The Mayor of MacDougal Street: Rarities 1957-69

by

Dave Van Ronk

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Dave Van Ronk died on February 10, 2002, remembered only by friends and acquaintances who knew him as a one-of-a-kind character, and by the (only relatively) larger world of folk-music fans and scholars as an important figure in the mid-century revival. That revival produced, most famously and lastingly, Bob Dylan, whose genius Van Ronk was the first to recognize.

Van Ronk's role as a figure in America's cultural history and as influence on the direction of its popular music seems only now to be coming into scrutiny and appreciation. Perhaps in death Van Ronk will be more famous than he was when he was alive. I hope so.

This CD is a companion piece to his recently published posthumous memoir of the same title, written with music journalist Elijah Wald. Though often pigeon-holed as a blues singer, Van Ronk had a range of musical interests, prominently including traditional jazz, theater songs, singer-songwriters, and non-blues folk. This retrospective, taken from private and concert recordings from 1957 to 1969, is one that all Van Ronk fans will want to have. It showcases a dizzying range of material, from a serious reading of "On Top of Old Smoky" to unaccompanied ballads like "The Cruel Ship's Captain" to the scatological humor of "Shaving Cream." Not to mention Brecht-Weill's "As You Make Your Bed" and Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides Now," the latter a true stunner, perhaps the finest version ever recorded by anybody, including its composer. Or the biting and very, very funny parody of the Stalinists who dominated the '50s urban-folk movement, "Way Down in Lubyanka Prison," set preposterously and hilariously to the "Columbus Stockade" melody.

In a small number of instances, the sound quality is not good. One wishes, for example, that Van Ronk had recorded the Bahamian spiritual "All My Trials" in a studio. The jazz-band version of "Salty Dog" was recorded in a studio, but so badly as to be all but unlistenable. Still, Wald, who produced the disc and chose the selections, has done his best with what he had. If there is a Dave Van Ronk revival, maybe it will start here.

When I first heard folk music in my youth I felt unsure about whether I liked it or not. As least against the Rolling Stones and my favorite blues artists. Then on some late night radio folk song show I heard Dave Van Ronk doing 'Come All You Fair and Tender Ladies' and that was it. That old gravelly voice (even though he was young at that time)still commands my attention in the same way.

The last time I saw Dave Van Ronk perform was not a particularly good show for he was prety sick by then. Moreover, his politics seems to have crumbled over time from that hardened Trotskyist of his youth going out to do battle with the benighted Stalinists for the soul of the working class. Any man who can write an interesting ditty about the notorious Moscow Lubyanka political prison (which is on this album) is definitely a political man. But I will always have that late night radio experience in my head.

This album is very uneven in quality and I do believe that the reason some of the songs presented here were not previously released by him is that they were not up to Dave's musical standards, which were quite high. Somebody has done his memory a disservice.