Sunday, November 27, 2005

The Mayor and the Coach

"In Greenwich Village, Van Ronk was king of the street, he reigned supreme."-- Bob Dylan, Chronicles, Vol.1

Two recent non-fiction reads from the library: The Mayor of MacDougal Street by musician Dave Van Ronk (with Elijah Wald) is a fascinating story of the life of a musican and the Greenwich Village music scene before and after Dylan. Van Ronk is a born raconteur and amusing playful narrator even a bit goofy at times but always compelling. His discussion of what folk music was and is at the time was very illuminating. For Dylan fans this book makes a very nice companion to Chronicles, Vol I.
Fills in some of the gaps and is a little more personal then the Dylan book which to me seemed a bit distant or removed.

I was fortunate enough to see Dave play at a small venue in Providence, R.I several years before he died. In the early fall of 1997 while living in New London, CT a friend (Ken H.) mentioned that a local blues musician we enjoyed going to hear, Dan Stevens , was taking guitar lessons from the legendary Dave Van Ronk. After noticing the blank expression on my face, Ken gave me a bit of background on Dave and the Greenwich Village scene. Later he found out that Van Ronk was playing a Stone Soup performance and I tagged along. There is a lot of music and interview samples here from the coauthors website. The book cover link will go to the book site.


The second book will be of interest to a select group only I imagine. The Education of a Coach by David Halberstam. Examines the success of New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick and attributes it to the mentoring of Bill's father, the recently deceased Steve Belichick. I would have liked a more detailed book but I did enjoy it. University of Iowa football coach, Kirk Ferentz, is one of Belichicks disciples.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

i don't like the fact that drafts are published when they were started. is there a way to change this? anyone?

Anonymous said...

Bernie Kosar forced him out of town...

he took what he learned in cleveland and applied it in new england.

Anonymous said...

hermano

you should be able to pre- and post-date entries and also set future dates. give me a jingle, maybe a log in to your admin and I'll show you the way.

Commander of the Western Pho Legion