Bob Dylan, Star Singer, and New York City

So, my friend says: “Star Singer, I’ll show you some cool moves on guitar. Only a rare few people in the whole world know ‘em. I got Bobby to teach me.” My friend learned guitar from some guy by the name of Bob Dylan (way before Dylan arrived at fame): “ Hey, look, I gave you my bedroom to live in. Now you got a roof over your head. The least you could do is show me some cool guitar moves.” says Peter 2 Bob. Bob caved in and gave, my friend Peter McKenzie guitar lessons. That’s what my friend, Peter McKenzie, told me back in New York City. Well, dear Reader, I picked my friend Peter’s brain. I mastered those very same cool sounding variations of guitar chords he got from the one and only Bob Dylan and I went out and hit the streets of New York City and I started singing and playing my own original songs way back then.

I played what I call The Greenwich Village Circuit -The Gaslight Lounge, Kettle-of-Fish, Paul Colby’s Bitter End, Gerde’s Folk City, the whole bit. But, this reminiscence is not really about me. No, not at all. This is more about how I crossed paths with the incomparable Bob Dylan even if only a smidgeon. One night, when my band and I had just finished playing a set at a private party in Harlem, New York, this kid, by the name of Peter McKenzie, comes up to me and he says: “I want to manage you.” I said to him: “Good. You can manage me. You can get me a recording contract like as soon as possible.” The kid says: “Okay.” I said: “Do you know anything about the music business?” The guy, (Peter) says: “Meet me at my mom’s house tomorrow. 10 West 28th Street. She’ll tell you.” So I go. I meet his mom. Her name was Eve McKenzie. Eve was a Broadway stage show costume designer. At the time, she was working with the great Jerome Robbins – Broadway’s West Side Story, etc. When I got to their apartment, Eve and her super nice guy husband, Mac, gave me a quick tour of their modest apartment. They sat me down at the kitchen table. Mac poured me a whiskey. I began sipping. – – –

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City: Cuenca

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Jerry Price Post Author

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxRf0DgMzkQ 0 0

Don Johnson

Or as we say in the biz……. TL:DR 0 0

Bill Fox

people who advertise the least are usually the best and don't even need to, 0 0

Jerry Price Post Author

Eve says to me: “My son, Peter, thinks you have a marvelous singing voice.“ I said: “Thank you. “She says: "Okay. We, in this family, know a little something about show business and musicians because, well…”and then Mrs. McKenzie began to tell me things that were certainly interesting and truly... Eve says to me: “My son, Peter, thinks you have a marvelous singing voice.“ I said: “Thank you. “She says: "Okay. We, in this family, know a little something about show business and musicians because, well…”and then Mrs. McKenzie began to tell me things that were certainly interesting and truly amusing. She told me of how her son, Peter, volunteered to give up the bedroom he had grown up in in that apartment to Bob Dylan when Dylan first arrived in New York City. You know the story, dear Reader. Way back in the early days when Dylan was very young and playing the coffee houses near Washington Square Park. . . the Greenwich Village district. Eve opened her thoroughly fascinating story by telling me of a phone call she had gotten from Mrs. Margie Guthrie, wife of the famous folk singer, Woody Guthrie – the THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND folk singer. Eve and Marge Guthrie had been lifelong friends. The Guthrie’s boy, Arlo, was scheduled to debut at The Gaslight Lounge located on MacDougall Street in The Village and Marge telephoned to invite Eve to sit with Marge to listen and to lend support to Arlo. Sipping my scotch whisky, I sat back and I watched Eve as she explained things. I was enjoying myself to no end. Not necessarily from the scotch, although that certainly felt smooth and good, but witnessing, or should I say experiencing Eve McKenzie was beyond astonishing! What a personality! Eve was a very energetic, very Jewish person with all the wonderful antics and expressions of… of, I don’t know, …put her in the category that would include… oh, let's see... I've got it, picture in your mind the American comedian, Jackie Mason. Now, try to imagine what Jackie Mason's mother could have been like. Now you've got what could be at least an approach to what Eve came across as as she chain smoked and paced the kitchen floor telling me how she gave this musical poet living on the street a place to live. On the surface, Eve was telling me a story about Bob Dylan staying at her house. However, trust me, when Eve told the story, it wasn’t only about Bob Dylan. Eve had a way of packing absolute loads of social commentary of her own in between the lines. For Eve, in her own right, had a lot to say about life’s unfair, difficult injustices and how hard things could be for average hard-working decent people. She was very truthful and very accurate about things. I had come to admire Eve very much. <code> So, Eve, in the kitchen that afternoon, goes on to explain to me that she did indeed go with Marge to The Gaslight Lounge to see Arlo's debut, and that she and Marge Guthrie sat at a tiny cocktail table while they were waiting for Arlo to appear on stage. Eve said Marge did most of the talking and that Marge brought up the subject of tremendous buzz that was circulating the streets among New York's intelligentsia. Marge could have said to Eve: "Well, yeah, there is a new young folk singer who just arrived on the scene and everyone's talking about how his new original songs take remarkably accurate jabs at society's hypocrisies. Nobody's ever heard anything quite like what this new fellow is doing. And the people really love it!" And then Marge drops the bomb on Eve. Marge tells Eve that the singer / poet needed a place to stay, needed a roof over his head because he was just starting out and he was, unsurprisingly, very broke. Marge, again, Woody Guthrie’s wife, said that she also very much liked the young fellow (Bob Dylan) because he compassionately took time out to visit with her husband, Woody Guthrie, who was seriously ailing in a hospital (actually, he was dying from Cholera). All the while I'm sipping Glenlivet having a merry ol' time. Eve emphatically continues. She says to me, “ Marge and I have never minced words with one another. I said to Marge - "So what you are saying to me, Marge, is that you want me to give up my son’s bedroom while Peter studies up at Harvard because my son’s bedroom is currently empty. You’re asking me to bring some stranger into my house I know nothing about. Marge replied: "Right. He's sitting over there in the corner." Eve said: "At that point I called Bob over to our table and I looked him up and then I looked him down. He had a sad and mangy raincoat on. He looked like an interesting and colorful character from a Charles Dickens novel." I was hooked. I wanted to know more. <code> Bob did move into Mrs. McKenzie's apartment at 10 West 28th Street and he operated for a while out of my friend Peter's bedroom. Mr. Bob Dylan continued performing in Greenwich Village coffee houses to the point where his controversial mug got to be featured, are you ready, dear Reader?, on the front page of The New York Times! This brought tremendous interest and attention to the singer-songwriter. In very short time after that, he signed his first recording contract with Columbia Records. He caught on like wild fire! He became the greatest contemporary crowned artist to the entire modern world. Of course, Bob Dylan moved out of Eve and Mac McKenzie’s apartment as soon as he got his monetary advance from Columbia Records. And, of course, by the time I'd met and started hanging out with Peter McKenzie, Bob Dylan was world renown and a household name. as years passed, on day, I had decided to pay a visit to 10 West 28th Street just to say hello to everybody and to hang out. I enjoyed that family so much. But, my visit that day didn't go according to what I had expected. When I got to the apartment and knocked at the door,, Peter stuck his head out to a slightly opened door and he whispered: "Bobby's here. You can come in if you want, but try to be very quiet." I said to Peter: "No. I know when I am odd man out. It wouldn't be right. He came to visit with you guys. I'll just see ya later." That was so nice and considerate if I do say so myself. Anyway, to this day, I still use those cool guitar moves Peter learned from Dylan long ago when they lived on 28th Street in NYC long ago. I used those Dylan guitar moves the other night when I sang on stage at Yakumama Bistro. </code> </code> Read more 0 0

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