Talkin' Greenwich Village: The Heady Rise and Slow Fall of Americas Bohemian Music Capital

(Hardback)

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The definitive history of the revolutionary Greenwich Village music scene, which fostered some of the most iconic musicians in American history--and fought for its identity every step of the way.

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. Over the course of decades, Billie Holiday, the Weavers, Sonny Rollins, Bob Dylan, Dave Van Ronk, Herbie Hancock, the Blues Project, and Suzanne Vega are just a few who realized the Village was a sanctuary for outsiders and those who wanted to invent or reinvent themselves. Those musicians, and so many more, 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. It takes readers from the Fifties fountain sessions in Washington Square Park and into landmark venues like the Gaslight and the Village Vanguard, with stops along the way into the scene's carousing Seventies years (National Lampoon's Lemmings), and Dylan's momentous arrival and numerous returns. In eye-opening fashion, the book chronicles the overlooked people of color who sang alongside Dylan and his peers, reveals how the federal and city government consistently kept its eye on the community and artists like Van Ronk, unearths new aspects of the infamous "beatnik riot" in Washington Square Park, and tells the never-told stories of the falafel restaurant that begat a new community in the Eighties scene and the beloved sister band the Roches, who laid the groundwork for so many of today's female singer-songwriters.

In also chronicling the racial tensions, ongoing crackdowns and changes in New York and music that infiltrated the neighborhood, Talkin' Greenwich Village is more than just vivid music history. It also tells the story of the heyday and waning of bohemian culture in America, set to some of the most enduring words, folk songs and jazz jams in music history.

Reviews

"Talkin' Greenwich Village maps a matrix of artistry spanning generations and genres, with special focus on the 'folk revival' that launched Dylan and continues to revive itself in new shapes. You want to understand how deep and wide New York music history is You need to spend time here."--Will Hermes, author of Lou Reed: The King of New York and Love Goes to Buildings on Fire: Five Years in New York City That Changed Music Forever
"Deeply researched and deftly written, this entertaining chronicle of the Village music scene sheds light on groundbreaking performative genres: from the Beats' spoken word to new forms of jazz, from the evolution of folk to plugged-in blues rock and punk. In the back rooms and on makeshift stages of coffeehouses and nightclubs, eccentricity and creativity flourish, while threats from city (and FBI) officials and disgruntled neighbors constantly hover. It's a fascinating story!"--Holly George-Warren, author of Janis: Her Life and Music and A Man Called Destruction: The Life and Music of Alex Chilton
"For most of the 20th century, Greenwich Village existed as a liberating antidote to mainstream American society. David Browne's Talkin' Greenwich Village is a masterful, incisive recounting of the fertile creative life south of 14th St. that transmitted cultural alternatives to the nation and the world."--Dennis McNally, author of A Long Strange Trip: The Inside History of the Grateful Dead
"There have been numerous Greenwich Villages over the decades, several of them extant at any one time. David Browne knows them all, block by block, but he also knows their tales, told and untold, especially the musical ones, which his book divulges with unsentimental sympathy. It's an amazing account of a singular place, a treat for every Villager whether in fact or in spirit."--Sean Wilentz, author of Bob Dylan in America and The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln

Author Bio

David Browne is a senior writer at Rolling Stone and the author of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, So Many Roads, and Fire and Rain, as well as biographies of Sonic Youth and Jeff and Tim Buckley. He lives in Manhattan.