The story of how four young bohemians on the make - Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Mimi Baez, and Richard Farina - converged in Greenwich Village, fell into love, and invented a sound and a style that are one of the most lasting legacies of the 1960sWhen Bob Dylan, age twenty-five, wrecked his motorcycle on the side of a road near Woodstock in 1966 and dropped out of the public eye, he was recognized as a genius, a youth idol, and the authentic voice of the counterculture: and Greenwich Village, where he first made his mark as a protest singer with an acid wit and a barbwire throat, was unquestionably the center of youth culture.So embedded are Dylan and the Village in the legend of the Sixties--one of the most powerful legends we have these days--that it is easy to forget how it all came about. In
Positively Fourth Street
, David Hajdu, whose 1995 biography of jazz composer Billy Strayhorn was the best and most popular music book in many seasons, tells the story of the emergence of folk music from cult practice to popular and enduring art form as the story of a colorful foursome: not only Dylan but his part-time lover Joan Baez - the first voice of the new generation; her sister Mimi - beautiful, haunted, and an artist in her own right; and her husband Richard Farina, a comic novelist (
Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up To Me
) who invented the worldliwise bohemian persona that Dylan adopted--some say stole--and made as his own.The story begins in the plain Baez split-level house in a Boston suburb, moves to the Cambridge folk scene, Cornell University (where Farina ran with Thomas Pynchon), and the University of Minnesota (where Robert Zimmerman christened himself Bob Dylan and swapped his electric guitar for an acoustic and a harmonica rack) before the four protagonists converge in New York.Based on extensive new interviews and full of surprising revelations,
Positively Fourth Street
is that rare book with a new story to tell about the 1960s. It is, in a sense, a book about the Sixties before they were the Sixties--about how the decade and all that it is now associated with it were created in a fit of collective inspiration, with an energy and creativity that David Hajdu captures on the page as if for the first time.
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Most Helpful Reviews
★★★★★
4.0
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Wonderful narrative, questionable thesis
From 1961-66, the Baez sisters, Bob Dylan and Richard Farina came of age, befriended one another, fell in and out of love, raised hell, traipsed the globe on a shoestring budget like college students, drank, got high...and produced some of the most durable music (and, in Farina's case, one of the most underappreciated novels) of their generation. Hajdu captures that half-decade in 300 pages of remarkably seamless prose, painting a vivid picture of four young artists whose intertwining paths left an indelible mark on the work they produced.
Although he appears most interested in Joan Baez and her family, Hajdu produces an impressive amount of information on all four of his subjects. Dylan fans especially are likely to be surprised at some of the details of their hero's early career, such as his first appearance on a studio recording (it wasn't Harry Belafonte's "Midnight Special," as has often been reported) and the somewhat disputed origin of his stage name. Baez, meanwhile, is portrayed for once as a human being with strengths and weaknesses of her own, rather than strictly as a victim of Dylan's misogyny (though this too is acknowledged, as well it should be). Best of all, Richard and Mimi Farina are both researched and profiled just as carefully as Baez and Dylan despite being far less famous outside the realm of hardcore folk music fans.
The book, like its subjects, is not without its shortcomings. For one thing, Hajdu's vision of the four and their importance is a bit sweeping. Baez may have been the first protegee of the folk revival to achieve commercial success, but she was hardly the first folk artist to have a hit record (or even the first of the rock era). Dylan was the movement's biggest name in songwriting, but hardly the only one; Hajdu sprinkles the names of others throughout the book (Phil Ochs, Tom Paxton, Ian and Sylvia Tyson, Paul Simon, Judy Collins, Eric Andersen and a list too long to complete here) without really acknowledging their place relative to those of his four subjects. His sly allusions to their works (i.e. "Dylan acted as if he and the social activists in the folk community never had met") are by turns amusing and tiresome. Also, his practice of phrasing all quotations in the past tense makes it impossible to differentiate between contemporary interview material and decades-old remarks without consulting the endnotes, unless the speaker is a person the reader knows to be dead. Speaking of which, Hajdu tells his nonfictional story novel-style, not revealing the post-1966 fate of his subjects until the end of the book. For those of us who already know why any story of this quartet would have to stop that year, the efforts at suspense can be slightly offputting.
These, of course, are minor criticisms. For any fan of the folk music of the 1960s - especially those who weren't lucky enough to have been in Cambridge or Greenwich Village at the time - this book is a fascinating and welcome look inside a place and time that left a great mark on music history.
74 people found this helpful
★★★★★
5.0
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a riveting look at a vital cultural moment
David Hajdu deserves a National Book Award if for no other reason than that he was able to interview Thomas Pynchon AND Fred Neil -- two of three of America's most reclusive creative artists (J. D. Salinger being the third, of course). He seems to have talked with nearly everybody who played a role, however marginal, in the 1960s folk scare. He tells a mesmerizing, soap-operatic tale of four interweaving lives played out against the backdrop of a particularly vital moment in our country's cultural history.
Though Hajdu is in no sense a debunker, only Mimi Baez Farina emerges mostly unscathed here. The other three come across, in varying degrees (Joan Baez the least, relatively speaking), as narcissists and opportunists, an impression left even after Hajdu's perhaps too-generous concluding chapter. Dylan in particular is given to jaw-dropping fits of odious conduct, though this is hardly news. Even would-be hagiographers (of whom Hajdu, though certainly a compassionate observer, is not one) struggle with longstanding reports of bad Dylan behavior, especially in the early years of his international stardom. Dylan had the dubious fortune of becoming a great artist before he became a grown-up. Still, as with all of his other biographers, Hajdu's Dylan remains as inscrutable as ever. The nearly forgotten Richard Farina, the real star of the book, is more approachable, more human, more fun: a personable, self-absorbed man on the make -- one is reminded of Melville's phrase "one eye on the cosmos, the other on the main chance" -- and canny manipulator with genuine gifts, a superior literary stylist to Dylan, but not in Dylan's class as a songwriter. Then, however, who is?
Hajdu's splendid book, the finest so far on the folk revival, led me back to Mimi and Richard Farina's Vanguard recordings, which proved better than I had remembered them from my last hearing maybe 25 years ago. If Richard was not a musical genius of Dylanesque proportions, he was a more focused, disciplined craftsman. His most successful songs (for example the brilliant "Birmingham Sunday") stand up remarkably well. Mimi was his perfect musical partner, possessed of an appealing voice and technical skills her husband was unable to master before his tragic early death.
Hajdu writes interestingly of Richard's determination to create a "boogie poetry" -- what would become known as folk-rock -- before the idea ever occurred to Dylan. Phrased that way, the idea sounds more original than it may have been. Rockabilly singers in the mid- to late 1950s had already wedded folk and bluegrass songs to stripped-down blues rhythms. Folk-rock was well nigh inescapable. As the revival began to lose its creative and commercial force, it was the only logical place to go, and it would have gone there even if Dylan and Farina had never existed. But happily, they did, and Hajdu helps us appreciate anew the wise and thrilling songs these decidedly imperfect human beings brought into the world.
70 people found this helpful
★★★★★
2.0
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Disappointing
It appears that David Hajdu really wanted to write a biography of Richard Farina, but for whatever reason -- perhaps concerns about marketability -- he felt compelled to broaden his topic to include Bob Dylan. Mr. Hajdu's treatment of Farina is nothing short of worshipful. Farina -- according to Hajdu -- is the artistic genius and dazzling personality who shaped our age. Oddly, I am unable to hum a single Farina song, and those of us who read his book, "Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me", back in the 60's were somewhat embarrassed by it even then. By contrast, and perhaps as an attempt at controversy, Hajdu is overly critical of Bob Dylan. His songs I do remember, and still occassionally listen to. Dylan's poetry and persona did shape our age. Though Farina may have shown promise, it's difficult to say what he believed in, and his early death may have robbed us of a genius, or saved Farina from exposure as a sham. What we do know is that Dylan's was a commitment to the music, and as his life since has shown us, Dylan delivered on the promise.
35 people found this helpful
★★★★★
5.0
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Yes indeed, this is actually Fourth Street.
The author has invested prodigious effort--think in terms of a massive archaeological dig--to excavate the 35-40 year old memories of scores of primary sources through hundreds of interviews in order to produce a faithful rendering of lives of four singular individuals: Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Joan's sister Mimi and Richard Farina, as they came of age during the late 50's and early 60's folk music scene. These were undeniably epic times in the history of 20th century popular music, and Hajdu manages to plumb the depths of these four complex personalities convincingly as he vividly depicts the emergence of folk music scene in Greenwich Village and inner cities in the Northeast. If you are of a certain age, recognize the last two names and remember their music, you will likely find this book to be indispensable. If you have fond memories of sitting in a candlelit apartment in the 60's, among friends with a Dylan album on the stereo--and will admit this to friends. today--you may find the book rewarding. BUt be forewarned, this book is so chock-filled dialogue attributed to scores of different characters. The feel is like a novel, but the extent and depth of the scenes that are presented strains credibility. I bought it, though, hook line and sinker.
Dylan looms over the entire narrative, but is not the star. Joan Baez and, to a lesser extent, her younger sister Mimi are central to the story, and their personalities--refracted through the eyes of their parents, other artists, business associates and ardent admirers--shine through the dark
wakes of pain and disillusion (dissolution!) that Dylan and Richard Farina, leave in their ardent pursuit of fame. Joan Baez achieved the significant success as the barefoot angel of the folk scene at first and subsequent Newport Folk Festivals. She produced the first commercially successful LP among the four. And, through an on-again-off-again infatuation and romance with Dylan--whose affections were plainly calculated to contribute to his budding career--Baez maintains her dignity and humanity in the face of his often misogynistic disregard. Towards the end, the book recounts Baez' emerging political sensibilities and activism, including the creation of a Center for the Study of Non-violence near her home in Carmel California. (For another view of this enterprise, see Joan Didion's 1968 volume of essays, Slouching Towards Bethlehem)
Farina's life is dissected in detail, from multiple perspectives. He is arguably the hero of this narrative and his life and untimely death seem to serve as a metaphor of the times. His highest ambition was to be a writer, though he dabbled in folk music and achieved some success teaming with his second wife, Joan's sister Mimi. At the age of 26 he was nine years older than Mimi Baez, who was 17 when he married her in 1963. She effectively had her parents permission, though her sister Joan was furious and skeptical of Farina's motives. Farina's creative genius is undeniable, the equal of Dylan's, I think, but he did not possess the pathological need for approval (even to the extent of self-loathing) that animated Dylan in the early part of his career. While Farina quickly became the center of attention in any room he entered, he was usually able to leave everybody feeling better following his seemingly effortless performance. The Dylan Hadju depicts has few redeeming qualities as a human being, which will certainly be off-putting to legions of his admirers. I found this portrait to be profoundly illuminating and consistent with the odd behaviors, arrogance and self aggrandizement that characterizes his autobiography, Chronicles Vol 1, which I found to be virtually unreadable. The book closes shortly after Farina's untimely death in a 1966 motorcycle accident, on the day first his novel, Been Down So Long It Seems Like Up To Me, was released. If you are "of" this time or intrigued by it, read the book. You won't be disappointed.
24 people found this helpful
★★★★★
5.0
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Highly recommended
This is one of those rare popular culture biographies in which the subjects come off, for better or worse, as three-dimensional human beings. Joan Baez has been so infrequently written about, and Mimi and Richard Farina even less so, making it a pleasure to revisit their story as presented here in such illuminating detail. Bob Dylan, of course, is another story, but rarely has he been cast in such an all-too-human light. Most highly recommended to fans of Dylan and Baez, and to those initiates who want to learn more about the highwater era of American folk music.
19 people found this helpful
★★★★★
5.0
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exquisite
I was totally excited when the release of the book occurred for several reasons, but the main one was that the interesting lives of Richard and Mimi Baez Farina would be discussed.
Hadju, as he did in his excellent look at Billy Strayhorn ("Lush Life"),weaves a wonderful portrait of 4 young artists, all with immense talent,(the Baez sisters and Dylan as musicians, Farina as a novelist and musician) who all converge on the thriving Greenwich Village scene in the early 1960's. From there, the book, (complete with hundreds of wonderful interviews) begins to read like a modern soap opera- complete with torrid affairs, opportunism, deceipt, and lust. Whether it was Dylan's affair with Joan Baez to further his budding career, or taking on the bohemian personna that Richard Farina naturally had; Farina's courtship with Mimi Baez by letters, but all the while having a secret love for Joan; Dylan's very public breakup with Joan after his star had risen well beyond anyone's expectations- it's all in this book.
The book tactfully takes on the tangled web that these 4 people created for themselves, makes sense of it all, and while not pointing fingers in any one particular direction, does showcase both Dylan and Farina's overt opportunism, both at the expense of the Baez sisters. One can only conjecture what may have occurred had Richard Farina not died..would he have pursued Joan? and what would have become of Mimi at that point?
While the music is well documented on any number of cds- Dylan's early folk works are exquisite, Joan's politically active folk even more so, and Richard and Mimi's works, including one of my favorite folk songs in "Reno, Nevada," also on cd, the book takes off the golden dome of the era and shows the true underbelly of 4 starving artists trying to make it. They all did, to varying degrees. The book charts the early days, the struggles, the open deceipt, trials and tribulations. A riveting book.
18 people found this helpful
★★★★★
3.0
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If these facts are wrong, what about the rest of the book?
Although it may be difficult to capture the sound of an era through the written word, Hajdu deserves some credit for trying. As a Farina fan, I looked forward to reading the book about 2 enigmatic characters from my misspent youth.
That said, what can we say about a book that seems to have gotten by the fact checkers. Hajdu writes that Dylan was in a car traveling up Interstate 5 to the Monterey Folk Festival. In 1963, there was NO Interstate 5. He goes on to state that Dylan stopped at "Boulton" at Anderson's Split Pea Soup. The town is, in fact, Buellton, and it lies along Highway 101. These seem like easy facts to check--and Hajdu fills his book with incessant factoids down to what one character or another had to eat at a certain meal! If he can't get the little facts straight, how can we depend on him to get the big picture straight?
In the absence of any other book about Richard and Mimi Farina, this one will have to do for the time being. Best bet--check it out from the library.
17 people found this helpful
★★★★★
5.0
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What A Story
I loved this story about four sixties icons. It's romantic, affectionate, exciting, well-written, evocative, and manages -- despite the scores of books on the subject -- to make the period seem totally fresh.
Reading Hajdu's vibrant descriptions of New York's Greenwich Village during the early days of folk made me hanker for a time when the world must have seemed full of promise and limitless possibilities to the many bright young people making hay while the sun was shining, and whose artistic output was simply stunning. It was a time of great change, a lot of it good, and driven by people who cared very deeply about this country and the human community (and also by those who simply saw opportunities and took them). There are a million stories between the covers of this book, and the people who figure here -- good and bad -- are all tremendously exciting to read about.
In Positively 4th Street, Hajdu does a wonderful job of producing balanced portraits of his four central characters. He's chosen to write about them especially for a very good reason: the story of their intersecting lives is a great one.
Bob Dylan comes off just as you expect; he's enigmantic, a creep at times, cranky, flaky, pretentious, but often likable and always interesting. The passages covering the Newport Festival, when Dylan supposedly angered the crowd by strapping on an electric guitar, is smartly explained; the crowd wasn't angry at him for going electric inasmuch as they were probably mad at him because he wasn't very good. It is a refreshingly logical account of that event, carefully researched, and absolutely devoid of hero-worship.
Baez is talented, tightly-wound, insecure, competitive, jealous, and -- if it's possible -- as self-involved as Bob Dylan, but also generous, sweet, earnest, and honest. You feel for her when she gets involved with Dylan, knowing as she does that she will ultimately get hurt.
Mimi Baez, the younger sister, is the ingenue in this tale. She is gorgeous, also musically talented, and very young, raw, and delicate. She doesn't stand a chance when she meets (who I consider to be the most interesting character in this story) the poet/writer/musician Richard Farina. I won't give away any more about him as he's got to be read to be believed.
Hajdu does an excellent job in painting vivid and affectionate portraits of all four. They are human beings first and last. Dylan and Baez may have achieved freak status because of their fame, but that doesn't stop Hajdu from treating them as equally as their lesser known co-pilots.
The only thing missing in this tale, as far as content is concerned, is Farina's first wife, Carolyn Hester, an early folk songstress. We're given the beginning of her story, but never get the ending. She drops out of sight after Farina falls for Mimi. This is too bad because she is a compelling character in her own right. As far as copy-editing, I found there was an overuse of the semi-colon; I'm guilty of that as well; I don't really mind all that much.
I will be reading this book again and that's the highest praise I can give any book. Thanks for the great read.
14 people found this helpful
★★★★★
5.0
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Long time coming...
I sat in the 3rd row at the famed "63 Newport Folk Festival and I knew it would be historic. I still have all the worn LP's of Baez, Dylan and Farina/Baez. And it's about time a book like this was written. The Baez sisters and Farina were portrayed exactly like I thought they would be. Dylan, sorry to say, was/is what I suspected he would be. He was a phenomenon to me then. I saw every concert I could...even one in Hoboken, NJ, the weekend after Kennedy was shot. That concert went on as usual, he sang, no banter to the audience and I was surprised he never said anything in reference to the national event that had just happened as few days before. I always thought it was curious that he wrote brillantly about things that touch political/social/emotional nerves... but never seemed to put himself on the line concerning these issues. Now I know. I wondered why when Sinead O'Connor was booed off the stage because of her religious/social views in a commemorative concert honoring Dylan, that it was not Dylan who comforted her. Dylan was tainted for me after that. Dylan deserves praise for being an amazing songwriter, for having the insight for writing songs approriate for the times, and choosing managers who would help his career. It's hard to hear "Hurricaine" and think that he had any feeling about what he was writing. He's had a great career, but I do not feel he deserves the homage that he receives. And it's about time someone wrote about the reality of the times.
13 people found this helpful
★★★★★
2.0
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Been Down So Long This Reads Like Garbage
This book reads like a gossip column. The only difference is that the author reveals his sources. The idea is sound: use data from hundreds of interviews and write a non fiction novel from the point of view of a fly on the wall. It simply does not work. The people whose lives and relationships are now being scrutinized produced some of the best music and literature that their generation had to offer. Instead of praising them, though, Hajdu seems to want to destroy the myth by exposing the baser sides of their personalities.
Spend 20 bucks on something by one of these four that you don't already own rather than buying this.
