"... very sardonic and wore heavy horn-rimmed glasses, spoke in a thick Brooklyn dialect, wore wool slacks, skinny belt and work boots, tie at a careless slant... There were a lot of esoteric folk records... Extinct song folios of every type—sea shanties, Civil War songs, cowboy songs, songs of lament, church house songs, anti–Jim Crow songs, union songs—archaic books of folk tales, Wobbly journals, propaganda pamphlets about everything from women’s rights to the dangers of boozing, one by Daniel De Foe, the English author of Moll Flanders... Izzy had a back room with a potbellied wood-burning stove, crooked pictures and rickety chairs.... The little room was filled with American records and a phonograph. Izzy would let me stay back there and listen to them. I listened to as many as I could, even thumbed through a lot of his antediluvian folk scrolls. The madly complicated modern world was something I took little interest in. It had no relevancy, no weight. I wasn’t seduced by it. What was swinging, topical and up to date for me was stuff like the Titanic sinking, the Galveston flood, John Henry driving steel, John Hardy shooting a man on the West Virginia line.... [Izzy would] write about me in his diary. I couldn’t imagine why. His questions were annoying, but I liked him... Had also instructed me to be kind because everyone you’ll ever meet is fighting a hard battle. I couldn’t imagine what Izzy’s battles were. Internal, external, who knows? Young was a man that concerned himself with social injustice, hunger and homelessness and he didn’t mind telling you so. His heroes were Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. Moby-Dick, the ultimate fish story, was his favorite tall tale...."
From Bob Dylan, "Chronicles: Volume One." I looked that up because I read in the newspaper "Izzy Young, whose New York music shop was ‘the citadel’ of folk revival, dies at 90" (WaPo).
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32 comments:
Adios.
Say "Hi!" to Abe.
As a public service let me note that if you download and occasionally run CCleaner Free it will clear your cache of the cookies that the Post and others use to count your visits by cleaning deeper than most cache cleaning and cookie removal tools.
It's free, it's rated safe by Norton Antivirus and it doesn't use any computer resources when idle. It will prompt you for an update every 2 or 3 weeks and that update will offer to install McAfee antivirus but it's open about it and you just unclick the add McAfee box.
I've been using it for years without a problem.
PS: Don't tell the Post.
pwnd
Moby Dick relied on Viagra.
Little known fact.
Impressive that he just up and moved to Sweden when he was 45.
What BS. A girly boy who couldn't handle the pressures of everyday life.
What was swinging, topical and up to date for me was stuff like the Titanic sinking, the Galveston flood, John Henry driving steel
How come no John Henry tag?
John Henry
Daniel De Foe, the English author of Moll Flanders
Probably everyone except Dylan would have named Robinson Crusoe.
I don't get it. Here you a little girl who almost at 30 and with kids was determined to get a law degree. You studied your ass off and got your degree with honors. Then you became a professor and divorced you brought up your kids while teaching. You now get up every day do your homework and blog even while you can't see.
Yet you ,someone who tackled life head on, adores this putz who copped out on real life.
Anybody who lived through the Great Folk Music Scare should watch A Mighty Wind. It blows for you and me.
The Folklore Center was quite a dump.
A commie gathering place, but of course the folk music thing was dominated by commies.
Still is.
I wonder if Dylan reads your blog.
What happened to all that stuff?
Does Dylan have a smartphone?
"I’m just a poor left-winger
Befuddled, bewildered, forlorn
Duped by a bearded singer
Peddling his Communist corn
In the Café Expresso
Sounds of guitars could be heard
Twanging a plaintive folk song
Spreading the Communist word
Hair hung around his shoulders
And sandals were on his feet
His shirttail was ragged and dirty
Making the picture complete"
Was checking Wikipedia and.. Moll really got around, didn't she.
And the words they’ll use
for to ge the ship confused
will not be understood when they’re spoken
Seems pretty prophetic.
A Mighty Wind.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVh0Iq_85aw
And since its a Dylan post.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8ZFGQ4sC8M
Chronicles is surely a great book, and this excerpt, with Ann's bolding I think, reflects that free thinking Bob, and those times, that as he says elsewhere, I never wanted to be a movement leader, I thought of myself more as a song and dance man.
Many of Ann's readers can't relate to that feeling of freedom of being young and groovy and living in the Village, or the Haight, or a thousand places in between, in those days. Izzy knew, though. Ann does, as well. Me too.
The madly complicated modern world was something I took little interest in. It had no relevancy, no weight
Man, there are times when I can definitely relate to this.
Mega dittos JP. I read the book more than a decade ago and I still remember the gist of that passage. I consider Dylan a great artist- as much a poet as a songwriter. One of his secrets to success was an intense self education; he spent most of his Greenwich Village days at the library, voraciously reading great works of literature and history, and at this man's record store, listening to every folk song he could find.
I’ve always had a special thing for the 1960-63 period in American history, including its music. That’s the 3 year time between when I was born and my first memories. I delve into events of those times like regression therapy.
I met Izzy Young in Stockholm about 6-7 years ago. I'm there often for work and I learned about him through Dylan's Chronicles. I knew where his folklore shop was in Stockholm and when I walked up there he was sitting alone in front of his shop drinking coffee at a table. I approached and asked if he was Izzy Young and he said something like "oh no not another one". While complaining about the steady stream of Dylan fans that visit him, he motioned me to sit down next to him.
I spent about the next 3 hours with him. Sometimes alone, sometimes a local friend would drop by for a short chat. We initially talked about Dylan and then the conversation moved to being an American expat living in Scandinavia. Towards the end of my visit, his assistant, a young Swedish folk music enthusiast, dropped by. After speaking with him for a while Izzy said he needed to work and told his assistant to do the thing with me. The thing was getting my email address and sending me copies of the hand written lyrics of the two songs that Dylan wrote about Izzy's Folklore shop in Greenwich village. Before leaving, I wanted to buy something at his shop to help him out - he had complained about the financial difficulties of running his store. The was no easy task as there was very little for sale in his shop. I ended up buying a CD of Swedish folk music (I've never listened to it)
I dropped by about two years later to catch a concert at Izzy's place. He had no recollection of meeting me before. The "concert" was sold out with about 30 people in his place. He kept talking with his new assistant about the good size of the gate. He sold wine quite cheaply, and illegally, by the glass. I helped him out by drinking as much as I could. The music was very good.
The madly complicated modern world was something I took little interest in. It had no relevancy, no weight.
Thinking the same about politics: It's 90 percent of many people's lives and it should be more like 9, or 0.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=7&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwj8rL33_KvgAhWFN30KHfUqDMAQtwIwBnoECAgQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DY4PbjWN0cgk&usg=AOvVaw0t0jlS3QCMEag8dixnbR9e
My wife's great grandmother was a year old when she lost her father to the worst maritime tragedy in the history of the great lakes. My mother-in-law's wake four years ago was the occasion when my brother-in-law tried to convince me that their heritage was Irish, not German. I've got Ancestry.com and it's clear to me now that my wife and her brother are one-eighth Irish and directly descended from the Wreck of the Lady Elgin.
Thanks for the story Amexpat.
Thanks for the story Amexpat.
My pleasure. If you like I could email you the songs that Izzy sent me. There in Dylan's hand writing, I believe before he became famous. There are also some contemporaneous notes that Izzy made about Dylan.
Lord love you, Craig, but while I never heard of this tragedy, the song ain't a patch on "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald."
[Izzy} Had also instructed me to be kind because everyone you’ll ever meet is fighting a hard battle.
This is the most excellent and timeless advice. We have no idea what 'battles' each of us is facing or is going to face. Would that we all, especially the politicians today, would adhere to this philosophy.
As a person who was involved (sang, performed, knew and was taught by some of the 'names' in the movement)in the folk music revival of the 60's and whose father was involved in the music scene in the 50's (yeah bohemian), I was aware of Izzy Young and the work of others in preserving and reviving the important historical scraps of music and lore that have deep and long traditions in many cultures. Their work in preserving the voices of the past is monumental.
Folk music is the epitome of the synchronicity, the blending and joining together of people,cultures and history that truly makes America GREAT.
Izzy Young, John Dingell, and Frank Robinson. Giants in their own way.
Folk music, folk ways and folk tales throughout the world are the history of the people. Before there was written documentation there were songs and oral tales of events, the times and the feelings of the people. From the Australian Aborigines to the Appalachian Mountain people from Scotland and Ireland and Wales, to the Native American tribes and on and on.
Illustrative of the past struggles that our worldwide ancestors have experienced.
Worth saving.
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