Luckily, Dave was not a man to dwell on the frustrations. By the 1980s he was creating a new life for himself. In part, this was sparked by an odd stroke of luck: After a lifetime of refusing to fly, in 1981 he received the irresistable offer to come over to England and appear on the BBC’s This Is Your Life TV show as a surprise for Jim Watt, the world lightweight boxing champion, who happened to be a devoted fan. That led to a series of European tours, as well as trips to Australia and Japan, which substantially altered his financial situation as well as finally providing him with an opportunity to see all sorts of places he knew only from books. He also hooked up with Andrea Vuocolo, who eventually became his second wife, and with her support adopted a new lifestyle. He lost over a hundred pounds, wine replaced whiskey, and the nights became somewhat shorter. He still entertained visitors into the wee hours, and few of us left sober, but there was none of the bitterness of those middle years.
The visitors also got younger and more varied. The eighties brought a new wave of singer-songwriters to MacDougal Street, based in a club called the Speakeasy, and many of them took Dave as their adviser, inspiration, and éminence grise. Christine Lavin, Tom Intondi, David Massengill, Frank Christian, Bill Morrissey, Rod MacDonald, Jack Hardy—there are literally dozens of names that could be added to that list. Some came for guitar lessons, but most just met Dave at the club or were brought over to his place by friends and quickly learned that he was a man worth listening to, as well as the main link to the glory days whose legend had lured them to New York.
Dave occasionally talked about those days, but his real interest was what was happening around him. He constantly reminded his young friends that the singers of the past had been no more naturally talented than any other crop; they had just been lucky enough to arrive at the right moment. He enjoyed recounting anecdotes of the fifties and sixties, but refused to get caught up in the romance: “There was a lot that was great about that period,” he would say, “but if I start bloviating about how wonderful it was, what I say and what you hear will not be the same thing. It has been my observation that when you ask some alter kocker about the old days, his answer—however he may phrase it—will always be, ‘Of course, everything was much better then, because I could take a flight of stairs three at a time.’ The truth of the matter is that some things have gotten worse and some things have improved. For example, the quality of Chinese food in New York is a hell of a lot better than it was in the 1950s . . . ”
That attitude was what made me so eager to have him put his thoughts down on paper. Because Dave was not only a supremely engaging storyteller but a wise and insightful one. I wish he had written about the dozens of other subjects he knew so well, but I am happy and proud that at least we have this book. His story of the Great Folk Scare was an obvious place to start, and I doubt anyone will give us a more measured, fair, and entertaining picture of that time.
Index
ABC of Reading, The (Pound)
Abortion
Abrahams, Roger
Absinthe
“Ace in the Hole,”
ACTU. See Association of Catholic Trade Unions
Adams, Derroll
Adelphi Hall
Adler, Ellen
Adnopoz, Elliott. See also Elliott, Jack
AF of M (musicians’ union)
Airs for Four Voices (Dowland)
“All Along the Watchtower,”
Allen, Woody
Allison, Mose
Allmen, Rick
Almanac House commune
Alpert, Richard
Amateurs
American Legion
American Youth Hostels
Anarchists
Anderson, Casey
Anderson, Eric
Anderson, Pink
Andrew (cowboy hitchhiker)
Anthology of American Folk Music
Anti-lynching campaign
Antiwar movement. See also Vietnam War
Appalachians
Aqua-rama (TV show)
Armstrong, Louis
Arm-wrestling
Army hustlers
Arrangers/arrangements
Art
and craft
Artists Against the Blacklist
Art songs
Asch, Moe
Asheville Folk Festival
Assimilation
Association of Catholic Trade Unions (ACTU)
Atlas, Stan
“At the Jazz Band Ball,”
Authenticity
Autrey, Herman
“Avalon Blues,”
“Backwater Blues,”
Baez, Joan
Baez, Mimi
Baird, Curly
Baker, Etta
“Ballad of Pete Seeger, The,”
Ballads for Sectarians (recording)
Ballad singers
“Baltimore Rag,”
“Bamboo,”
Banjo playing
Banninger, John
Barbershop quartets
Basie, Count
Baudelaire, Charles Pierre
Beards
Beat Generation, The (recording)
Beatles
Beatniks
Bebop
Bechet, Sidney
Beiderbeck, Bix
Belafonte, Harry
Berkeley, Roy
Berlin, Irving
Berlin uprising
Berry, Chuck
Bibb, Leon
Big Judy. See Isquith, Judy
Bikel, Theo
Bitter End
Blacklists
Blacks
“Black Snake Moan,”
Blackwell, Russ
Blackwell, Scrapper
Blake, Eubie
Blind Blake
“Blind Rafferty.” See Van Ronk, Dave, writing as “Blind Rafferty”
Blossom Dearie
“Blow Gabriel,”
Blue, Dave. See also Cohen, Dave
Bluegrass
Blue Hawaii
Blues
historical research on
white blues singers
Bodenheim, Max
Boggs, Dock
Boguslav, Ray
Bohemians
Bolden, Buddy
Bongo players
Bookbinder, Roy
Boone, Pat
Bosses’ Songbook, The: Songs to Stifle the Flames of Discontent
Boston
“Both Sides Now,”
Brand, Oscar
Brecht, Bertolt
Brel, Jacques
Brent, John
Brill, Bob
Brill, Sylvia
Broadside of Boston, The (magazine)
Brooklyn
Broonzy, Big Bill
Browne, Jackson
Bruce, Lenny
Brute Force Jazz Band
Buffalo Bill
Bumble Bee Slim
Burdon, Eric
Burnett, Silvia
Burns, Jimmy
Burns, Robert
Busking
Butterfield, Paul
Byrds
Caen, Herb
Café Bizarre
Café Wha?(notes)
Café Yana
Caffé Lena
“Cake Walking Blues from Home,”
Cambridge, Massachusetts
“Candyman,”
Cantine, Holly(n)
Caravan magazine
Caricature coffeehouse
Carlo Tresca Club
Carmichael, Hoagy
Carnegie Recital Hall
Carter, Dorothy
Chamber Society of Lower Basin Street
Chandler, Len
Charles, Ray
Charters, Ann
Charters, Sam
Chess
Cheyenne
Chicago
Chicago Defender
“Chicken Is Nice,”
“Chimes of Trinity, The,” and “Chimes of Freedom,”
Chordettes
Christian, Charlie
Civil Rights Movement
Claiborne, Bob
Clancy Brothers
Clarence Williams and His Blue Five. See also Williams, Clarence
Classical music
Clayborn, Reverend Edward
Clayton, Paul
recordings of
Clouds (album)
“Clouds (from Both Sides Now),”
Club
“Cocaine Blues,”
Coffeehouses
battles with city
Cohen, Dave
Cohen, John
Cohen, Leonard
Cohen, Mike
Cold War
Collins, Judy
Coltrane, John
“Come Back Baby,”
Comedians
Commons coffeehouse
Communist Party
as arm of Soviet foreign policy
Competitiveness
Concerts
Condit, Tom
Condon, Eddie
Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)
“Cool Water,”
Cooper, Clarence
Coots, Lionel
Copyright laws
CORE. See Congress of Racial Equality
Corso, Gregory
Cosby, Bill
Country Blues, The (Charters)
Country music
Courlander, Harold
Covers (interpretations as)
Cox, Baby
CP. See Communist Party
Craig, Gary
“Crazy Blues,”
Creole Jazz Band
Critics
Crosby, Bing
Crowley, Aleister
Cuba
Cuban Missile Crisis
Culture shock
Culture wars
Currency scam
Daily Worker
Dalai Lama
Dalton, Karen
Darling, Erik
Darling Corey (recording)
Dave Van Ronk: Folksinger (recording)
Davis, Miles
Davis, Reverend Gary
Debs, Eugene V.
Delattre, Pierre
Democratic Party
Denitch, Bogdan
Depression era
Destiné, Jean Léon
Dexedrine
Dietrich, Marlene
“Dink’s Song,”
Diogenes Club
D’Lugoff, Art
Dobkin, Alix
Dobro playing
Dolgoff, Sam and Esther
Donegan, Lonnie
Donne, John
Donner Pass
“Don’t Roll Those Bloodshot Eyes at Me,”
“Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right,”
Dowland, John
Drinking alcohol
Drugs. See also Marijuana
Drums
Duchamp, Marcel
Dumontet, Roland
“Duncan and Brady,”
Dupree, Champion Jack
Durruti, Buenaventura
Dyer-Bennett, Richard
Dylan, Bob
biography of
and electric guitars
and new song movement
and politics
and reading poetry
and Woody Guthrie
Ear training
Eastern Europe
East Village/East Side
Eine Kleine Nachtmusik
Electronic music. See also Rock ’n’ roll
Ellington, Dick
Ellington, Duke
Elliott, Jack
Ellison, Harlan
Employment (non-musical). See also Van Ronk, Dave, with merchant marine
English, Logan
English harness dancing
Eric Burdon and the Animals
Estes, Sleepy John
“Ethics and the Folksinger” (Van Ronk)
Even Dozen Jug Band
Exploitation
Fabian
Faier, Billy
Fairbanks, Doug, Jr.
Fanarchists
Farmers
Fat Black Pussycat coffeehouse
Fats Domino
Faust, Luke
FBI
Fehling, Conrad
Feliciano, Jose
Festival in Haiti, (recording)
“Fidgety Feet,”
Fields, Gracie
Fifth Peg
Figaro coffeehouse
Fire Department
Fireside Book of Folk Songs, The
Fisher, Eddie
Five Spot
Fo’c’sle Songs and Chanties (recording)
Folk City. See Gerda’s Folk City
Folklore Center
Folk music
and beatniks
and bel canto
cabaret folksingers
coffeehouse folksingers
competitiveness in
first coffeehouse to feature
folk music boom/Folk Scare
folk revival
historical writing about
meaning of “folksinger,”
and nonpoliticals and anti-Communist leftists
for political ends. See also Politics, as overlapping folk scene
as process
public performance spaces for
and topical songs
and traveling musicians
urban folksingers
as varied
Folksingers Guild
end of
Food
Foster, Al
Foster, Pat
Four Aces
Fox, Richie
France
“Frankie and Johnny,”
“Frankie’s Blues,”
Free love
Freeman, Eddie
“Freight Train,”
Freudenthal, Chuck
Friedberger, Pete
Frueh, Danny
Fry, Harry
Fugs
Fuller, Jesse
Gambling
Gardyloo (fanzine)
Garfunkel, Artie
Gaslight Café
poetry readings at
“Gaslight Rag,”
Gate of Horn
Gavin, Jimmy
Geer, Will
George Lefty
Gerda’s Folk City
Geremia, George
Gerlach, Fred
Germany
Ghettos
“Ghost Riders in the Sky,”
Gibbon, Johnny
Gibson, Bob
Gigs
Gillespie, Dizzy
Gilpin, Dick
Ginsberg, Allen
Glaser, Gina
Glaser, Lenny
Glazer, Joe
Godfrey, Arthur
Golden Gate Bridge
Goldkette, Jean
Goldman, Emma
Goldsmith, Pete
Goldstein, Kenny
“Goodbye, Old Paint’m Leaving Cheyenne,” 106
Gooding, Cynthia
Goodman, Benny
Gordon, Max
Gorky, Arshile
Gospel music
Graham, Al
Grant, Coot
Green, Freddie
Greenbriar Boys
Greenhaus, Dick and Kiki
Greenhill, David
Greenwich Village
block between Bleecker and 3rd Street
Spring Street parties in
See also Washington Square Park
Gregory, Ed
Grossman, Albert
Grossman, Stefan
Guitar playing
classical
fingerpicking
flamenco
of Reverend Gary Davis
Gumping
Guthrie, Woody. See also under Dylan, Bob
“Gypsy’s Warning, The,”
Haiti
Hammond, John
Handbill magazine
Handy, W. C.
“Hanging A
round a Skin Game,”
“Hangman, Slack Your Rope,”
Hardin, Tim
“Hard Rain’s A Gonna Fall, A,”
Haring, Lee
Harmonotes
Harms-Whitmark publisher
Harney, Ben
Harrigan and Hart
Harrington, Mike
Harris, Wynonie
Harrison, Benjamin
Harvard University
Harvest of Gentle Clang, A (recording)
“Hava Nagilah,”
Havens, Richie
Hawkins, Coleman
Hays, Lee
“Hell Hound on My Trail,”
Henderson, Rick
Herbert, Victor
“Here’s to the State of Mississippi,”
Hermosa Beach, California
Hester, Carolyn
Hijackers
Hill, Chippie
Hill, Joe
Hill, Rod
Hippopotamus Club (France)
Hitchhiking
Hit Parade
H.M.S. Pinafore, The
Hodges, Johnny
Hoffman, Lee
Hof Shamir
Hogan, Emma “Mom,”
Holiday, Billie
Holy Modal Rounders
Homosexuals
Hood, Clarence
Hood, Sam
Hooker, John Lee
Hootenannies
Hootenanny (television show)
Hopkins, Lightnin’
Horne, Neila
Hoskins, Tom
House, Son
“House of the Rising Sun,”
Houston, Cisco
Howlin’ Wolf
HUAC hearings
Hudson Dusters
Hungarian Revolution
Hurt, Mississippi John
Huystedt, Eric
Ian, Janice
Ian and Sylvia
“If I Had to Do It All Over Again, I’d Do It All Over You,”
“If You Miss Me Here, You Can Find Me at the Greasy Spoon,”
“I’m Going to Georgia,”
Immigrants
Individualism
Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)
“Little Red Songbook” of “Songs to Fan the Flames of Discontent,”
Inside Dave Van Ronk (recording)
Intelligentsia
“International, The,”
In the Tradition (recording)
Ireland/Irish musicians
Isquith, Judy
Ives, Burl
Ives, Charles
“I Want to Go Back to My Little Grass Shack in Kealakakua, Hawaii,”
IWW. See Industrial Workers of the World
The Mayor of MacDougal Street Page 28