I just finished reading David Browne’s meticulously researched four-decade history of the Greenwich Village music scene. In my other life, I was part of this world – a fledgling songwriter, co-founder of the Fast Folk Musical Magazine, and occasional photographer of my musician friends. Although my role in Browne’s narrative does not quite reach the centrality that it does in the imaginary movie of myself, I am mentioned several times in the book and cannot complain. I also contributed a photograph taken in front of Folk City in 1981.

Having been intimately involved with many of the events and people depicted in the book, I can attest to its remarkable accuracy. Browne, a senior writer with Rolling Stone, has attempted a definitive history here, which is pretty ambitious, and he weaves together many different threads with skill. There are several main characters in the story, but the most important is Dave Van Ronk, whose influential presence and career, spans almost the entire timeline of the book. A difficult task was including the mostly parallel Village jazz scene with innovators like Miles Davis and John Coltrane alongside the folk scene with songwriters like Bob Dylan and Phil Ochs. I understand why Browne did it, but sticking to the folk music scene might have made for a less complex narrative structure.

One of my favorite parts of the book is a delirious description of the 1975 birthday party for Folk City owner Mike Porco.

“For the expanding crowd inside, the evening grew only more Fellini-esque, with a mélange of folk, spoken word, and cabaret moments that recalled an earlier, headier time in the Village—a grown-up version of the old Gaslight. Patti Smith improvised a poem. Ginsberg recited from William Blake. Roger McGuinn of the Byrds, who’d become part of the Other End hang-out crew, materialized to play “Chestnut Mare” and “I’m So Restless,” the latter with its sly dig at Dylan’s semi-retirement. Bette Midler, who’d also befriended Dylan, sashayed toward the stage and joined Buzzy Linhart on his song “Friends,” which had become an anthem for her.”

Browne, David. Talkin’ Greenwich Village: The Heady Rise and Slow Fall of America’s Bohemian Music Capital (p. 242). Hachette Books. Kindle Edition.