Dave Van Ronk
Encyclopedia
Dave Van Ronk was an American
folk singer
, born in Brooklyn
, New York
, who settled in Greenwich Village
, New York, and was eventually nicknamed the "Mayor
of MacDougal Street
" .
He was an important figure in the acoustic folk revival of the 1960s
. His work ranged from old English ballads to Bertolt Brecht
, blues
, gospel
, rock, New Orleans
jazz
, and swing
. He was also known for performing instrumental ragtime
guitar
music, especially his transcription of St. Louis Tickle and Scott Joplin
's Maple Leaf Rag
.
Dave Van Ronk was regarded as the friendly uncle of Greenwich Village, presiding over the coffeehouse folk culture and acting as a friend to many up and coming artists, inspiring, aiding and promoting them. Folk performers whom he befriended included Bob Dylan
, Tom Paxton
, Patrick Sky
, Phil Ochs
, Ramblin' Jack Elliott
and Joni Mitchell
.
Van Ronk received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), in December 1997.
Van Ronk died of cardio-pulmonary failure while undergoing post-operative treatment for colon cancer in a New York hospital
.
to Queens
in 1951 and began attending Holy Child Catholic High School (Queens, New York). He had been performing in a barbershop quartet
since 1949, but left before finishing high school, and spent the next few years bumming around lower Manhattan, except for shipping out twice with the Merchant Marine
.
His first professional gigs were with various traditional jazz bands around the New York area, of which he later observed: "We wanted to play traditional jazz in the worst way...and we did!" The jazz revival did not take off though, and Van Ronk turned to performing blues music he had stumbled across and enjoyed years earlier, by artists like Furry Lewis
and Mississippi John Hurt
. Van Ronk was not the first white musician to perform African-American blues, but became noted for his interpretation of it in its original context. By about 1958, he was firmly committed to the folk-blues style, accompanying himself with his own acoustic guitar. He performed blues
, jazz
and folk music
, occasionally writing his own songs but generally arranging the work of earlier artists and his folk revival peers.
He became noted both for his large physical stature and his expansive charisma, which bespoke an intellectual, cultured gentleman of many talents. Among his many interests: cooking, science fiction
(he was active for some time in science fiction fandom
, referring to it as "mind rot", and contributed to fanzines), world history, and politics. During the 1960s he supported radical left-wing political causes and was a member of the Libertarian League
and the Trotskyist American Committee for the Fourth International
(ACFI, later renamed the Workers League, predecessor to the Socialist Equality Party
). Attracted to the commotion from a neighboring bar, and no stranger to police violence, he was at the famous Stonewall Riots
during which he was grabbed by police, arrested, briefly jailed and charged with felony assault on a police officer. In 1974, he appeared at "An Evening For Salvador Allende
", a concert organized by Phil Ochs
, alongside other performers such as his old friend Bob Dylan
, to protest the overthrow of the democratic socialist government of Chile and to aid refugees from the U.S.-backed military junta led by Augusto Pinochet
.
After Ochs' suicide in 1976, Van Ronk joined the many performers who played at Phil's memorial concert in the Felt Forum at Madison Square Garden
, playing his bluesy version of the traditional folk ballad "He Was A Friend Of Mine
".
In 2000, he performed at Blind Willie's in Atlanta, clothed in garish Hawaii
an garb, speaking fondly of his impending return to Greenwich Village. He reminisced over tunes like Good Ol Wagon, a song teasing a washed-up lover, which he ruefully remarked had seemed humorous to him back in 1962. He was married to Terri Thal in the 1960s, lived for many years with Joanne Grace, then married Andrea Vuocolo, with whom he spent the rest of his life. He continued to perform for four decades and gave his last concert just a few months before his death. He found it amusing to be called "a legend in his own time".
Van Ronk died before completing work on his memoirs, which were finished by his collaborator, Elijah Wald
, and published in 2005 as The Mayor Of MacDougal Street.
In 2004, a section of Sheridan Square, where Barrow Street meets Washington Place, was renamed Dave Van Ronk Street in his memory.
often said that his rendition of her song "Both Sides Now
" (which he called Clouds) was the finest ever.
He is perhaps underestimated as a musician and blues guitarist. His guitar work is noteworthy for both syncopation and precision. In its simplest form, it shows similarities to Mississippi John Hurt
's, but Van Ronk's main influence was the Reverend Gary Davis
, who conceived the guitar as "a piano around his neck". Van Ronk took this pianistic approach, and added a harmonic sophistication adapted from the band voicings of Jelly Roll Morton
and Duke Ellington
. He ranks high in bringing blues style to Greenwich Village during the 1960s, as well as introducing the folk world to the complex harmonies of Kurt Weill
in his many Brecht-Weill interpretations, and being one of the very few hardcore traditional revivalists to move with the times, bringing old blues and ballads together with the new sounds of Dylan, Mitchell and Leonard Cohen
. During this crucial period, he performed with the likes of Bob Dylan
and spent many years teaching guitar in Greenwich Village, including to Christine Lavin
, David Massengill
, Terre Roche and Suzzy Roche
. He influenced his protégé Danny Kalb
and The Blues Project. The Japanese singer Masato Tomobe, American pop-folk singer Geoff Thais and the musician and writer Elijah Wald learned from him as well. Known for making interesting and memorable observations he once said, "Painting is all about space, and music is all about time."
Thanks to what he had learned from Davis, Van Ronk was among the first to adapt traditional jazz and ragtime to the solo acoustic guitar. His guitar arrangements of such ragtime hits as "St. Louis Tickle", "The Entertainer
", "The Pearls" and "Maple Leaf Rag
" continue to frustrate and challenge aspiring guitar players. He also did fine compositions of his own in the classic styles, such as "Antelope Rag".
His song "Last Call
" is the source of the title of Lawrence Block
's book When the Sacred Ginmill Closes.
The Coen brothers
are writing a screenplay for a film based on Van Ronk's life.
jug of Tullamore Dew
was frequently seen on stage next to him in his early days.
Robert Shelton described Van Ronk as, "the musical mayor of MacDougal Street, a tall, garrulous hairy man of three quarters, or, more accurately, three fifths Irish descent. Topped by light brownish hair and a leonine beard, which he smoothed down several times a minute, he resembled an unmade bed strewn with books, record jackets, pipes, empty whiskey bottles, lines from obscure poets, finger picks, and broken guitar strings. He was Bob [Dylan]'s first New York guru. Van Ronk was a walking museum of the blues. Through an early interest in jazz, he had gravitated toward black music - its jazz pole, its jug-band and ragtime center, its blues bedrock... his manner was rough and testy, disguising a warm, sensitive core. Van Ronk retold the blues intimately... for a time, his most dedicated follower was Dylan."
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
folk singer
Folk Singer
Folk Singer is a 1964 album by Muddy Waters. Waters plays acoustic guitar, backed by Willie Dixon on string bass, Clifton James on drums, and Buddy Guy on acoustic guitar...
, born in Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
, New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, who settled in Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...
, New York, and was eventually nicknamed the "Mayor
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
of MacDougal Street
MacDougal Street
MacDougal Street is a one way street in Greenwich Village in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The approximate six-block street is bound by Prince Street and West 8th Street. It has been the subject of many songs, poems, and other forms of artistic expression. MacDougal Street has been...
" .
He was an important figure in the acoustic folk revival of the 1960s
American folk music revival
The American folk music revival was a phenomenon in the United States that began during the 1940s and peaked in popularity in the mid-1960s. Its roots went earlier, and performers like Josh White, Burl Ives, Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly, Richard Dyer-Bennett, Oscar Brand, Jean Ritchie, John Jacob...
. His work ranged from old English ballads to Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director.An influential theatre practitioner of the 20th century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the...
, blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
, gospel
Gospel music
Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal, spiritual or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....
, rock, New Orleans
Dixieland
Dixieland music, sometimes referred to as Hot jazz, Early Jazz or New Orleans jazz, is a style of jazz music which developed in New Orleans at the start of the 20th century, and was spread to Chicago and New York City by New Orleans bands in the 1910s.Well-known jazz standard songs from the...
jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
, and swing
Swing (genre)
Swing music, also known as swing jazz or simply swing, is a form of jazz music that developed in the early 1930s and became a distinctive style by 1935 in the United States...
. He was also known for performing instrumental ragtime
Ragtime
Ragtime is an original musical genre which enjoyed its peak popularity between 1897 and 1918. Its main characteristic trait is its syncopated, or "ragged," rhythm. It began as dance music in the red-light districts of American cities such as St. Louis and New Orleans years before being published...
guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
music, especially his transcription of St. Louis Tickle and Scott Joplin
Scott Joplin
Scott Joplin was an American composer and pianist. Joplin achieved fame for his ragtime compositions, and was later dubbed "The King of Ragtime". During his brief career, Joplin wrote 44 original ragtime pieces, one ragtime ballet, and two operas...
's Maple Leaf Rag
Maple Leaf Rag
The "Maple Leaf Rag" is an early ragtime musical composition for piano composed by Scott Joplin. It was one of Joplin's early works, and is one of the most famous of all ragtime pieces, and became the model for ragtime compositions by subsequent composers. As a result Joplin was called the "King...
.
Dave Van Ronk was regarded as the friendly uncle of Greenwich Village, presiding over the coffeehouse folk culture and acting as a friend to many up and coming artists, inspiring, aiding and promoting them. Folk performers whom he befriended included Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
, Tom Paxton
Tom Paxton
Thomas Richard Paxton is an American folk singer and singer-songwriter who has been writing, performing and recording music for over forty years...
, Patrick Sky
Patrick Sky
Patrick Sky is a musician, singer and songwriter of Irish and Native American ancestry...
, Phil Ochs
Phil Ochs
Philip David Ochs was an American protest singer and songwriter who was known for his sharp wit, sardonic humor, earnest humanism, political activism, insightful and alliterative lyrics, and haunting voice...
, Ramblin' Jack Elliott
Ramblin' Jack Elliott
Ramblin' Jack Elliott is an American folk singer and performer.-Life and career:Elliot Charles Adnopoz was born in Brooklyn, New York to Jewish parents in 1931. Elliott grew up inspired by the rodeos at Madison Square Garden, and wanted to be a cowboy...
and Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell, CC is a Canadian musician, singer songwriter, and painter. Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in her native Saskatchewan and Western Canada and then busking in the streets and dives of Toronto...
.
Van Ronk received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), in December 1997.
Van Ronk died of cardio-pulmonary failure while undergoing post-operative treatment for colon cancer in a New York hospital
Hospital
A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment by specialized staff and equipment. Hospitals often, but not always, provide for inpatient care or longer-term patient stays....
.
Career
Van Ronk moved from BrooklynBrooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
to Queens
Queens
Queens is the easternmost of the five boroughs of New York City. The largest borough in area and the second-largest in population, it is coextensive with Queens County, an administrative division of New York state, in the United States....
in 1951 and began attending Holy Child Catholic High School (Queens, New York). He had been performing in a barbershop quartet
Barbershop music
Barbershop vocal harmony, as codified during the barbershop revival era , is a style of a cappella, or unaccompanied vocal music characterized by consonant four-part chords for every melody note in a predominantly homophonic texture...
since 1949, but left before finishing high school, and spent the next few years bumming around lower Manhattan, except for shipping out twice with the Merchant Marine
United States Merchant Marine
The United States Merchant Marine refers to the fleet of U.S. civilian-owned merchant vessels, operated by either the government or the private sector, that engage in commerce or transportation of goods and services in and out of the navigable waters of the United States. The Merchant Marine is...
.
His first professional gigs were with various traditional jazz bands around the New York area, of which he later observed: "We wanted to play traditional jazz in the worst way...and we did!" The jazz revival did not take off though, and Van Ronk turned to performing blues music he had stumbled across and enjoyed years earlier, by artists like Furry Lewis
Furry Lewis
Furry Lewis was an American country blues guitarist and songwriter from Memphis, Tennessee. Lewis was one of the first of the old-time blues musicians of the 1920s to be brought out of retirement, and given a new lease of recording life, by the folk blues revival of the 1960s.-Life and...
and Mississippi John Hurt
Mississippi John Hurt
John Smith Hurt, better known as Mississippi John Hurt was an American country blues singer and guitarist.Raised in Avalon, Mississippi, Hurt taught himself how to play the guitar around age nine...
. Van Ronk was not the first white musician to perform African-American blues, but became noted for his interpretation of it in its original context. By about 1958, he was firmly committed to the folk-blues style, accompanying himself with his own acoustic guitar. He performed blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
, jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
and folk music
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
, occasionally writing his own songs but generally arranging the work of earlier artists and his folk revival peers.
He became noted both for his large physical stature and his expansive charisma, which bespoke an intellectual, cultured gentleman of many talents. Among his many interests: cooking, science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
(he was active for some time in science fiction fandom
Science fiction fandom
Science fiction fandom or SF fandom is a community or "fandom" of people actively interested in science fiction and fantasy and in contact with one another based upon that interest...
, referring to it as "mind rot", and contributed to fanzines), world history, and politics. During the 1960s he supported radical left-wing political causes and was a member of the Libertarian League
Libertarian League
Libertarian League was a name used by two American libertarian or social anarchist organisations during the twentieth century.The first Libertarian League was founded in Los Angeles in 1920. Although mainly anarchist its membership included people from many different political perspectives with the...
and the Trotskyist American Committee for the Fourth International
Fourth International
The Fourth International is the communist international organisation consisting of followers of Leon Trotsky , with the declared dedicated goal of helping the working class bring about socialism...
(ACFI, later renamed the Workers League, predecessor to the Socialist Equality Party
Socialist Equality Party (United States)
The Socialist Equality Party is a Trotskyist political party in the United States, one of several Socialist Equality Parties around the world affiliated to the International Committee of the Fourth International . The ICFI publishes daily news articles, perspectives and commentaries on the World...
). Attracted to the commotion from a neighboring bar, and no stranger to police violence, he was at the famous Stonewall Riots
Stonewall riots
The Stonewall riots were a series of spontaneous, violent demonstrations against a police raid that took place in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn, in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City...
during which he was grabbed by police, arrested, briefly jailed and charged with felony assault on a police officer. In 1974, he appeared at "An Evening For Salvador Allende
Salvador Allende
Salvador Allende Gossens was a Chilean physician and politician who is generally considered the first democratically elected Marxist to become president of a country in Latin America....
", a concert organized by Phil Ochs
Phil Ochs
Philip David Ochs was an American protest singer and songwriter who was known for his sharp wit, sardonic humor, earnest humanism, political activism, insightful and alliterative lyrics, and haunting voice...
, alongside other performers such as his old friend Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
, to protest the overthrow of the democratic socialist government of Chile and to aid refugees from the U.S.-backed military junta led by Augusto Pinochet
Augusto Pinochet
Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte, more commonly known as Augusto Pinochet , was a Chilean army general and dictator who assumed power in a coup d'état on 11 September 1973...
.
After Ochs' suicide in 1976, Van Ronk joined the many performers who played at Phil's memorial concert in the Felt Forum at Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden, often abbreviated as MSG and known colloquially as The Garden, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the New York City borough of Manhattan and located at 8th Avenue, between 31st and 33rd Streets, situated on top of Pennsylvania Station.Opened on February 11, 1968, it is the...
, playing his bluesy version of the traditional folk ballad "He Was A Friend Of Mine
He Was a Friend of Mine
"He Was a Friend of Mine" is a traditional folk song in which the singer laments the death of a friend. The earliest known version of the song is titled "Shorty George"...
".
In 2000, he performed at Blind Willie's in Atlanta, clothed in garish Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
an garb, speaking fondly of his impending return to Greenwich Village. He reminisced over tunes like Good Ol Wagon, a song teasing a washed-up lover, which he ruefully remarked had seemed humorous to him back in 1962. He was married to Terri Thal in the 1960s, lived for many years with Joanne Grace, then married Andrea Vuocolo, with whom he spent the rest of his life. He continued to perform for four decades and gave his last concert just a few months before his death. He found it amusing to be called "a legend in his own time".
Van Ronk died before completing work on his memoirs, which were finished by his collaborator, Elijah Wald
Elijah Wald
Indeed, his first book was a collaboration with his biologist mother entitled Exploding the Gene Myth, in which they wrote that "The myth of the all-powerful gene is based on flawed science that discounts the environment in which we and our genes exist." "There are no definitive histories," he...
, and published in 2005 as The Mayor Of MacDougal Street.
In 2004, a section of Sheridan Square, where Barrow Street meets Washington Place, was renamed Dave Van Ronk Street in his memory.
Cultural impact
Van Ronk has been described as an irreverent and incomparable guitar artist and interpreter of black blues and folk, with an uncannily precise ability at improvisation. Joni MitchellJoni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell, CC is a Canadian musician, singer songwriter, and painter. Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in her native Saskatchewan and Western Canada and then busking in the streets and dives of Toronto...
often said that his rendition of her song "Both Sides Now
Both Sides Now (song)
"Both Sides, Now" is a single by Joni Mitchell. Her recording first appeared on the album Clouds, released in 1969. She re-recorded the song in a jazz style for the album of the same name, released in 2000....
" (which he called Clouds) was the finest ever.
He is perhaps underestimated as a musician and blues guitarist. His guitar work is noteworthy for both syncopation and precision. In its simplest form, it shows similarities to Mississippi John Hurt
Mississippi John Hurt
John Smith Hurt, better known as Mississippi John Hurt was an American country blues singer and guitarist.Raised in Avalon, Mississippi, Hurt taught himself how to play the guitar around age nine...
's, but Van Ronk's main influence was the Reverend Gary Davis
Reverend Gary Davis
Reverend Gary Davis, also Blind Gary Davis, was an American blues and gospel singer and guitarist, who was also proficient on the banjo and harmonica...
, who conceived the guitar as "a piano around his neck". Van Ronk took this pianistic approach, and added a harmonic sophistication adapted from the band voicings of Jelly Roll Morton
Jelly Roll Morton
Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe , known professionally as Jelly Roll Morton, was an American ragtime and early jazz pianist, bandleader and composer....
and Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...
. He ranks high in bringing blues style to Greenwich Village during the 1960s, as well as introducing the folk world to the complex harmonies of Kurt Weill
Kurt Weill
Kurt Julian Weill was a German-Jewish composer, active from the 1920s, and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for his fruitful collaborations with Bertolt Brecht...
in his many Brecht-Weill interpretations, and being one of the very few hardcore traditional revivalists to move with the times, bringing old blues and ballads together with the new sounds of Dylan, Mitchell and Leonard Cohen
Leonard Cohen
Leonard Norman Cohen, is a Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, poet and novelist. Cohen published his first book of poetry in Montreal in 1956 and his first novel in 1963. His work often explores religion, isolation, sexuality and interpersonal relationships...
. During this crucial period, he performed with the likes of Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
and spent many years teaching guitar in Greenwich Village, including to Christine Lavin
Christine Lavin
Christine Lavin is a New York City-based singer-songwriter and promoter of contemporary folk music. She has recorded numerous solo albums, and has also recorded with other female folk artists under the name Four Bitchin' Babes...
, David Massengill
David Massengill
David Massengill is an American folk singer/songwriter, guitar and appalachian dulcimer player. His best-known songs include "On The Road to Fairfax County," recorded by The Roches and by Joan Baez, "The Great American Dream," and "My Name Joe," about an illegal immigrant restaurant worker...
, Terre Roche and Suzzy Roche
Suzzy Roche
Suzzy Roche , originally from Park Ridge, New Jersey, is best known for her work with the female vocal group The Roches, alongside sisters Maggie and Terre...
. He influenced his protégé Danny Kalb
Danny Kalb
Danny Kalb is an American blues guitarist, and was one of the original members of the 1960s group, Blues Project.-Life and career:...
and The Blues Project. The Japanese singer Masato Tomobe, American pop-folk singer Geoff Thais and the musician and writer Elijah Wald learned from him as well. Known for making interesting and memorable observations he once said, "Painting is all about space, and music is all about time."
Thanks to what he had learned from Davis, Van Ronk was among the first to adapt traditional jazz and ragtime to the solo acoustic guitar. His guitar arrangements of such ragtime hits as "St. Louis Tickle", "The Entertainer
The Entertainer (rag)
"The Entertainer" is sub-titled "A rag time two step", which was a form of dance popular until about 1911, and a style which was common among rags written at the time.Its structure is: Intro AA BB A CC Intro2 DD....
", "The Pearls" and "Maple Leaf Rag
Maple Leaf Rag
The "Maple Leaf Rag" is an early ragtime musical composition for piano composed by Scott Joplin. It was one of Joplin's early works, and is one of the most famous of all ragtime pieces, and became the model for ragtime compositions by subsequent composers. As a result Joplin was called the "King...
" continue to frustrate and challenge aspiring guitar players. He also did fine compositions of his own in the classic styles, such as "Antelope Rag".
His song "Last Call
Last Call (Dave Van Ronk song)
Last Call is a song by Dave Van Ronk, originally released on his album Songs For Ageing Children in 1973, and released in a different version on Going Back To Brooklyn in 1994, and is one of the few songs he has written....
" is the source of the title of Lawrence Block
Lawrence Block
Lawrence Block is an acclaimed contemporary American crime writer best known for two long-running New York–set series, about the recovering alcoholic P.I. Matthew Scudder and gentleman burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr, respectively...
's book When the Sacred Ginmill Closes.
The Coen brothers
Coen Brothers
Joel David Coen and Ethan Jesse Coen known together professionally as the Coen brothers, are American filmmakers...
are writing a screenplay for a film based on Van Ronk's life.
Personal characteristics
Van Ronk refused for many years to fly and never learned to drive (he would use trains or buses or, when possible, recruit a girlfriend or young musician as his driver), and he declined to ever move from Greenwich Village for any extended period of time (having stayed in California for a short time in the 1960s). Van Ronk's trademark stonewareStoneware
Stoneware is a vitreous or semi-vitreous ceramic ware with a fine texture. Stoneware is made from clay that is then fired in a kiln, whether by an artisan to make homeware, or in an industrial kiln for mass-produced or specialty products...
jug of Tullamore Dew
Tullamore Dew
Tullamore Dew is a blended Irish whiskey. It was originally a pot still whiskey, first distilled in 1829 in the small town of Tullamore, County Offaly, Ireland. The name derives from the initials of an early manager of the concern, Mr. Daniel E. Williams: D.E.W. Tullamore Dew is the second...
was frequently seen on stage next to him in his early days.
Robert Shelton described Van Ronk as, "the musical mayor of MacDougal Street, a tall, garrulous hairy man of three quarters, or, more accurately, three fifths Irish descent. Topped by light brownish hair and a leonine beard, which he smoothed down several times a minute, he resembled an unmade bed strewn with books, record jackets, pipes, empty whiskey bottles, lines from obscure poets, finger picks, and broken guitar strings. He was Bob [Dylan]'s first New York guru. Van Ronk was a walking museum of the blues. Through an early interest in jazz, he had gravitated toward black music - its jazz pole, its jug-band and ragtime center, its blues bedrock... his manner was rough and testy, disguising a warm, sensitive core. Van Ronk retold the blues intimately... for a time, his most dedicated follower was Dylan."
Studio recordings
- 1959: Van Ronk Sings Ballads, Blues, and a SpiritualDave Van Ronk Sings Ballads, Blues, and a SpiritualDave Van Ronk Sings Ballads, Blues and a Spiritual is an album by American folksinger Dave Van Ronk, released in 1959.It was also released on LP as Gambler's Blues and as Black Mountain Blues. All these releases are out of print...
(also released as Gambler's Blues and Black Mountain Blues) (Folkways RecordsFolkways RecordsFolkways Records was a record label founded by Moses Asch that documented folk, world, and children's music. It was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution in 1987, and is now part of Smithsonian Folkways.-History:...
) - 1961: Dave Van Ronk SingsVan Ronk SingsVan Ronk Sings was an album by American folksinger Dave Van Ronk, released in 1961.It was also released on LP as Dave Van Ronk Sings the Blues and Dave Van Ronk Sings Earthy Ballads and Blues...
(also released as Dave Van Ronk Sings the Blues and Dave Van Ronk Sings Earthy Ballads and Blues) (Folkways RecordsFolkways RecordsFolkways Records was a record label founded by Moses Asch that documented folk, world, and children's music. It was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution in 1987, and is now part of Smithsonian Folkways.-History:...
) - 1963: Dave Van Ronk, FolksingerDave Van Ronk, FolksingerDave Van Ronk, Folksinger was a 1963 album by American folksinger Dave Van Ronk.-History:Folksinger was recorded in April 1962 during the same sessions that produced Inside Dave Van Ronk and that would all end up on the Fantasy Records 1989 CD release, Inside Dave Van Ronk...
- 1963: Inside Dave Van RonkInside Dave Van RonkInside Dave Van Ronk was a 1963 album by American folksinger Dave Van Ronk.Inside Dave Van Ronk was recorded in April 1962 during the same sessions that produced Dave Van Ronk, Folksinger and that would all end up on the Fantasy Records 1989 CD release, Inside Dave Van Ronk.-Track listing:#"House...
- 1964: Dave Van Ronk and the Ragtime Jug StompersDave Van Ronk and the Ragtime Jug StompersDave Van Ronk and the Ragtime Jug Stompers is an album featuring Dave Van Ronk playing with a jug band.-History:From The Mayor of MacDougal Street: "As for the jug band, that came about more or less by accident...
- 1964: In the TraditionIn the Tradition (Dave Van Ronk album)In the Tradition is a 1964 album by American folksinger Dave Van Ronk and The Red Onion Jazz Band. It is unusual in the fact that the tracks are evenly split between Van Ronk and the Red Onions....
- 1964: Just Dave Van RonkJust Dave Van RonkJust Dave Van Ronk is a 1964 album by folk/blues singer Dave Van Ronk. It has not been released on CD.-History:It is probably this arrangement of "House Of The Risin' Sun" that was developed by Dave Van Ronk that Bob Dylan — who was a close friend of Van Ronk's at the time — used on his 1962 debut...
- 1966: No Dirty NamesNo Dirty NamesNo Dirty Names is a 1966 album by artist Dave Van Ronk. It features the first recorded version of Bob Dylan's song "The Old Man".-Reception:...
- 1967: Dave Van Ronk and the Hudson DustersDave Van Ronk and the Hudson Dusters-Van Ronk on the album:"The six Dusters cuts on this disc make me think that we were probably too eclectic for the market we were courting, and that a thinking man's rock and roll is a bit like a white blackbird. Even so, I think they represent one of the high points of my recording career. They...
- 1971: Van RonkVan Ronk-History:Van Ronk features some of his most elaborate recordings with many backing musicians. It includes English language versions of songs by non-English speaking composers ....
- 1973: Songs For Ageing ChildrenSongs for Ageing ChildrenSongs for Ageing Children is an album by American folk and blues performer Dave Van Ronk, released in 1973.-Side one:#"Duncan & Brady" – 3:48#"Green Rocky Road" – 4:08...
- 1976: Sunday StreetSunday Street (Dave Van Ronk album)Sunday Street is an album by American folk and blues singer Dave Van Ronk, released in 1976.-History:Sunday Street is Van Ronk and his guitar only...
- 1980: Somebody Else, Not MeSomebody Else, Not Me (Dave Van Ronk album)Somebody Else, Not Me is a 1980 album by American folk and blues singer Dave Van Ronk.Somebody Else, Not Me continues Van Ronk's return to basic blues, folk and jazz accompanying himself on guitar. It was reissued as Someone Else, Not Me on CD by Philo in 1999...
- 1985: Going Back To BrooklynGoing Back to BrooklynGoing Back to Brooklyn is an album by American folk and blues singer Dave Van Ronk, released in 1994.Although Van Ronk was primarily an interpretive singer of traditional folk and blues songs along with covers of the songs of others, he still wrote a number of songs over his long career...
- 1990: Hummin' to MyselfHummin' to Myself (Dave Van Ronk album)Hummin' to Myself is an 1990 album of jazz and pop classics recorded by Dave Van Ronk.-Track listing:#"Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams " – 3:31...
- 1990: Peter and the WolfPeter and the Wolf (Dave Van Ronk album)Dave van Ronk presents Peter and the Wolf with Uncle Moose and the Kazoo-O-Phonic Jug Band is a 1990 album by Dave Van Ronk.-Track listing:#Peter and the Wolf #:a) Introduction #:b) Story #Swing on a Star...
- 1992: Let No One Deceive You: Songs of Bertolt BrechtLet No One Deceive YouLet No One Deceive You: Songs of Bertolt Brecht is an album by American folk and blues singer Dave Van Ronk and vocalist Frankie Armstrong, released in 1992...
(Frankie ArmstrongFrankie ArmstrongFrankie Armstrong is a singer and voice teacher.She has worked as a singer in the folk scene and the women's movement and as a trainer in social and youth work...
& Dave Van Ronk) - 1994: To All My Friends in Far-Flung PlacesTo All My Friends in Far-Flung PlacesTo All My Friends in Far-Flung Places is a 1994 album by Dave Van Ronk, the theme of which was to perform versions of songs written by people he knew, to demonstrate the power of the "cover song".-Reception:...
- 1995: From... Another Time & PlaceFrom... Another Time & PlaceFrom... Another Time & Place is an album by folk singer and guitarist Dave Van Ronk, released in 1995.The Allmusic Guide review states it is not a re-issue, but the Dave Van Ronk discography states it is a re-issue of Dave Van Ronk in Rome. The track list is the same.Van Ronk received a Grammy...
- 2001: Sweet & Lowdown
- 2005: The Mayor of MacDougal StreetThe Mayor of MacDougal StreetThe Mayor of MacDougal Street is a compilation album by American folksinger Dave Van Ronk, released in 2005.-History:...
Live recordings
- 1982: Your Basic Dave Van RonkYour Basic Dave Van RonkYour Basic Dave Van Ronk is an album by American folk and blues singer Dave Van Ronk, released in 1982.Your Basic Dave Van Ronk was recorded in one single night session in London in 1981. It is out-of-print but was re-released along with In the Tradition in 2002 by Fantasy Records as Two Sides of...
- 1983: St. James InfirmarySt. James Infirmary (Dave Van Ronk album)St. James Infirmary is a partially live album by American folk and blues singer Dave Van Ronk, released in 1982. It was re-released on CD in 1996 as Statesboro Blues by EPM Musique.The first seven tracks were recorded live.- Track listing :...
(released in 1996 as Statesboro Blues) - 1983: Dave Van Ronk in RomeDave Van Ronk in RomeDave Van Ronk in Rome is a live album by Dave Van Ronk, released in 1983. It was released on the Italian label Folkstudio.The Dave Van Ronk discography states it was re-issued as From... Another Time & Place...
- 1997: Live at Sir George Williams UniversityLive at Sir George Williams UniversityLive at Sir George Williams University is a live album by Dave Van Ronk, released in 1997. This recording was done live at a festival appearance during Expo '67 in 1967, at Sir George Williams University, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada-Reception:...
(recorded in 1967) - 2004: Dave Van Ronk: ...and the tin pan bended and the story ended...Dave Van Ronk: ...and the tin pan bended and the story ended......and the tin pan bended and the story ended... is a live album by American folksinger Dave Van Ronk, released in 2004. It was his last concert before his death in 2002 of colon cancer.-Reception:...
(Smithsonian FolkwaysSmithsonian FolkwaysSmithsonian Folkways is the nonprofit record label of the Smithsonian Institution. It is a part of the Smithsonian's Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, located at Capital Gallery in downtown Washington, D.C. The label was founded in 1987 after the family of Moses Asch, founder of Folkways...
) - 2008: On Air (live 1993)
Compilations of previously released material
- 1972: Van Ronk (includes Folksinger and Inside Dave Van Ronk in their entirety. Later released on CD as Inside Dave Van RonkInside Dave Van Ronk (compilation)Inside Dave Van Ronk is a compilation album by American folk and blues singer Dave Van Ronk, originally released in 1972 on a double LP called Van Ronk...
) - 1988: Hesitation BluesHesitation Blues (Dave Van Ronk album)Hesitation Blues is a compilation album by American folk and blues singer Dave Van Ronk, released in 1988.The 16 songs in the compilation come from three '60s Prestige LPs — Dave Van Ronk, Folksinger, In the Tradition, and the original Inside Dave Van Ronk...
(compilation) - 1989: Inside Dave Van RonkInside Dave Van Ronk (compilation)Inside Dave Van Ronk is a compilation album by American folk and blues singer Dave Van Ronk, originally released in 1972 on a double LP called Van Ronk...
(compilation - includes Folksinger and Inside Dave Van Ronk ) - 1991: The Folkways Years, 1959 - 1961The Folkways Years, 1959 - 1961The Folkways Years, 1959 - 1961 is a compilation album of songs by Dave Van Ronk released in 1991.-Reception:Writing for Allmusic, critic William Ruhlman wrote of Van Ronk's musical background and the he continued to "... play and sing hard, as if still trying to be heard over Dixieland arrangements...
(Smithsonian FolkwaysSmithsonian FolkwaysSmithsonian Folkways is the nonprofit record label of the Smithsonian Institution. It is a part of the Smithsonian's Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, located at Capital Gallery in downtown Washington, D.C. The label was founded in 1987 after the family of Moses Asch, founder of Folkways...
) - 1992: A ChrestomathyA ChrestomathyA Chrestomathy is a retrospective two-CD compilation of songs by Dave Van Ronk released in 1992.Van Ronk recorded for many record labels. This compilation was released by Gazell Records.-Reception:...
- 2002: Two Sides of Dave Van RonkTwo Sides of Dave Van RonkTwo Sides of Dave Van Ronk is a compilation album by American folksinger Dave Van Ronk, released in 2002. It includes the complete 1963 LP, In the Tradition and all of 1982’s Your Basic Dave Van Ronk except for "In the Midnight Hour" and "Stagolee"....
(includes all of In the Tradition and most of Your Basic Dave Van RonkYour Basic Dave Van RonkYour Basic Dave Van Ronk is an album by American folk and blues singer Dave Van Ronk, released in 1982.Your Basic Dave Van Ronk was recorded in one single night session in London in 1981. It is out-of-print but was re-released along with In the Tradition in 2002 by Fantasy Records as Two Sides of...
)
Van Ronk on compilations/other people's albums
- 1958: Skiffle in Stereo (The Orange Blossom Jug Five)
- 1959: Fo'csle Songs and Shanties (by Paul Clayton) - Van Ronk sings on all songs.
Van Ronk on various artist compilations
- 1959: The Unfortunate Rake
- 1963: Newport Folk Festival 1963 The Evening Concerts Vol. 2(Various Artists- Van Ronk performs two songs: Candy Man and Hold On)
- 1964: Blues from Newport (Various Artists- Van Ronk performs two songs: That Will Never Happen No More and Gambler's Blues)
- 1964: The Blues Project (Various Artists – Van Ronk performs two songs: Bad Dream Blues and Don't You Leave Me Here)
- 1999: The Man from God Knows Where (Tom RussellTom RussellThomas George "Tom" Russell is an American singer-songwriter. Although most strongly identified with the Texas Country music tradition, his music also incorporates elements of folk, Tex-Mex, and the cowboy music of the American West. Many of his songs have been recorded by other artists, including...
- Van Ronk featured performing two songs: The Outcast and The Outcast (revisited))
External links
- Dave Van Ronk – The Mayor of MacDougal Street, About the book. ElijahWald.com.
- Steven Wirz. Illustrated Dave Van Ronk discography
- Otto Bost (June 30, 2004). Dave Van Ronk Street Renaming Ceremony Photo essay. OttoFocus.net
- Charles Freudenthal (August 2005). Walking Down Dave Van Ronk Street. Anecdotes. e*I*21. (Vol. 4 No. 4)
- Lee Hoffman (2010). Lee Hoffman, My Folknik Days. Anecdotes. Gary Ross Hofmann.
- Dave Van Ronk Discography. Smithsonian FolkwaysSmithsonian FolkwaysSmithsonian Folkways is the nonprofit record label of the Smithsonian Institution. It is a part of the Smithsonian's Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, located at Capital Gallery in downtown Washington, D.C. The label was founded in 1987 after the family of Moses Asch, founder of Folkways...
. - John Pareles (February 12, 2002). Dave Van Ronk, Folk Singer And Iconoclast, Dies at 65. New York Times.