Overview

In 1966 when Bob Dylan, age twenty-five, disappeared from public view, he closed a chapter on one of the most fascinating stories in post-war cultural history. In just five years Dylan had become a spokesman for the counterculture; Greenwich Village the epicentre of youth style; and folk music - once played by earnest throwbacks - had been crossed with rock 'n' roll to form a thoughtful, literate, new musical style. POSITIVELY 4th STREET relates just how folk became rock by looking at four young beatniks and their rise to fame: Bob Dylan, his part-time lover Joan Baez, her sister Mimi, and Mimi's husband, the writer Richard Farina. It is that rare find - a new story to tell of a moment no one can forget.

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9780747558262

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Draws you so far into the story that you read it as a novel; as if you were present, meeting the characters on the stairway, peering at them in smoky coffee houses while they tune their guitars' IRISH TIMES

Named for Bob Dylan's song of the same title, this is a lively insight into the folk world of the late 1950s and early '60s, concentrating on Dylan himself, Joan Baez, her sister Mimi and Mimi's husband Richard Farina, poet and musician. Hajdu writes perceptively about Dylan and Joan's relationship, showing how both struck creative sparks from the other to mutual advantage and analysing their musical development with a sharp eye - despite Dylan's claims to complete originality, he turns out to have borrowed many of his earlier ideas from others before reshaping them in his idiosyncratic style. But perhaps most interesting, because less well known, are Farina and Mimi, who secretly married when she was only 17. They formed a folk duo with considerable success - most memorably winning a standing ovation in the pouring rain at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. But Farina's heart was in his writing, and his first novel was published in 1966 - only for him to be killed in a motorcycle accident hours after the celebratory party. Hajdu writes so vividly that at times this reads like a novel, so involving are the lives of his four subjects. But he has also done his research, and is able to tell us just what did happen when Dylan so notoriously 'went electric' at Newport, and to debunk the widely held myth that Farina was a member of the IRA and supporter of Cuban revolutionaries. Altogether, this is a highly accomplished book, recommended to folk music devotees and the casual reader alike. (Kirkus UK)

Author Information

David Hajdu lives in Manhattan and writes for the NEW YORK TIMES magazine, VANITY FAIR, and the NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS.

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