A publication-day conversation with Rolling Stone senior writer David Browne, whose latest book, Talkin' Greenwich Village: The Heady Rise and Slow Fall of America’s Bohemian Music Capital – based on 150 interviews and previously unseen documents – is an enthralling and long-overdue history of music’s most influential neighborhood. And what better place for an intimate chat than the fabled MacDougal Street coffeehouse that was once home to Pete and Toshi Seeger!
Greenwich Village encompasses less than a square mile in downtown New York, yet rarely has such a concise area nurtured so many innovative artists and genres. Billie Holiday, the Weavers, Sonny Rollins, Dave Van Ronk, Ornette Coleman, Bob Dylan, Nina Simone, Phil Ochs, and Suzanne Vega are just a few who migrated to the Village, recognizing it as a sanctuary for visionaries, non-conformists, and those looking to reinvent themselves. Working in the Village’s smoky coffeehouses and clubs, they chronicled the tumultuous Sixties, rewrote jazz history, and took folk and rock ‘n’ roll into places they hadn’t been before.
Talkin’ Greenwich Village lends the saga the panoramic scope it’s long deserved. It takes readers into the Fifties jamborees in Washington Square Park and landmark venues like Gerde’s Folk City, the Gaslight Café, and the Village Vanguard, then examines Dylan’s momentous arrival, as well as the no-holds-barred 1970s and the folk revival of the 1980s.
In eye-opening fashion, Browne details the often-overlooked people of color in the Sixties folk clubs and reveals how the FBI and city government consistently kept their eyes on the pioneering musicians. In recounting the racial tensions, crackdowns, and changes sweeping through New York and its music scene, Talkin’ Greenwich Village is more than just vivid cultural history. It also speaks to the rise and waning of bohemian culture itself, set to some of the most enduring lyrics, melodies, and jazz improvisations in American music.
David is in conversation with Liz Thomson, founder of The Village Trip and author of the award-winning biography Joan Baez: The Last Leaf. She is also the revising editor of late New York Times critic Robert Shelton’s celebrated biography No Direction Home: The Life and Music of Bob Dylan.
Tickets:
- $10
- $40 including a copy of the book: Talkin’ Greenwich Village
