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Talkin’ Greenwich Village

The Heady Rise and Slow Fall of America's Bohemian Music Capital

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By David Browne

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$15.99

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$20.99 CAD

"Talkin’ Greenwich Village is impeccably researched, elegantly written and consistently fascinating."–New York Times

The definitive history of the rise and heyday of the revolutionary Greenwich Village music scene, based on new research and 
first-hand interviews with many of its legendary performers
 
Although Greenwich Village encompasses less than a square mile in downtown New York, rarely has such a concise area nurtured so many innovative artists and genres. Over the course of decades, Billie Holiday, the Weavers, Sonny Rollins, Dave Van Ronk, Ornette Coleman, Bob Dylan, Nina Simone, Phil Ochs, and Suzanne Vega are just a few who migrated to the Village, recognizing it as a sanctuary for visionaries, non-conformists, and those looking to reinvent themselves. Working in the Village’s smokey coffeehouses and clubs, they chronicled the tumultuous Sixties, rewrote jazz history, and took folk and rock & roll into places they hadn’t been before.
 
Based on over 150 new interviews (Judy Collins, Sonny Rollins, Herbie Hancock, Eric Andersen, Suzzy and Terre Roche, Suzanne Vega, Steve Forbert, Arlo Guthrie, John Sebastian, Shawn Colvin, the members of the Blues Project, and more), previously unseen documents, and author David Browne’s longtime immersion in the scene, Talkin’ Greenwich Village lends the saga the epic, panoramic scope it’s long deserved. It takes readers from the Fifties jamborees in Washington Square Park and into landmark venues like Gerde’s Folk City, the Gaslight Café, and the Village Vanguard, onto Dylan’s momentous arrival and returns, the no-holds-barred Seventies years (West Village discos, National Lampoon’s Lemmings), and the folk revival of the Eighties (Vega’s enduring “Tom’s Diner”).
 
In eye-opening fashion, Browne also details the often-overlooked people of color in the Sixties folk clubs, reveals how the FBI and city government consistently kept their eyes on the community, unearths the machinations behind the infamous “beatnik riot” in Washington Square Park, and tells the interconnected tales of Van Ronk, the seminal band the Blues Project, and the beloved sister trio, the Roches.
 
In also recounting the racial tensions, crackdowns, and changes in New York and music that infiltrated the neighborhood, Talkin’ Greenwich Village is more than just vivid cultural history. It also speaks to the rise and waning of bohemian culture itself, set to some of the most enduring lyrics, melodies, and jazz improvisations in American music.

  • ". . . a teeming history of Greenwich Village. . . . Steeped in music culture and lore, Browne offers a detailed, abundantly populated chronicle of a storied place and its creative, outspoken, driven inhabitants."
    Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
  • "Evocative prose enlivens this captivating ode to a storied chapter of pop culture history."
    Publishers Weekly
  • “There have been numerous Greenwich Villages over the decades, several of them extant at any one time. David Browne knows them all, block by block, but he also knows their tales, told and untold, especially the musical ones, which his book divulges with unsentimental sympathy. It’s an amazing account of a singular place, a treat for every Villager whether in fact or in spirit.”
    Sean Wilentz, author of Bob Dylan in America and The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln
  • “Deeply researched and deftly written, this entertaining chronicle of the Village music scene sheds light on groundbreaking performative genres: from the Beats’ spoken word to new forms of jazz, from the evolution of folk to plugged-in blues rock and punk. In the back rooms and on makeshift stages of coffeehouses and nightclubs, eccentricity and creativity flourish, while threats from city (and FBI) officials and disgruntled neighbors constantly hover. It’s a fascinating story!”
    Holly George-Warren, author of Janis: Her Life and Music and A Man Called Destruction: The Life and Music of Alex Chilton
  • Talkin' Greenwich Village maps a matrix of artistry spanning generations and genres, with special focus on the ‘folk revival’ that launched Dylan and continues to revive itself in new shapes. You want to understand how deep and wide New York music history is? You need to spend time here.”
    Will Hermes, author of Lou Reed: The King of New York and Love Goes to Buildings on Fire: Five Years in New York City That Changed Music Forever
  • “For most of the 20th century, Greenwich Village existed as a liberating antidote to mainstream American society. David Browne’s Talkin’ Greenwich Village is a masterful, incisive recounting of the fertile creative life south of 14th St. that transmitted cultural alternatives to the nation and the world.”
    Dennis McNally, author of A Long Strange Trip: The Inside History of the Grateful Dead
  • “I was one of countless Midwestern kids who grew up fantasizing about Greenwich Village, and David Browne reminded me why. Talkin’ Greenwich Village is a cultural, social, and—above all—musical history of the fabled neighborhood that’s known around the world as Ground Zero for generations of beatniks, hippies, and misfits. Thoroughly reported and lovingly told, Browne’s book chronicles the evolution of America’s bohemian paradise.”
    Alan Light, author of The Holy or the Broken: Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley, and the Unlikely Ascent of "Hallelujah"
  • “Not just a crackerjack music writer, David Browne is also a sharp-eyed cultural historian and social critic, and it's this combination of virtues that makes Talkin’ Greenwich Village such a bracing read. Browne's story of New York's folk and jazz communities, and the interwoven lives of Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, Billie Holiday and Shawn Colvin, among so many others, describes not just the music but the countercultural spirit that enlivened and then altered the course of American culture.”
    Peter Ames Carlin, author of Bruce and The Name of This Band Is R.E.M.
  • "For anyone who has ever spent time wandering the streets of Greenwich Village, Talkin’ Greenwich Village by David Browne is like stepping back in time. It revisits the places and moments that made this small area in downtown New York so legendary. Greenwich Village has always been a haven for artists, rebels, and visionaries, and Browne captures the essence of that spirit beautifully... Ultimately, Talkin’ Greenwich Village is more than just a music scene history—it’s a tribute to a place that has inspired generations of artists and continues to do so today. Whether you’ve spent time in the Village or just discovered its magic, this book will make you feel like you’re walking down MacDougal Street, soaking in the creative energy that has always defined Greenwich Village. Browne’s engaging writing style and thorough research make this a must-read for anyone who loves music, history, or just a good story about a place that has shaped many lives, including mine."
    Rock n Roll Highway
  • "A thorough and thoroughly human history of a unique locale and era."
    Library Journal
  • “Browne leaves few stones unturned to present a panoramic vision of this music mecca.”
    Toronto Star
  • “Expertly told, packed with head-turning detail and local color.”
    The Spectator
  • “Fascinating and meticulously researched”
    Best Classic Bands
  • “Sprawling yet intimate … colorful and exquisitely detailed”
    No Depression
  • "Browne gives valuable insight into the people – such as Van Ronk – who are not necessarily household names, yet heavily influenced the Village social scene's look, feel, and sound…"
    Amy McGrath Hughes Substack
  • “Endless wonderful stories and a few elegiac sentences that can stick in your mind … One of the great virtues of David Browne’s book is that it will, courtesy of the phone in your hand, take you back to songs you might not have heard for decades, or lead you to listen to the music he writes about for the first time.”
    Greil Marcus, “Real Life Rock Top 10.”
  • “Browne’s book is akin to the Laurel Canyon books and documentaries about the Los Angeles scene so popular in recent years … A rich read you won’t be able to put down.”
    Showbiz411.com
  • “There’s been a lot of books about New York City, but only a few capture the elusive flavor of the Big Apple like Joseph Mitchell’s Up in the Old Hotel, Patti Smith’s Just Kids, Herbert Asbury’s The Gangs of New York or Robert A. Caro’s The Power Broker. You can now add David Browne’s stunning Talkin’ Greenwich Village to that list.  … His unerring reportage always reads like a good novel. His attention-to-detail is impeccable. And his insight is well-earned.”
    The Jersey Sound
  • "Browne weaves a tale of perseverance and resistance, of energetic upstarts simply seeking a space to exist."
    Mojo
  •  "Through an abundance of meticulous research and interviews, Browne conjures up a real sense of what such a breeding ground was like in the 1960s."
    Irish Times
  • "[A] brilliantly-detailed history of a unique urban space... [and a] well-crafted chronology."
    Rock and the Beat Generation
  • "Browne expertly captures the spirit of what has always seemed the coolest neighborhood in the history of the world. He is a sensitive but not starstruck observer, who finds equal fascination in the rise of the place’s mystique as in its sad, but perhaps inevitable, decline."
    Our Town
  • "Browne’s look into the neighborhood’s history shows how this iconic Manhattan spot still fuels creativity and inspiration today."
    People
  • Talkin’ Greenwich Village is impeccably researched, elegantly written and consistently fascinating."
    New York Times
  • “A captivating saga... Talkin' Greenwich Village could make even a casual reader yearn to have been at Cafe Society when Billie Holiday first sang 'Strange Fruit', at the Gaslight when Dylan premiered 'A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall' and at the Five Spot when John Coltrane was playing with Thelonius Monk.”
    Literary Review
  • “Browne deftly chronicles the New York City folk scene at joints like Folk City, the Gaslight and Cafe Au Go Go and such artists as Dave Van Ronk, the Roches and, of course, Dylan. … an insightful, skillfully written history.”
    Minneapolis Star Tribune
  • "Welcome and useful. Browne treats the dizzying cast of legendary characters and historic events with cinematic care, taking readers on a journey beyond the stereotypes and parodies of one of our most impactful music burghs.”
    Cleveland.com
  • “A true tour de force in tale and task …  Browne leaves no artist uncovered or geographical location ignored along the way, using vivid and haunting verbal images as sacred ground for the center of America’s hidden but precious psyche.”
    The Aquarian

On Sale
Sep 17, 2024
Page Count
352 pages
Publisher
Hachette Books
ISBN-13
9780306827655

David Browne

About the Author

David Browne is a senior writer at Rolling Stone and the author of Fire and Rain and biographies of Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young; the Grateful Dead; Sonic Youth; and Jeff and Tim Buckley. He lives in Manhattan.

Learn more about this author