Rating: 
Summary: Long time coming...
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: exquisite
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: Negative on Positively 4th Street
Review: I'm sorry to send ripples through all the "positive" reviews here, but this book doesn't do it for me. I agree with the New York Times Book Review that this volume "trudges along." I also feel that the author is too enchanted -- to a childlike degree -- with Joan Baez to portray her realistically, or even objectively. She has nothing new to say about Bob Dylan (who was not interviewed for this book). I can't help but feel she may be fabricating events or at least remembering things incorrectly. Maybe she was a beacon of hope in the 1960s, but she hasn't kept up with the times. The talk about stuggle sounds dated and overly idealistic, and yet the same issues still persist, to a degree. And I'm someone who loves music from the 1960s, too. Dylan's "Highway 61 Revisted" is vibrant, revolutionary and magical; this book is a wind-up "pop goes the weasel" tin toy. Reading this book, I can't help but feel that the author is striving to return to a time when he felt he was part of something important, one of the underdogs. I'd suggest borrowing this from the library to give it a once-over before deciding to buy.
Rating:
Summary: I got what I hoped for!
Review: I've read some good and some bad reviews of Positively 4th Street, and in my opinion it was one of the most interesting books I've read it awhile. Instead of making musicians like Bob Dylan and Joan Baez seem like people who don't mess up, David Hajdu makes them more human like. I for one was never really interesting in Dylan's music, but more of his personality, so this was an interesting book for me. Instead of making you think the young Bob Dylan knew exactly what he was talking about in his earliest music he shows him as a confused loner type who later fits in by taking what's popular at his own adventage and that was folk music. I never really understood how he could could go from Rock music like Buddy Holly and Little Richard to Pete Seeger and gang. It makes more sense now though. Which I like, not a bunch strewn about garbage on how Dylan's a genius. He's certainly very talented and none of what he did makes his songs any less then good, but when it comes down to comprehending any of his earlier work... I think he himself is still unsure. Great book, it reads like a movie or something of that sort.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Fabulous.
Review: If you grew up in the '50s, '60s or '70s this book will take you back. I started humming all the songs I hadn't thought about in years, and finally had to get out my guitar -- untouched for years -- and invite a friend over to sing all those great dylan songs. The book is a masterful combination of journalism, social history, pop music history and biography. I couldn't put it down. The personalities of the four main characters, their motivations, their personal growth, and their relationships are portrayed really well -- enough details to make you really feel what's going on (what people were wearing, eating, singing etc.) but never too much to bog it down. Hajdu is just a genius. My only concern was that because Dylan refused to cooperate for the book, he is not portrayed as sympathetically as the others, and yet, the book does not quite acknowledge that of all the recording artists who came out of that era, he is clearly the one whose genius will be remembered when the others have fallen away. Still, this was a joy to read. I wish it had just gone on and on and on for another 500 pages.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't buy this book
Review: If you love the music these people created, don't read this book. You don't need to know the pettiness of these folk's lives. Just enjoy your memories and your impressions.
Rating:
Summary: 4 Decades Later...
Review: In 1962 I was a tentative, impressionable kid hoping that a guitar and a three chord song would give my life direction. The most important thing in Mr. Hajdu's new biographical tour-de-force is finding that although his subjects have become cultural icons and symbols for my generation's excesses, they were then also tentative, impressionable teenagers raised on Buddy Holly, the Lone Ranger and Mighty Mouse. They were also looking for direction and while most biographies of musical artists of that time usually concentrate on their achievements in the public arena, this book never forgets to remind us of the confused, hopeful kids that were standing up on stage. Their humanity leaps and bounds off these pages. Through the author's skillful storytelling and impeccable research, the spirits of those two sisters and those two part-time friends feel like they're in the room with the reader -- just over your shoulder with a joke, a new chord fingering, or a complaint. While many of us were listening in coffee houses and campus venues, a few of us were trying to make our instuments do what we wanted them to do, and thought that if we could just get it right, the world would be saved. Mr. Hadjdu's work reminded me of who I was then -- something easily forgotten today. It brought back the confusion when lessons were learned the hardest way, and no one was the winner. I even found myself falling for the clever, overflowing charm of Richard Farina, still gesturing wildly to get the party started from within the pages. Four decades later, I'm as much a disciple now it turns out as I was when I first heard "Children of Darkness" or "Dopico". I want to thank Mr. Hajdu for bringing it back to me, and I want to thank the Baez sisters and Bob Dylan for making it all seem so simple when it was anything but... This was a one-sit read. I couldn't put it down! Now I'll go find a few old vinyl records that have been on the shelf much too long.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Folk legends and their myths
Review: One of the nice things about a quadruple biography is that you don't have to bear the foibles and character defects of any one of its four subjects for too long. The interplay of personalities--the supersized egos of Bob Dylan, Richard Farina, and Joan Baez as well as the more humanly-proportioned ego of Mimi Baez Farina--is fascinating. Author David Hajdu is thorough in his research (extensive interviews with many people, some now deceased), unbiased in his assessments, and reasonably skeptical when quoting the subjects as they reflect on themselves and on one another. Hajdu seems well-informed on music in general and presents the phenomenon of the 60s folk revival in a way that seems true and fair (I speak as someone who has owned and still owns most of the vinyl ablumns mentioned in the book). Long before Madonna became the daring of academics for her ability to shed skins and transform herself annually, Dylan, Farina, and the elder Baez were conciously and single-mindedly crafting their personae to meet audience expectations and assure their own success. The competition among the four is extreme. But so is the affection and loyalty (distorted and self-serving though it may have been at times). One finishes the book with a sense that the key to success is wanting it deperately; talent and good luck, though nice in their own way, are less essential. Overall, the Baez women come off better than the men. The pacifist Joan was capable of incredible cattiness in her personal relationships, but could be generous professionally (for instance, she continued to promote Bob Dylan even after he dumped her as his lover and publicly mocked her, sometimes in song). Aside from Mimi's somewhat saintly aura, there are no villains or heroes here. Unlike the writers of the protest songs of the folk revival, Hajdu does not see things in black and white. His subjects live quite colorfully on these pages--and without apology for their shortcomings and inconsistancies. This is an intriguing story told with aptly chosen and fascinating details.
Rating: 
Summary: No cufflinks!
Review: One would think that a book which purports to be about the interpersonal relationships between Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Mimi Baez Farina & Richard Farina would tell one all about the background for Joan's 'Diamonds and Rust.' One would be wrong. A much more detailed and interesting account is found in Howard Soundes' recent bio of Bob: 'Down the Highway: The Life of Bob Dylan.' (see my review.) Hajdu's book is OK, but a 'fluff piece' of the 'People Magazine' verite'. One is reminded of Jeff Goldblum's smarmy character in 'The Big Chill' (a movie I rate Six Stars out of Five!) who works for one of these tabloid-type ventures. He says that their editorial rule is, assuming a lot of people read their magazine while tending to other business in the bathroom, to never write an article that takes the average person longer to read than the average .... Hajdu worked for Entertainment Weekly and is apparently guided by this editorial philosophy. Those of us of a 'Certain Age,' e.g the Baby Boomers at whom the book is presumably targeted , may have a hard time with the typeset/font in which the original hardcover is set. I found myself twisting, turning, and moving the book closer and further from my bifocaled eyes to be able to read some of the words!
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