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Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel
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I like it a lot, 4 out of 5 stars. Critics have complained that it's more about Suze than Dylan, which is fine with me. I'm not a big Dylan fan, but I cut my (musical) teeth on the Folk Boom of the 60's of which Dylan was a part and in which he came of age. So I know all about the scene and peripheral players no one knows about like Izzy Young, Dave Van Ronk, Carolyn Hester etc. Which makes it fascinating for me. As a teenager I wanted to be there in person.
An ever better book (IMHO) is Mayor of MacDougal Street by the aforementioned Dave Van Ronk. He was a 50's folk singer and one of the few who extended his career into the 60's and beyond. It's only out in paper (I HATE buying p-books now) but is well worth getting. A nice used one cost me $2.50 plus shipping.
Dave was sort of a role model for the early Dylan, and all the folkie wannabees back then. His writing style is very wry with a lot of humor about the whole foolishness of the scene back them, some of it self-directed.
He retells the interesting story of how Dylan 'stole' his verion of House of the Rising Sun and he had to quit playing it. Then the Animals had a hit of it and Dylan had to quit playing it.
Van Ronk was approached by Albert Grossman to become the 3rd member of a folk supergroup Grossman wanted to create. The others were Peter Yarrow and Mary Travers. Dave declined and Noel Stookey became 'Paul' of Peter Paul & Mary.
Both good books. I also enjoyed Girls Like Us, a triple bio of Carly Simon, Joni Mitchell and Carole King. And Positively 4th St, about the Baez sisters (Joan and Mimi), Richard Farina and Dylan.