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February
17, 2002
Robert
Fisk
Lost
in a Pit of Desperation
February
16, 2002
Phillip
Cryan
Colombia
in War Time
February
15, 2002
C.G. Estabrook
From
New York to Porto Alegre
Robert
O'Brien
The
View from Porto Alegre
Mokhiber/Weissman
Resisting
the Assassins
February
14, 2002
Levy and
Easton
Ante
Pavelic
Real Butcher of the Balkans
Joan Claybrook
Dear
Jeb Bush,
About You and Enron
John Chuckman
Time
for a Woman Prez
Alexander
Cockburn
Banning
the Koran
February
13, 2002
Sen. Russ
Feingold
War
Powers and
the War on Terror
Tom Turnipseed
Bush's
Folly
George
Monbiot
American
Imperialism
February
12, 2002
Uri Avnery
The
Great Game:
Oil, Sharon and Iran
Tommy
Ates
Black
Land Loss
February
11, 2002
Walt Brasch
The
Synergizing of America
John Troyer
Enron's
Deep Throat?
February
9, 2002
John Blair
Criticize
Cheney, Go to Jail
February
8, 2002
CounterPunch
Wire
Ashcroft
the Bigot
Molly
Secours
Racism
and Real Estate
Wole Akande
World
Economic Forum:
The Aftermath
Cockburn/St.
Clair
Dita
Sari Tells Reebok
to "Shove It"
February
7, 2002
Patrick
Cockburn
Taliban's
War on Chess
John Chuckman
Howdee,
Dick!
Tariq
Ali
Mullahs
and Heretics
February
6, 2002
Amira
Hass
On
the Edge of the
Non-Violent Demonstrations
Vivian
Berger
Sentenced
to Rape
Vladimir Georgiyev
Russian Intelligence:
War on Iraq Begins in Sept.
Tom Turnipseed
"Axis
of Evil" a Cover for Corporate Corruption?
David
Vest
The
Enron Creature
February
5, 2002
Norman
Madarasz
Dispatch
from Pôrto Alegre
Tom Malinowski
What
to do with
Our "Detainees"?
Dita Sari
Why
I Rejected the
Reebok Human Rights Award
A Photographic Journal of Life
in an Afghan Refugee Camp
By Judith Mann
Resources:
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Five
Days That
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Seattle and Beyond
By Alexander
Cockburn
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Photos by Allan Sekula
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War Diary
CIA's Assassination Plan a History of
Torture in US Prisons
bin Laden and Bush
Business Connections
Aisha Ikramuddin on the Hidden Hype
of US Food Bombs
Peter Linebaugh on
Pakistan
Christopher Hitchens' Love for Mrs. Thatcher
Jiang Zemin Tells Bush:
Nuke 'Em
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Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The New Crusade:
America's War on Terrorism
By Rahul Mahajan
The Memphis Blues Again:
Six Decades of Memphis Music Photographs
Photos by Ernest Withers
Text by Daniel Wolff
The New Intifada:
Resisting Israel's Apartheid
Edited by Roane Carey
A Pocket Guide to
Environmental Bad Guys
by James Ridgeway
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The
Phoenix Program
by Douglas Valentine
Al Gore:
A User's Manual
by Cockburn
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February 17,
2002
Life and Death
of a Folk Hero
Dave Van Ronk
By Lenni Brenner
The NY Times rarely runs 2 obits. But they did
for Dave. The 1st obit saw him as a major inspiration for Bob
Dylan. The 2nd was more complex, obviously a critical fan's
memorial to someone far too significant, as a performer &
person, to be reduced to a supporting role, even a central one,
in Bob's rise to world fame.
Dave indeed was a major influence on
Bob. Terri Thal, Dave's 1st wife, was Bob's 1st manager. Dave's
'crib,' to use New York slang of the 50s & 60s, was the
epicenter of the young folk singing set. Dave helped Bob, &
everyone else, in terms of digging up songs, career advice, the
whole 9 yards of show biz camaraderie.
Usually, when he is coupled with Bob,
it is to his disadvantage. As I've written on my own influence
on Dylan, I certainly say that Bob's early recordings were poetic
masterpieces, while Dave's original songs were good, but hardly
the anthems of his age. However, Dave, when he died, was one
of the most  interesting conversationalists
of his day, widely read in many fields, a world traveling performer,
full of experience, an astute observer of individuals & society.
On the other hand, who wants to hear Bob today, scratchin' his
head, wondering whether the messiah is Jesus or the Lubavicher
rebbe? Bob was a sensational composer/poet in his prime, and
an even greater fool in his decline, leaping off the heights
of poetic immortality, down into the bottomless pit of theological
fanaticism. Dave wasn't a great composer. But he had no superior
at what he was good at. "I'm an entertainer," he told
me, about a year ago, at our last get together.
For reasons related to recent American
social history, Dave was often pigeonholed as 'the best white
performer of Black music,' with connotations of 'not quite the
real thing,' or not doing 'his' thing. But I remember the fountain
circle in Washington Square Park on a Sunday afternoon in the
late 50s, with Dave singing, surrounded by dozens of young whites.
I was on the edge of the crowd when an elderly country Black
came by. "Who's that, singin' so good?," he asked.
I told him & he squeezed into the dense crowd. He listened
for about 10 minutes & came back, pointing to his eyes. "I
can't believe them, but I believe my ears."
Dave sang Black songs with the accent
& musical qualities he heard, just as he sang sea chanteys,
or anything else he heard, whether in person or on records. What
gave Dave's singing its distinction was the populist, one-size-fits-all
character of his voice. Louis Armstrong, Ray Charles, Dave. They
carry a sign, saying 'I ain't no opera singer.' A husky sound,
which we identify as meaning a regular guy, with a regular voice,
but great, by force of interpretation.
Dave is often seen as the ultimate folkie.
Certainly he successfully recorded so much of the American folk
tradition. Unfortunately, I can't put my hands on the sea chanteys
he & a group of folkies made, early in his career. But his
fans will recall it. Because the folk music revival was only
beginning, it didn't get the sales it should have. But a masterpiece
it was. Again, voice perfect for that type of song.
But he was also great as a Brechtean
interpreter. The recording he did with Frankie Armstrong is my
candidate for the first to be put out there again. Again, that
'real world' voice was central to his effect. But he also understood
Brecht thoroughly. Dave is thought of as a 60s figure. In fact
he was a 50s old leftie. (When I met him, in 1956, he was an
anarchist, a member of the Libertarian League. Later, I recruited
him to the Young Socialist Alliance, later yet he was in the
Workers League, leaving the organized Left in 1969.) I remember
discussions of Brecht with him & Carmine Pampaleone, comparing
the Three Penny Opera to the Three Penny Novel & the Three
Penny Movie. He saw us in Brechtean terms, as adventurers in
a capitalist world that could be figured out & even enjoyed.
His interpretation went beyond Weill's wonderful music to the
political & philosophical implications in Brecht.
Dave was not without eccentricities,
to say the least. To explain away one of my own, I tell people
that, yes, it's true: The three greatest minds of the 20th century
couldn't drive. Albert Einstein, Lenni Brenner & Dave Van
Ronk. And he flat out wouldn't get into computers. But, when
all is said & done, aside from having, without exaggeration,
more long-term friends than anyone who ever lived, he was well
& truly a great entertainer, & his records will live.
Given that, we would all do well to heed
his most certain observation: "The driving force of American
life is hedonism."
Always remember that singular truth,
given us by a great entertainer, & apply it: Yes, it's wonderful
to read Karl Marx & that righteous stuff about the labor
theory of value, which Dave did, with all the other subjects
that he, without any higher education, but with a genuine intellectual,
followed, like archeology. But if we are ever to recruit today's
folks, like the folks whose songs Dave sang, we have to do what
he did so successfully. We have to teach Marxian-cum-Brechtean
hard ball economics, but we will only do it by entertaining them,
saying something both true & interesting, catching their
ear & making them understand themselves, as Dave Van Ronk
understood them.
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