Product Description

The story of how four young would-be bohemians met in Greenwich Village, fell in love, and changed the course of American music. The book describes how folk music crossed with rock'n'roll to form a new musical style and how the young beatniks rose to fame.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #447513 in Books
• Published on: 2001-05-21
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 320 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
David Hajdu, the prizewinning author of the magisterial jazz biography Lush Life, now steam-cleans the legend of the lost folk generation in Positively 4th Street. It's like an invitation to the wildest party Greenwich Village ever saw. You feel swept up in the coffeehouse culture that transformed ordinary suburban kids into ragged, radiant avatars of a traditional yet bewilderingly new music. Hajdu's socio-musical analysis is as scholarly as (though less arty than) Greil Marcus's work; he deftly sketches the sources and evolving styles of his ambitious, rather calculating subjects, proving in the process that genius is not individual--it's rooted in a time and place. Hajdu says Dylan heisted many early tunes: "Dylan [told] a radio interviewer that he felt as if his music had always existed and he just wrote it down ... [in fact], much of his early work had existed as other writers' melodies, chord structures or thematic ideas." But Dylan and company made it all their own, and Hajdu vividly evokes the scenes they made. evoke.

Positively 4th Street is very much a group portrait. When something amazing happens, Hajdu puts you right there: the unknown Baez barefoot in the rain, bedazzling the Newport Jazz Festival and becoming immortal overnight; the irresistibly irresponsible Fariña talking his folk-star wife out of shooting him dead with his own pistol; the "little spastic gnome" Dylan transmogrified into greatness onstage, bashing Joan with the searing lyrics of "She Belongs to Me". The book is as delectably gossipy as Vanity Fair (one of Hajdu's employers). Richard married the exceedingly young beauty Mimi and helmed their career, but he might have dumped her for big sister Joan, whose madcap humour and verbal wit harmonised with his--except that he ineptly killed himself on a motorcycle first. Bob mumblingly courted both sisters, but when he cruelly taunted the insecure Joan, Mimi yanked his hair back until he cried. The account of Bob and Joan's musical-erotic passion is first-rate music history and uproarious soap opera. --Tim Appelo

The Independent, May 22 2000
'an evocative account of four remarkable people at a remarkable point in post-war musical history,'

Independent
'An evocative account of four remarkable people at a remarkable point in post-war musical history'

Customer Reviews

Lost World
David Hajdu evokes a lost world in his study of the Baez sisters, Richard Farina and Bob Dylan in the early sixties. An era when folk music was predominant and middle class boys and girls seemed to have the ability to change all kinds of evils from the "masters of war" to segregation just by sitting down and singing. Joan Baez's songs epitomised the times with her lovely but penetrating voice. Already very successful by the time the book starts Joan soon comes into contact with the rising Dylan as he made his mark on the coffee house folk circuit of New York.

The book should not be seen purely as a biography of Dylan - this period in his professional life is already well documented by Scaduto and others - the facts such as his somewhat cynical use of Joan Baez to further his career are not new and Miss Baez is on record in this area herself.

What is fresh about Hajdu's approach is that Dylan is seen mirrored in the eyes of the others- in the next room so to speak rather than in full view - so the world’s most notable singer-songwriter comes over as a little more human. A good example are his and party-animal Farina's wild adventures in swinging London.

This is a sad book - there is a lot about change and the human condition - both on a global and on a personal level. JFK is assassinated and the dreams of the young audiences become less attainable. Farina dies young in a motorcycle accident
(on the very day of his book launch party) before reaching his full potential. The accomplished guitarist Mimi Farina Baez who became Farina's wife also failed to reach her potential - being perennially shadowed by the fame of her sister (Mimi died last year of cancer).

Dylan of course had changed utterly as well and by the time of his own motorcycle accident at the close of Hajdu's book in 1966 had famously embraced the electric world of rock n roll.

Dylan's legendary appearance at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival is well covered. How much things have changed is demonstrated by the fact that 70,000 turned up then – compare this with the 15,000 reported for Dylan's first return date in 2002.

Thrilling look into 60's American folk scene
I began this book just flipping through some of the pages half-heartedly, found it really interesting, and went back to read from the beginning. I'm so glad I did, because this book was an addictive read.
I picked it up because I am a big Bob Dylan fan and I like some of Joan Baez's songs. I had never heard of the Farinas at all. This book gave me such interesting insight into their worlds, and how they all were interwoven together. Hajdu made these people the humans that they are, rather than the famous icons they are/have been. It is truthful, shocking and, at times, sad. I wanted to slap Bob for being so mean to Joan! The atmosphere was great; I could almost smell those coffee-houses and hear the fantastic music. It made me want to be there.
I would recommend this book to anyone with an interest in these musicians, the 60's folk scene, or just want to read a good life story.

A different tack...
An interesting,but wrongheaded attempt to put Farina into the centre of the early 60s action,the axis around which Dylan,Baez and even Pynchon revolved.He invented "folk rock",got the best looking Baez sister and was in the IRA.The fact that he was an ordinary prose writer,a less than incendiary songwriter and played the dulcimer all wrong is strangely skirted. Oh,and the "unidentified guitarist" in the photo from the British folk club is in fact Martin Carthy,who is mentioned several times in the text,and deserves a book far more than this chancer...(obviously couldn't ride a motorbike either,just like Bob.)