Rating: 
Summary: Based on hundreds of new interviews
Review: Positively 4th Street appears in paperwork to reach new audiences with its story of four individuals who changed music history: Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and her sister Mimi Baez, and novelist Richard Farina. Based on hundreds of new interviews, Positively 4th Street presents a lively account of the foursome's friendship, personal lives, and impact on the dramatically-changing music world of the 1960s.
Rating:
Summary: A great starting point to learn about the '60's Folk revival
Review: Positively 4th Street was a thoroughly entertaining glimpse at the early '60's Folk scene, focusing on the four characters in the subtitle. This book is not restricted to Baez, Dylan, and the Farinas though. it includes many other individuals who were either in that circle or knew of it.
Hajdu has done his research well. My only complaint is that the dialogue shifts and it takes a moment or two to refocus on what is going on. I particularly enjoyed learning about the other folk people, and that has encouraged me to delve into the works of other musicians; some good, some not so good. I am enjoying a collection of the Farinas work, and have started to read Farinas book, "Been Down so Long, Looks Like up to Me". I learned things about Dylan and Baez that I never knew before, despite being a fan of both and following their careers from the early days on. Hajdu has written a book that makes you want to learn more. Anything that encourages more reading is certainly a good thing!I highly recommend this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Bob & Dick & Joan & Mimi
Review: Richard Fariña lived fast, died young. He wanted to be a star but died the death of a cult hero: he crashed his motorcycle in 1966, on the way home from the party launching his novel Been Down So Long it Looks Like Up to Me. Like Fariña, his novel tries too hard to be beat, and like his music - fey traditional folk - it wouldn't be remembered nearly 40 years later if Fariña didn't crop up as a footnote in the life of Bob Dylan.
Fariña, charming, ambitious and self-confident, arrived on the campus folk scene before Dylan and allegedly gave him some advice: "You need somebody ... to do your songs. All you need do, man, is start s****ing Joan Baez." Whether the charming, ambitious, self-confident - and talented - Dylan took this advice is unknown, but the clown prince of folk was quickly championed by its reigning queen, and they were soon the genre's royal couple. Meanwhile Fariña, despite being married to folkie Carolyn Hester, scored a coup himself: he wooed and won Baez's breathtakingly beautiful teenage sister Mimi.
Positively 4th Street is the story of the glamorous quartet leading the folk revival: Bob and Joanie, Richard and Mimi. Hajdu wrote Lush Life, the award-winning biography of Billy Strayhorn, Duke Ellington's unheralded arranger, and this similarly exposes an obscure character in a musical movement. Fariña may have believed he was Dylan's equal; Hajdu is generous about his limited literary and musical talents but doesn't make that mistake. He paints Fariña as the life of the party, a consummate self-promoter, scheming, exploitative, unreliable and a little sleazy. This is a story about rivalries - sibling and artistic - and while Hajdu's desire to make the lives of the sisters and the singers mirror each other may over-state the Fariñas' importance, it makes for a compelling, novelistic account of the context that created Bob Dylan.
Rating: 
Summary: Non-Stop Read But...
Review: slight disconnect between the wild times under discussion in this book and the dead serious writer. I loved the '60's and loved lots of the juice in this book. But at times the author wrote as if he was assigned to chronical the life and times of Churchill. It's pop history not world history I kept thinking, but true, I kept on reading. Great portraits of Baez, Dylan, Mimi and Farina, the latter the most ambiguous and least known of the four.
Rating:
Summary: Tells more than intended
Review: Thios book is an excellent read. I would recommend it to anyone interested in the folk and rock scenes of the 60s, whether you were there or not. For readers too young to remember the era, it might be especially informative. The book, however, gives us enough material to form conclusions other than what I think the author intended. I think the author has an admiration and affection for Dylan, yet after reading the information the author provides, the truth is obvious: Dylan, in spite of his enormous gifts--yes, even genius--is a loathsome creep. Not only that, but a phony and manipulative loathsome creep as well. He returns Joan Baez' love and admiration for him with cruelty, taunts, and putdowns, often delivered publicly, then dumps her for Sara Lownds, who became his first wife. His treatment of Joan led Mimi Farina, in one of the best scenes of the book, to grab Dylan's hair and pull his head back over a chair until he cried, all the while admonishing him not to treat her sister that way. The saintly Baez, in spite of Dylan's cruel treatment, never wavers in her loyalty to him. Dylan used people and then, when they no longer met his needs, had nothing to do with them. He used profound social movements this way as well. Dylan first gained fame as a "protest" singer, meaning that he wrote songs primarily identified with the civil rights movement. However, once he gained fame he turned his back on the movement that had helped create him and went on to make himself a rock star. That he was insincere in his social commitment can best be demonstrated by the fact that, while the Vietnam war still raged and the bodies kept piling up, Dylan wrote not a word about the war--not a single word--but went on to produce drivel like the "Nashville Skyline," "Self Portrait," and "New Morning" albums. Baez, on the other hand, comes across as saintly but no saint. One of the best depictions in the book is her discomfort, long before she became famous, at signing with a big label like Columbia and signing with a smaller label that she felt comfortable with. Although she could come across as self-righteous at times, Joan was always sincere. In spite of this, she was still ambitious and career driven. Another excellent scene shows how, when she was still unknown, she appropriated the style of a close friend of hers without discussing it with her or asking her permission. But then, who among us wouldn't have done the same. The book attempts, unsuccessfully in my opinion, to flesh out the characters of Richard Farina and Mimi Baez Farina. Because Farina was a minor talent, judging by his output, who may have developed into a greater one had he not died prematurely, and because Mimi appears to have been a nice person with no discernible talent, Hajdu's portrayals of them don't quite work. Ironically, I got a much better sense of Thomas Pynchon, a major writer who is intended to be a minor character in this book, than I did of either of the two Farinas. I am sure this isnn't what the author intended. In brief, this is a good read, well written in a breezy, non-academic style, and that is no mean feat. You probably won't have missed a lot if you don't read it, but if you do, you will be entertained.
Rating: 
Summary: Been Down So Long This Reads Like Garbage
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Where's the music?
Review: This book reads like an extended version of people magaizine. Might be good if you are interested in gossip but has little insight regarding folk music and the artists discussed in the book. Very disappointing and ultimately tedious.
Rating:
Summary: Ah, the good old days
Review: This book really brought me back - I was one of those who lived in coffeehouses and really got into the folk scene. This book certainly adds a lot to the literature about this time, and, of course, to the 4 star characters. I found the treatment of each to be fair in that no one is painted as the victim here (with the possible exception of Carolyn Hester who sure did get the short end of her relationship with Farina). Dylan wanted to be a star, and he did what he felt was necessary to be one, but obviously had the talent to back it up. Baez wanted Dylan in her life and she had to take the bad with the good. Farina wanted to live well with little real effort and used just about everyone he met (including two wives)to achieve this situation. Mimi, well, she wanted to be taken care of and this came at some cost. No one comes away clean. No intellectuals, they were nontheless interesting, talented, and creative...in Dylan's case, spectacularly so. It is clear that nothing could have prevented his rise to stardom. I loved the book and I highly recommend it to anyone familiar with this time and place and especially with those who populated the scene. I couldn't stop reading till I finished it.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderul read
Review: This is a great book by a fine writer and really captures the times and tells a wonderful story of 4 amazing young artists. The information on Richard and Mimi is especially appreciated, since after his early death they fell off the radar. I still remember seeing her perform in the early 70s on State Street here in Madison, stunned by her radiance and artistry. I've never read Been Down So Long... but will now. As for Bob, well, what can you say. He's often nasty, but you gotta love his songs. Politics, though, he's never had, as Positively 4th Street documents.
Rating:
Summary: Evocative and inspiring
Review: This is a great book--it's about the creative process, it's about music and a unique period in America's cultural development, it's even a romantic and affecting account of young love and tragedy. Hajdu wears his learning lightly--he's done a tremendous amount of original research but the book doesn't get bogged down in excessive detail. He has a clear thesis, which is backed up by his information, and this thesis is interestingly, compellingly, and, ultimately, movingly presented in the pages of "Positively 4th Street". Yes, he may be a bit hard on Bob, he's clearly on the side of the Baez family, and he may be just a bit too easy on the fascinating but ultimately troubling Richard Farina. But, hey, an author is entitled to his view, and Hajdu at least gives the appearance of providing sufficient information to allow his readers to come to their own conclusions. Highly recommended.
|
