogue with fans, critics, fellow artists, and assorted habitués of the demimonde.
-
-
Best Biography I’ve Ever Read
- By Sammy Criscitello on 11-21-24
By: Will Hermes
-
Easily Slip into Another World
- A Life in Music
- By: Henry Threadgill, Brent Hayes Edwards
- Narrated by: Ron Butler
- Length: 12 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Henry Threadgill has had a singular life in music. At 79, the saxophonist, flautist, and celebrated composer is one of three jazz artists (along with Ornette Coleman and Wynton Marsalis) to have won a Pulitzer Prize. In Easily Slip into Another World, Threadgill recalls his childhood and upbringing in Chicago, his family life and education, and his brilliant career in music.
-
-
Wow. A hidden gem!
- By Amazon Customer on 12-14-24
By: Henry Threadgill, and others
-
Testimony
- By: Robbie Robertson
- Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews
- Length: 18 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On the 40th anniversary of The Band's legendary The Last Waltz concert, Robbie Robertson finally tells his own spellbinding story of the band that changed music history, his extraordinary personal journey, and his creative friendships with some of the greatest artists of the last half century.
-
-
Believable?
- By steve on 02-13-17
By: Robbie Robertson
-
Fire and Rain
- The Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, James Taylor, CSNY and the Lost Story of 1970
- By: David Browne
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 11 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
January 1970: the Beatles assemble one more time to put the finishing touches on Let It Be; Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young are wrapping up Déjà Vu; Simon and Garfunkel are unveiling Bridge Over Troubled Water; James Taylor is an upstart singer-songwriter who's just completed Sweet Baby James. Over the course of the next twelve months, their lives---and the world around them---will change irrevocably.
-
-
Fascinating information, easy to listen
- By NCKitkat on 07-28-11
By: David Browne
-
Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)
- A Memoir
- By: Sly Stone, Ben Greenman - contributor, Questlove - foreword
- Narrated by: Dion Graham
- Length: 8 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of the few indisputable geniuses of pop music, Sly Stone is a trailblazer and a legend. He created a new kind of music, mixing Black and white, male and female, funk and rock. As a songwriter, he penned some of the most iconic anthems of the 1960s and ’70s, from “Everyday People” to “Family Affair.” As a performer, he electrified audiences with a persona and stage presence that set a lasting standard for pop-culture performance.
-
-
Thank You!
- By Gina M. McKenzie on 10-20-23
By: Sly Stone, and others
-
Deliver Me from Nowhere
- The Making of Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska
- By: Warren Zanes
- Narrated by: Warren Zanes
- Length: 7 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Without Nebraska, Bruce Springsteen might not be who he is today. The natural follow-up to Springsteen’s hugely successful album The River should have been the hit-packed Born in the U.S.A. But instead, in 1982, he came out with an album consisting of a series of dark songs he had recorded by himself, for himself. But more than forty years later, Nebraska is arguably Springsteen’s most important record—the lasting clue to understanding not just his career as an artist and the vision behind it, but also the man himself.
-
-
Much more than a “Making of” story…
- By W. Smith on 05-31-23
By: Warren Zanes
-
Waylon
- An Autobiography
- By: Waylon Jennings, Lenny Kaye
- Narrated by: Waylon Jennings
- Length: 2 hrs and 58 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Born dirt poor, Jennings went from country disc jockey to country superstar, leading the revolution in country music with his platinum album The Outlaws. Through his eyes we see the Nashville scene in the early days, and through his honest, no-holds-barred storytelling, we follow his struggle to overcome drugs and impending bankruptcy to establish himself as one of the living legends of country music.
-
-
Amazing. But not unabridged.
- By Dave on 04-26-18
By: Waylon Jennings, and others
-
Cosmic Scholar
- The Life and Times of Harry Smith
- By: John Szwed
- Narrated by: Paul Woodson
- Length: 13 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Harry Smith was, in the words of Robert Frank, "the only person I met in my life that transcended everything." In Cosmic Scholar, John Szwed patches together, for the first time, the life of one of the twentieth century's most overlooked cultural figures.
-
-
A Weirdo Worth Your Time
- By Lulu on 09-28-23
By: John Szwed
-
Life
- By: Keith Richards, James Fox
- Narrated by: Johnny Depp, Joe Hurley
- Length: 23 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Now at last Keith Richards pauses to tell his story in the most anticipated autobiography in decades. And what a story! Listening obsessively to Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters records in a coldwater flat with Mick Jagger and Brian Jones, building a sound and a band out of music they loved. Finding fame and success as a bad-boy band, only to find themselves challenged by authorities everywhere....
-
-
Ins and outs
- By Jesse on 11-07-10
By: Keith Richards, and others
-
How Music Works
- By: David Byrne
- Narrated by: Andrew Garman, David Byrne
- Length: 13 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Utilizing his incomparable career and inspired collaborations with Talking Heads, Brian Eno, and many others, David Byrne taps deeply into his lifetime of knowledge to explore the panoptic elements of music, how it shapes the human experience, and reveals the impetus behind how we create, consume, distribute, and enjoy the songs, symphonies, and rhythms that provide the backbeat of life. Byrne’s magnum opus uncovers thrilling realizations about the redemptive liberation that music brings us all.
-
-
Kind of all over the place
- By Amazon Customer on 02-17-23
By: David Byrne
-
A Long Strange Trip
- The Inside History of the Grateful Dead
- By: Dennis McNally
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 29 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From 1965 to 1995, the Grateful Dead flourished as one of the most beloved, unusual, and accomplished musical entities to ever grace American culture. The creative synchronicity among Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzmann, Mickey Hart, and Ron "Pigpen" McKernan exploded out of the early 60s roots and folk scene, providing the soundtrack for the Dionysian revels of the counterculture. Dennis McNally, the band's historian and publicist for more than 20 years, takes listeners back through the Dead's history.
-
-
Amazing story!
- By Michael Knoll on 11-04-18
By: Dennis McNally
-
Lennon, Dylan, Alice and Jesus
- By: Greg Laurie
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 5 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lennon, Dylan, Alice, and Jesus examines wretched excess, self-absorption and miraculous redemption; the book is a raw, sensitive, and unforgettable journey of sex, drugs, rock and roll, and sweet salvation. Author Greg Laurie traces the lives of rock stars and entertainment figures and legends who wallowed in the decadence of both the high life and low life, as they alternately experienced Heaven and Hell on Earth. He travels with them into their demonic abysses and joyfully chronicles their ultimate ascension to their prodigal moments.
-
-
I wished Greg would of narrated the book.
- By Dennis DeMeis on 06-28-22
By: Greg Laurie
-
Petty: The Biography
- By: Warren Zanes
- Narrated by: Warren Zanes
- Length: 13 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
No one other than Warren Zanes, rocker and writer and friend, could author a book about Tom Petty that is as honest and evocative of Petty's music and the remarkable rock and roll history he and his band helped to write. Born in Gainesville, Florida, with more than a little hillbilly in his blood, Tom Petty was a Southern shit kicker, a kid without a whole lot of promise. Rock and roll made it otherwise.
-
-
Tom Petty gets some bio love
- By tru britty on 12-15-15
By: Warren Zanes
-
Hamilton
- The Revolution
- By: Lin-Manuel Miranda, Jeremy McCarter
- Narrated by: Lin-Manuel Miranda, Jeremy McCarter, Mariska Hargitay
- Length: 6 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lin-Manuel Miranda's groundbreaking musical Hamilton is as revolutionary as its subject: the poor kid from the Caribbean who fought the British, defended the Constitution, and helped to found the United States. Fusing hip-hop, pop, R&B, and the best traditions of theater, this once-in-a-generation show broadens the sound of Broadway, reveals the storytelling power of rap, and claims our country's origins for a diverse new generation.
-
-
Love the idea of the book, get it in print.
- By Adam Shields on 04-13-16
By: Lin-Manuel Miranda, and others
-
Born Standing Up
- A Comic's Life
- By: Steve Martin
- Narrated by: Steve Martin
- Length: 4 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the mid-70s, Steve Martin exploded onto the comedy scene. By 1978 he was the biggest concert draw in the history of stand-up. In 1981 he quit forever. Born Standing Up is, in his own words, the story of "why I did stand-up and why I walked away".
-
-
Fantastic
- By Andrew on 11-30-07
By: Steve Martin
Critic reviews
Related to this topic
-
Relentless
- The Memoir
- By: Yngwie J. Malmsteen
- Narrated by: Yngwie J. Malmsteen, Fred Berman
- Length: 7 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Yngwie Malmsteen's revolutionary guitar style - combining elements of classical music with the speed and volume of heavy metal - made him a staple of the 80s rock scene. Decades later, he's still a legend among guitarists, having sold 11 million albums and influenced generations of rockers since. In Relentless, Malmsteen shares his personal story, from the moment he burst onto the scene seemingly out of nowhere in the early 80s to become a household name in the annals of heavy metal.
-
-
Bloviations
- By David A. Kaplowitz on 12-29-19
-
Wild Tales
- A Rock & Roll Life
- By: Graham Nash
- Narrated by: Graham Nash
- Length: 12 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From Graham Nash - the legendary musician and founding member of the iconic bands Crosby, Stills & Nash and The Hollies - comes a candid and riveting autobiography that belongs on the reading list of every classic rock fan.
-
-
The Best of the Recent Rock Biographies
- By Steven Schuster on 10-28-13
By: Graham Nash
-
Me, the Mob, and the Music
- One Helluva Ride with Tommy James and the Shondells
- By: Tommy James, Martin Fitzpatrick
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 7 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Everyone knows the hits: "Mony Mony," "I Think We're Alone Now," "Crimson and Clover," "Crystal Blue Persuasion." They are nuggets of rock and pop history. However, few know the unlikely story of how these hits came to be. Tommy James had been performing in rock bands in the Michigan area since the age of 12. Prompted to record a few songs by a local disc jockey in 1964, Tommy chose an obscurity titled "Hanky Panky," which became a minor local hit that came and went.
-
-
What a ride - excellent story, well told
- By Dave on 03-25-10
By: Tommy James, and others
-
One Way Out
- The Inside History of the Allman Brothers Band
- By: Alan Paul
- Narrated by: Dan John Miller
- Length: 11 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One Way Out is the powerful biography of the Allman Brothers Band, an oral history written with the band's participation and filled with original, never-before-published interviews as well as personal letters and correspondence. This is the most in-depth look at a legendary American rock band that has meant so much to so many for so long. For 25 years, Alan Paul has covered the Allman Brothers Band, conducting hundreds of interviews, riding the buses with them, attending rehearsals and countless shows.
-
-
From a non-fan
- By DK on 09-06-14
By: Alan Paul
-
Keith Richards
- The Unauthorised Biography
- By: Victor Bockris
- Narrated by: Adrian Mulraney
- Length: 20 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1992, Victor Bockris' celebrated biography was the first to recognize Richards' pivotal role in the legend of the Rolling Stones. Now that book on rock's most incredible survivor has been expanded. Here are the true facts behind Richards' battles with his demons: the women, the drugs and the love-hate relationship with Jagger. His struggle with heroin and his status as the rock star most likely to die in the 1970s. His scarcely believable rebirth as a family man in the 1980s. Illuminated with revealing quotes and thoughtful insights into the man behind the band that goes on forever.
-
-
doesn't comapre to LIFE
- By A. Garofalo on 02-20-14
By: Victor Bockris
-
Deal
- My Three Decades of Drumming, Dreams, and Drugs with the Grateful Dead
- By: Bill Kreutzmann, Benjy Eisen
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 13 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On their 50th anniversary comes a groundbreaking rock-and-roll memoir by one of the founding members of the Grateful Dead. The Grateful Dead are perhaps the most legendary American rock band of all time. For 30 years, beginning in the hippie scene of San Francisco in 1965, they were a musical institution, the original jam band that broke new ground in so many ways.
-
-
Decent but not great
- By Monty S on 03-02-16
By: Bill Kreutzmann, and others
-
Relentless
- The Memoir
- By: Yngwie J. Malmsteen
- Narrated by: Yngwie J. Malmsteen, Fred Berman
- Length: 7 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Yngwie Malmsteen's revolutionary guitar style - combining elements of classical music with the speed and volume of heavy metal - made him a staple of the 80s rock scene. Decades later, he's still a legend among guitarists, having sold 11 million albums and influenced generations of rockers since. In Relentless, Malmsteen shares his personal story, from the moment he burst onto the scene seemingly out of nowhere in the early 80s to become a household name in the annals of heavy metal.
-
-
Bloviations
- By David A. Kaplowitz on 12-29-19
-
Wild Tales
- A Rock & Roll Life
- By: Graham Nash
- Narrated by: Graham Nash
- Length: 12 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From Graham Nash - the legendary musician and founding member of the iconic bands Crosby, Stills & Nash and The Hollies - comes a candid and riveting autobiography that belongs on the reading list of every classic rock fan.
-
-
The Best of the Recent Rock Biographies
- By Steven Schuster on 10-28-13
By: Graham Nash
-
Me, the Mob, and the Music
- One Helluva Ride with Tommy James and the Shondells
- By: Tommy James, Martin Fitzpatrick
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 7 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Everyone knows the hits: "Mony Mony," "I Think We're Alone Now," "Crimson and Clover," "Crystal Blue Persuasion." They are nuggets of rock and pop history. However, few know the unlikely story of how these hits came to be. Tommy James had been performing in rock bands in the Michigan area since the age of 12. Prompted to record a few songs by a local disc jockey in 1964, Tommy chose an obscurity titled "Hanky Panky," which became a minor local hit that came and went.
-
-
What a ride - excellent story, well told
- By Dave on 03-25-10
By: Tommy James, and others
-
One Way Out
- The Inside History of the Allman Brothers Band
- By: Alan Paul
- Narrated by: Dan John Miller
- Length: 11 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One Way Out is the powerful biography of the Allman Brothers Band, an oral history written with the band's participation and filled with original, never-before-published interviews as well as personal letters and correspondence. This is the most in-depth look at a legendary American rock band that has meant so much to so many for so long. For 25 years, Alan Paul has covered the Allman Brothers Band, conducting hundreds of interviews, riding the buses with them, attending rehearsals and countless shows.
-
-
From a non-fan
- By DK on 09-06-14
By: Alan Paul
-
Keith Richards
- The Unauthorised Biography
- By: Victor Bockris
- Narrated by: Adrian Mulraney
- Length: 20 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1992, Victor Bockris' celebrated biography was the first to recognize Richards' pivotal role in the legend of the Rolling Stones. Now that book on rock's most incredible survivor has been expanded. Here are the true facts behind Richards' battles with his demons: the women, the drugs and the love-hate relationship with Jagger. His struggle with heroin and his status as the rock star most likely to die in the 1970s. His scarcely believable rebirth as a family man in the 1980s. Illuminated with revealing quotes and thoughtful insights into the man behind the band that goes on forever.
-
-
doesn't comapre to LIFE
- By A. Garofalo on 02-20-14
By: Victor Bockris
-
Deal
- My Three Decades of Drumming, Dreams, and Drugs with the Grateful Dead
- By: Bill Kreutzmann, Benjy Eisen
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 13 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On their 50th anniversary comes a groundbreaking rock-and-roll memoir by one of the founding members of the Grateful Dead. The Grateful Dead are perhaps the most legendary American rock band of all time. For 30 years, beginning in the hippie scene of San Francisco in 1965, they were a musical institution, the original jam band that broke new ground in so many ways.
-
-
Decent but not great
- By Monty S on 03-02-16
By: Bill Kreutzmann, and others
-
When Giants Walked the Earth
- A Biography of Led Zeppelin
- By: Mick Wall
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 18 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
They were the last great band of the '60s and the first great band of the '70s. They rose, somewhat unpromisingly, from the ashes of the Yardbirds to become one of the biggest-selling rock bands of all time - and eventually paid the price for it, with disaster, drug addiction, and death.
-
-
Very annoying but tolerable for serious fans.
- By M. Allen on 08-14-19
By: Mick Wall
-
Small Town Talk
- Bob Dylan, The Band, Van Morrison, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and Friends in the Wild Years of Woodstock
- By: Barney Hoskyns
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 13 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When musicians in the New York folk scene of the 1960s grew tired of city life, they decided to "get it together in the country". They headed for Woodstock - not to the site of the infamous music festival of 1969 but to the Catskills, to Bearsville, to Woodstock proper. Counterculture revolutionaries like Janis Joplin, Richie Havens, and Paul Butterfield got "back to the land", turning the once sleepy hollow into a funky Shangri-La.
-
-
Captured the era - too many mistakes
- By Frank Canino on 04-17-16
By: Barney Hoskyns
-
The Gospel According to Luke
- By: Steve Lukather
- Narrated by: Steve Lukather
- Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this incisive memoir, Steve Lukather tells the complete Toto story. He also lifts the lid on what went on behind the closed studio doors, shedding light on the unique creative processes of some of the most legendary names in music: from Quincy Jones, Michael Jackson, Paul McCartney, Stevie Nicks, and Elton John to Miles Davis, Joni Mitchell, Bruce Springsteen, and Aretha Franklin. Lukather’s extraordinary tale also encompasses the dark side of stardom and the American Dream. Frank, engaging, and often hilarious, The Gospel According to Luke is no ordinary rock memoir.
-
-
Wow Best Rock Biography Ever
- By Hercules on 09-29-18
By: Steve Lukather
-
Outlaw
- Waylon, Willie, Kris, and the Renegades of Nashville
- By: Michael Streissguth
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 7 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Waylon Jennings. Willie Nelson. Kris Kristofferson. Three renegade musicians. Three unexpected stars. Three men who changed Nashville and country music forever. Streissguth's new book brings to life an incredible chapter in musical history and reveals for the first time a surprising outlaw zeitgeist in Nashville. Based on extensive research and probing interviews with key players, what emerges is a fascinating glimpse into three of the most legendary artists of our times and the definitive story of how they changed music in Nashville and everywhere.
-
-
Revealing little-known Details does Captivate!
- By Cody Meyer on 11-20-17
-
The Wrecking Crew
- The Inside Story of Rock and Roll's Best-Kept Secret
- By: Kent Hartman
- Narrated by: Dan John Miller
- Length: 9 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
If you were a fan of popular music in the 1960s and early '70s, you were a fan of the Wrecking Crew - whether you knew it or not. On hit record after hit record by everyone from the Byrds, the Beach Boys, and the Monkees to the Grass Roots, the 5th Dimension, Sonny & Cher, and Simon & Garfunkel, this collection of West Coast studio musicians from diverse backgrounds established themselves as the driving sound of pop music - sometimes over the objection of actual band members....
-
-
Left Guessing
- By Patrick King on 04-29-14
By: Kent Hartman
-
So Many Roads
- The Life and Times of the Grateful Dead
- By: David Browne
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 15 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
No longer dismissed as relics of the hippie era, a new generation has lionized the Dead for creating a culture that paved the way for social networking, free music swapping, and the uncompromising anticorporate attitude of indie rock. Now, fifty years after the band first began changing rock 'n' roll both sonically and psychically, So Many Roads paints the most vivid portrait yet of the Grateful Dead, one of the most enduring institutions in American music and culture.
-
-
Great first book on the Dead
- By robert on 10-30-15
By: David Browne
-
Walk This Way
- Run-DMC, Aerosmith, and the Song That Changed American Music Forever
- By: Geoff Edgers
- Narrated by: Geoff Edgers
- Length: 6 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Washington Post staff writer Geoff Edgers takes a deep dive into the story behind "Walk This Way", Aerosmith and Run-DMC's legendary, groundbreaking mashup that forever changed music.
-
-
A MUST LISTEN/READ
- By Aron Teo Lee on 05-17-19
By: Geoff Edgers
-
The Never-Ending Present
- The Story of Gord Downie and the Tragically Hip
- By: Michael Barclay
- Narrated by: George Stroumboulopoulos
- Length: 17 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From our talent-rich neighbor to the north comes this biography of one of the most successful Canadian rock bands, The Tragically Hip, which announced a year-long tour after sharing the news of lead singer Gord Downie’s inoperable cancer. Now available to US listeners, The Never-Ending Present details what led up to the memorable night when music fans all over the world watched Downie’s heroic final performance.
-
-
Hometown Heroes
- By Tommy Garou on 12-13-18
By: Michael Barclay
-
Anger Is an Energy
- My Life Uncensored
- By: John Lydon
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 18 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
John Lydon is an icon - one of the most recognizable and influential cultural figures of the last 40 years. As Johnny Rotten, he was the lead singer of the Sex Pistols, the world's most notorious band. The Pistols shot to fame in the mid-1970s with songs such as "Anarchy in the U.K." and "God Save the Queen". So incendiary was their impact at the time that in their native England, the Houses of Parliament questioned whether they violated the Traitors and Treasons Act.
-
-
I Just Can't
- By notamatopoeia on 12-30-15
By: John Lydon
-
Unknown Pleasures
- Inside Joy Division
- By: Peter Hook
- Narrated by: Peter Hook
- Length: 7 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Joy Division changed the face of music. Godfathers of alternative rock, they reinvented music in the post-punk era, creating a new sound - dark, hypnotic, and intense - that would influence U2, Morrissey, R.E.M., Radiohead, and numerous others. The story is now legendary: In 1980, on the heels of their groundbreaking debut, Unknown Pleasures, and on the eve of their first U.S. tour, the band was rent asunder by the tragic death of their enigmatic lead singer, Ian Curtis.
-
-
Like sitting next to Hooky in a bar...
- By Andrew on 03-26-13
By: Peter Hook
-
Punk Rock Blitzkrieg
- My Life as a Ramone
- By: Rich Herschlag, Marky Ramone
- Narrated by: Corey M. Snow
- Length: 13 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Having outlived his bandmates, Marky is the only person who can share the secrets and stories of the Ramones' improbable rise from obtuse beginnings to induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But it wasn't all good times and hit songs, and Marky doesn't shy away from discussing his own struggles.
-
-
Dedicated Punk Fans Must Read
- By Leostriple on 03-26-15
By: Rich Herschlag, and others
-
The One
- The Life and Music of James Brown
- By: R. J. Smith
- Narrated by: Kevin R. Free
- Length: 14 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Senior editor at L.A. Magazine RJ Smith saw his first book, The Great Black Way, win the coveted California Book Award. With The One, Smith profiles one of the 20th century’s most innovative musical icons, the Godfather of Soul himself, James Brown. Drawing on extensive research and captivating interviews, Smith chronicles Brown’s rise from abject poverty to the pinnacle of fame, while also detailing Brown’s work as a civil rights activist and entrepreneur.
-
-
pitiable, lovable, despicable,understandable
- By Anonymous User on 01-06-13
By: R. J. Smith
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
Dylan Goes Electric!
- Newport, Seeger, Dylan, and the Night That Split the Sixties
- By: Elijah Wald
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 11 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On the evening of July 25, 1965, Bob Dylan took the stage at Newport Folk Festival, backed by an electric band, and roared into his new rock hit, "Like a Rolling Stone". The audience of committed folk purists and political activists who had hailed him as their acoustic prophet reacted with a mix of shock, booing, and scattered cheers. It was the shot heard round the world - Dylan's declaration of musical independence, the end of the folk revival, and the birth of rock as the voice of a generation - and one of the defining moments in 20th-century music.
-
-
Snapshot in time
- By C.F. on 12-08-24
By: Elijah Wald
-
A Freewheelin' Time
- A Memoir of Greenwich Village in the Sixties
- By: Suze Rotolo
- Narrated by: Christina Delaine
- Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Suze Rotolo chronicles her coming of age in Greenwich Village during the 1960s and the early days of the folk music explosion, when Bob Dylan was finding his voice and she was his muse.
-
-
An extraordinary woman sheds light on her time, and Dylan
- By Jeanie on 05-11-22
By: Suze Rotolo
-
Positively 4th Street
- By: David Hajdu
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 12 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Positively 4th Street is a mesmerizing account of how four young people (Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Mimi Baez Farina, and Richard Farina) gave rise to a modern-day bohemia and created the enduring sound and style of the 1960s.
-
-
Lousy reader ruins otherwise interesting history
- By Barbara on 10-20-04
By: David Hajdu
-
Talkin' Greenwich Village
- The Heady Rise and Slow Fall of America's Bohemian Music Capital
- By: David Browne
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 15 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Although Greenwich Village takes up less than a square mile in downtown New York, rarely has such a concise area supported and nurtured so many groundbreaking artists and genres. Musician used the Village’s smokey coffeehouses and clubs to chronicle the tumultuous Sixties, rewrite jazz history, and take rock & roll into eclectic places it hadn’t been before. Based on new interviews with surviving participants, previously unseen and unheard archives, and author David Browne's years immersed in the scene, Talkin’ Greenwich Village lends the saga the epic, panoramic scope it has long deserved.
By: David Browne
-
1965
- The Most Revolutionary Year in Music
- By: Andrew Grant Jackson
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 11 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
During 12 unforgettable months in the middle of the turbulent '60s, America saw the rise of innovative new sounds that would change popular music as we knew it. In 1965: The Most Revolutionary Year in Music, music historian Andrew Grant Jackson (Still the Greatest: The Essential Songs of The Beatles' Solo Careers) chronicles a groundbreaking year of creativity fueled by rivalries between musicians and continents, sweeping social changes, and technological breakthroughs.
-
-
Seems like a good overview
- By wylie smith on 01-12-23
-
A Long Strange Trip
- The Inside History of the Grateful Dead
- By: Dennis McNally
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 29 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From 1965 to 1995, the Grateful Dead flourished as one of the most beloved, unusual, and accomplished musical entities to ever grace American culture. The creative synchronicity among Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzmann, Mickey Hart, and Ron "Pigpen" McKernan exploded out of the early 60s roots and folk scene, providing the soundtrack for the Dionysian revels of the counterculture. Dennis McNally, the band's historian and publicist for more than 20 years, takes listeners back through the Dead's history.
-
-
Amazing story!
- By Michael Knoll on 11-04-18
By: Dennis McNally
-
Dylan Goes Electric!
- Newport, Seeger, Dylan, and the Night That Split the Sixties
- By: Elijah Wald
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 11 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On the evening of July 25, 1965, Bob Dylan took the stage at Newport Folk Festival, backed by an electric band, and roared into his new rock hit, "Like a Rolling Stone". The audience of committed folk purists and political activists who had hailed him as their acoustic prophet reacted with a mix of shock, booing, and scattered cheers. It was the shot heard round the world - Dylan's declaration of musical independence, the end of the folk revival, and the birth of rock as the voice of a generation - and one of the defining moments in 20th-century music.
-
-
Snapshot in time
- By C.F. on 12-08-24
By: Elijah Wald
-
A Freewheelin' Time
- A Memoir of Greenwich Village in the Sixties
- By: Suze Rotolo
- Narrated by: Christina Delaine
- Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Suze Rotolo chronicles her coming of age in Greenwich Village during the 1960s and the early days of the folk music explosion, when Bob Dylan was finding his voice and she was his muse.
-
-
An extraordinary woman sheds light on her time, and Dylan
- By Jeanie on 05-11-22
By: Suze Rotolo
-
Positively 4th Street
- By: David Hajdu
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 12 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Positively 4th Street is a mesmerizing account of how four young people (Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Mimi Baez Farina, and Richard Farina) gave rise to a modern-day bohemia and created the enduring sound and style of the 1960s.
-
-
Lousy reader ruins otherwise interesting history
- By Barbara on 10-20-04
By: David Hajdu
-
Talkin' Greenwich Village
- The Heady Rise and Slow Fall of America's Bohemian Music Capital
- By: David Browne
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 15 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Although Greenwich Village takes up less than a square mile in downtown New York, rarely has such a concise area supported and nurtured so many groundbreaking artists and genres. Musician used the Village’s smokey coffeehouses and clubs to chronicle the tumultuous Sixties, rewrite jazz history, and take rock & roll into eclectic places it hadn’t been before. Based on new interviews with surviving participants, previously unseen and unheard archives, and author David Browne's years immersed in the scene, Talkin’ Greenwich Village lends the saga the epic, panoramic scope it has long deserved.
By: David Browne
-
1965
- The Most Revolutionary Year in Music
- By: Andrew Grant Jackson
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 11 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
During 12 unforgettable months in the middle of the turbulent '60s, America saw the rise of innovative new sounds that would change popular music as we knew it. In 1965: The Most Revolutionary Year in Music, music historian Andrew Grant Jackson (Still the Greatest: The Essential Songs of The Beatles' Solo Careers) chronicles a groundbreaking year of creativity fueled by rivalries between musicians and continents, sweeping social changes, and technological breakthroughs.
-
-
Seems like a good overview
- By wylie smith on 01-12-23
-
A Long Strange Trip
- The Inside History of the Grateful Dead
- By: Dennis McNally
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 29 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From 1965 to 1995, the Grateful Dead flourished as one of the most beloved, unusual, and accomplished musical entities to ever grace American culture. The creative synchronicity among Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzmann, Mickey Hart, and Ron "Pigpen" McKernan exploded out of the early 60s roots and folk scene, providing the soundtrack for the Dionysian revels of the counterculture. Dennis McNally, the band's historian and publicist for more than 20 years, takes listeners back through the Dead's history.
-
-
Amazing story!
- By Michael Knoll on 11-04-18
By: Dennis McNally
What listeners say about The Mayor of MacDougal Street
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 02-19-23
Dave
The first time I heard Dave was on a Phoenix underground radio station in 1971. I loved folk music then as now. The first impression was that this guy is the real thing and have, over the years, collected every piece of his that I could find. And I saw the movie. This book validates my original conclusion.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Andreas
- 07-19-15
Informative and entertaining, surprisingly funny
Van Ronk had a bitingly sharp wit, and this collaborstive auto-biography is a great read.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- MidwestGeek
- 01-26-14
Overview of NYC folk music scene of '50's & 60's.
If you like folk music of the mid- to late 20th century, you'll probably enjoy this memoir, an insider's perspective of the folk music scene, mostly around Greenwich Village. Mention Dave Van Ronk to someone today and you are likely to get a blank stare. Van Ronk never was a superstar but was well known, especially among other folk singers. The narrative is first person, but this is more like an autobiography of his professional life than his personal life. For example, we learn that he was married twice, but you learn little more about his wives than their names. Wald has done a brilliant job editing the material left by Dave Van Ronk. In an epilogue by Wald, you can tell this was a labor of love.
Although the book was the inspiration for the Coen Brothers film "Inside Llewyn Davis," van Ronk differed in important ways from the character in the film. For example, Dave's first love was jazz, and he never abandoned it. Although he hitched a ride to Chicago and back once in hopes of playing at The Gate of Horn, there was never involved a jazz musician resembling Roland Turner nor the Kerouac-like driver/beat poet Johnny Five.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
7 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Paul Sas
- 03-26-14
Pitch perfect, humble, witty
Dave Van Ronk had the absolutely best window on the world that spawned the folk revival in Greenwich Village in the 1960s. His memoir is full of fascinating details (e.g., folk music was originally scheduled in Beat coffee houses to clear the room between sets, so that a new round of coffee drinkers would come in to hear the next poet). I wished this could have been 2X as long.
If you're interested in the Village, in folk music, in NY history (political radicals, musicians, hipsters), this will stand out as a unique record. Never boring, often funny and always well-spoken. Note for Dylan fans (of which I'm one): DVR was one of Dylan's earliest admirers/fellow-travelers. He writes with gentle insight about Dylan, worth hearing, but it's a minor part of the memoir.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- jesse
- 09-16-23
An absolute joy
I’ve loved the man’s music for years, but knew next to nothing about his deep involvement in the Greenwich Village folk scene. His unique perspective, having been deeply involved in the community for years before it became a phenomenon, allows for an overview of the contributing factors that I had never considered. Deeply subjective as his view may have been, Van Ronk stays self-aware and self-effacing in a way that is often missing in such personal editorials. I am so grateful for this book, and the man who made it, and love how much more vivid my view now is of this fairly ordinary man who led an extraordinary life, rubbing shoulders with incredible talents like Rev Gary Davis, Bob Dylan, and Mississippi John Hurt, recognizing their deep appreciation of their craft, and emulating them as best he could, and making their styles his own. I am inspired and deeply appreciative of this work, and cannot recommend it highly enough.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Doug Lindsay
- 03-18-15
Long Live the Mayor!
Where does The Mayor of MacDougal Street rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
I love this biography/mini-history of the mid-Twentieth century Greenwich Music music scene. It magically transported me to a very special time and place through the eyes and heart of a person who devoted his life to music despite all of the "slings and arrows". His sense of humility, intelligence and humor shined a great spotlight on "The Folk Scare" of the early Sixties. Two of the things that I liked a lot were how hard it was to make it as a musician and the cultural description of NY and other places when he was on road trips elsewhere and briefly living in California.
What other book might you compare The Mayor of MacDougal Street to and why?
Keith Richards biography. Keith barely acknowledges his good luck and seems vain and thin skinned compared to this guy.
Have you listened to any of Sean Runnette’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
I have never listened to the narrator before but he did a wonderful job kind of becoming Dave in a way.
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
Yes
Any additional comments?
Although the Coen Brothers movie "Inside LLewyn Davis" borrows generously from this book, and I really love the Coen Brothers movies, it is not any kind of accurate reflection of Van Ronk's personality. You would be best served watching it afterward. I saw it both before and after with very different perspectives. If you have already seen it it won't diminish the book in any way.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Martin J Dunleavy
- 02-12-21
Great book about New York music and the 50s and 60s
This was a wonderful and enjoyable book about jazz and blues and bluegrass and folk and singer songwriters it also gave a true feel for a Greenwich Village was like in the 50s and 60s. At the same time it was an autobiography a wonderfully entertaining one about one of the true great characters of music.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 01-04-21
Interesting, but not what I expected
After hearing the epilogue I understood why a trip to California took up such a chunk of the book. We are fortunate to have this document of a special time, place, and musician.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- MaxH
- 11-01-23
Van Ronk
Delightful and honest- as always, Dave shoots from the hip. ‘Tis refreshing, to say the least.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Kazuhiko
- 03-29-14
This is what we missed out on!
Honestly, I didn't know who Dave Van Ronk was until I listened to this book. I got this book because I was interested in learning about the 1960's music scene in Greenwich Village. The book taught me much more than what I had expected. Dave Van Ronk is hilarious and honest in his depictions of the period. I was fascinated by the period, disillusioned a little bit but overall really enjoyed the journey through his experience. I always thought Bob Dylan was an elusive character, but Van Ronk's description of him perfectly explained why this was the case. Greenwich Village in the late '50s and early '60s was such a unique place/time - so many of the musicians who flocked in the area influenced each other. Sure, Dylan had a talent, but he would never have emerged as he did without the unique window of space/time described in this book. I also learned what it was like to be a musician trying to be himself. Thank you, Dave Van Ronk. Thank you, Elijah Wald. I recently passed through the neighborhood and felt so sad that many of the cafes/bars described in the book were gone and replaced by chain pharmacies and banks...
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
7 people found this helpful