I wish we would get to a time like this. Where movies were about mature subjects, where you could have places where poets could share their material publicly, and when music talked about real life feelings.
Although I was born just as this was beginning, over the years I have played guitar ,I have enjoyed the music that came out of this Era.I continue to play it for an appreciative audience of seniors.
in 1968 I was too young to go into the bars on bourbon street; so I went to a beatnik cafe in the quarters / I remember only poets, I thought were very cool , come back please .
Thanks for the memories. I arrived in the Village in the summer of '61 and came back to stay for a few years in '63. Washington Square fountain was my ad hoc motel some early mornings...nobody was allowed in the park at night. And, yes, I was a folksinger. Thanks again.
Commercialism, get em in get em out. The past is dead, inside our head, the future is our screen, watching in the here not now, a once that was our dream. I lived it, I loved it. East Village to West Village. Village Vanguard, Village Gate, Cafe Rianzi, and Cafe Figaro.
@@nexstory The Country is slipping fast into acute cultural insanity. I have a hard time with it every day. I was born in the wrong time. I still feel like a folkie hippie. I sing those songs and like colorful clothing. I don't fit in NOW. It's a crazy world. You were fortunate to have experienced that world. At that tie I got linked into a Religious cult and did not resurface for about 10 years and it took years to reprogram myself. Safe Journeys
@@wbworkout Very well put, "acute cultural insanity" where every possible addiction and distraction is shaped into major profit centers. Unfortunately, there is no going back, just forward into ??? My own take on it all is to make a difference where I can, just laugh or smile where I can't, and keep dancing no matter how the journey unfolds. Best on the path!
A very nice retrospect. When I was a lad I became aware of Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsburg, Lenny Bruce, associated with "The City" Strange people who had an equally strange pathos, and allure. Despite all the ancestors landing at Boston and boogying to Maine, NYC is "The City". Amazing place, and a gravitational nexus of weird. Yup, great appeal, weird. At best, it's Thoreau's different drum.Now ,present day, it's weird to believe in something, to aspire, to pray. As an ENTJ, I say, do your worst. Back in the day we used to say: "Don't trust anyone over 30." I'm wodering about calcified matrixed people over ? Hey, anyone who is 80 and still becoming is young. Anyone who is 26 and is "all set" is, maybe already, deeply aging.
Sax player at Trude Heller's was insanely good in this clip. What a time it was. Beatniks were a little naive, liberal, and quirky -- but you know what, they were creative, original, and I wish they were still around. They were special people in a very unique time. We have little bits still evident in clips like this and scenes in movies like "Breakfast at Tiffany's." For awhile in Greenwich Village in the early 60's it was a small reincarnation of Paris during the Roaring 20's -- before the crash. Alive with art, music, poetry, literature, soul music and a self-expression to not impress but be a free spirit. I caught the tail end of this time -- it was enough to leave me with a great impression of what a wonderful era it was. Before Kennedy's assassination -- when many things changed. The Hippies continued the mentality -- but they were too bogged down with protests, war, and racism to keep the creativity fresh and inspiring. The Village Voice, the SoHo News were going great guns. Dylan, Baez, Seeger, Phil Ochs, Van Ronk all gave it a good shot to keep it energized musically. They succeeded in some areas but not all. It slowly morphed into a "look at me," generation and the "community" melted away. That second coming was finally stabbed in the heart with the Manson murders in CA, RFK's assassination and Martin Luther King's. Fried to a crisp. Enter disco.
Before the Hippies, the folkies protested war, poverty, racism, conformity and big business in their songs. The "Art Show" has always been a joke. 95% of the artists do not come from the Village or even NYC. They drive in from the suburbs and park on the street with their wares.
@@hewitc - You're probably right chew itt. Many people I met uptown NYC in the early 70s & later in the Village during the 80s & 90s weren't from NYC or the Village -- but elsewhere. I worked with a girl who was from Houston, another from Paris, two from Russia & several from Long Island, NJ & CT. I seldom met someone who was born & raised in NYC (or admitted it). Bob Dylan was a Village person in the early days but he was from Minnesota. Phil Ochs was a big Village singer -- but he was from El Paso, TX.
Wow... here you can hear the origin of 'Freedom' from Richie Havens (Woodstock) or was it from Odetta? Or maybe a traditional folksong.. Gotta look it up.
Trouble is everything has to be 'instant' now . No working DIY with your ideas, falling flat and getting up again til it works. It's all about instant fame and having the best without putting in the leg work and effort .
So fantastic! Thank you for posting this gem of a film. Did you notice the young Barbra Streisand captured in one of the crowds spanned by the photographer in Washington Sq Park?
I remember the Beat Generation of the 1950’s and the beatniks who read Kerouac and listened to the cool jazz of Chet Baker. I was just a little kid in the 1950’s but I learned to stay away from teenage beatniks. Beatniks were mean sadistic violent teenagers who liked to hide and beat me up and knock me and other little kids down on the sidewalk. They were a bunch of cowards when 5 teenage beatniks had to beat up a little 8 year old boy to get their kicks. And these beatniks all worshipped Kerouac books so whenever I saw one of his books in a library or bookstore I tore out the pages and defaced his books as much as I could when no one was looking. It made me feel good to do this to the books of the beatniks god, Kerouac. The beatniks also liked the cool jazz of Chet Baker snd whenever I saw one of his records in a record store I would slash the record with a knife when no one was watching. The beatniks hated me and made fun of me because I liked early jazz as a kid and bought 78’s by Louis Armstrong and Bix Beiderbecke in a Salvation Army store. The teenage beatniks would wait for me walking home with my jazz 78’s and grab them from me and break them on the sidewalk then beat me up. I have hated Jack Kerouac and his mean sadistic violent followers my whole life. They are cowards who get their kicks beating up little kids like I was in the 1950’s. I just wish that as an adult I could have run into the god of these sadistic mean violent beatniks, Kerouac just once.
His novels and poetry are about living a life of peace or searching for it. Not a single thing promotes doing that to anybody or anything of the sort, so I'm pretty sure the kids in your neighborhood that you're talking about didn't understand a word of it, if they ever actually read him at all. And if you think Chet Baker inspires violence, well - I don't even know what to say to that. Anyway, sorry you had some bullies to deal with. Most of us do, growing up.
@@redadamearth Kerouac’s beat generation books were these mean teenage beatniks bible. I know because they quoted from them all the time. Other kids said they talked funny all the time. Their speech was quotes from his books. I don’t care what is in Kerouac’s books. The point is teenage beatniks had his book as his bible and mercilessly attacked me. Kerouac was their religion and they were violent, mean, sadistic, heartless people who knocked me on the ground and kicked me when I was 7 years old. These mean beatnik kids who beat me had Kerouac as their religion were the only people I had trouble with when I was a kid. Kerouac was their God and I just wish I could have met this Kerouac in a dark alley when I was an adult. I would have told him that he was the head of a twisted sick beat religion of doped up violent mean beatniks who attack little kids and I am going to give you some of your own medicine. They also liked Chet Baker whose music is nothing but worthless noise and they knew I liked Louis Armstrong and they called me a dumb square and made fun of me. They said I wasn’t hip. Modern cool jazz of Chet Baker is noise and I remember some kids and parents liked Louis Armstrong just like me and my parents said Cool jazz wasn’t even music. I have the general public on my side because if they hear Chet Baker and cool jazz they say it is worthless junk.
@@redadamearth if his books are about peace then why have the people I knew who read his books, the beatniks, are crazed malicious mean sadistic maniacs who like to attack a little kid like me in the 1950’s and hurt and laugh at me? This Kerouac was a God to them. When these beatniks talked it was quoting the gibberish crap in his books. I used to ask some older boys what is that junk you can’t understand that these beatniks say all the time. They said they are from this nut named Kerouac’s books. The told me Kerouac was a would be rebel writing a bunch of junk just to get attention and yell Hey Everybody look how different I am. I am a genius. The guy was a big phony with violent nut sadistic mean anti social followers
Kerouac was all about the sweet sorrow,thr recognition of existence as transitory,that its all so brief that we are essentially dead already therfore you should treat everyone with kindness and empathy. Kids are cruel because they don't know we''re all going to die.
Is that a Young Trude, playing tambourine at club at 8:01, Looks like her, I recognize that smile anywhere I worked at Trudy's 1979 , Waitress n dancer, Trude was an excellent Business Woman, Huge Heart and Smile Her White peddal pushers, matching loafers and turned up collard man taylored Shirt, She Was Sharp all around, Keen Eye In Recognizing Talent
It’s basically the fault of the American people. Americans prefer their suburban car culture. The idea of strong city culture somewhere in another region of the country is not likely to happen soon
@@roxannemoore3045 I love when people know a lot about something..I used to have his album with 'Hey Leroy...Yo' Mama's Calling you...she's MAD man..." Havent thought of that in decades.
I WAS THERE TWICE IN 65 SPEND A COUPLE OF NIGHTS IN THE GREENWICH VILLAGE HOTEL WHAT A DUMP BUT WE WE THERE FOR THE WEEKEND SO WHO CARED....CAME IN ON A FRIDAY NIGHT THE STREETS WERE PACK ..WHAT FUN I WAS 18 FROM WV
Could do with these times back now What exactly would one call the decade we are in now? We've had jazz era swing era depression era war era rock n roll era beatnik and hippy era and disco era and all came with it Any ideas out there??
The sun is like a bologna sandwich. Your eyes are two green olives and your lips call me to the moon. I dance like a crazy mongoose every time you wash my chickens, like some off-script warrior in the laundromat of life. My coffee cup is crying Because I decided to drink tea today. Now I feel bad.
Bleekers st. Lower, manhattans, new, york, cities, i... traveled too this areas of bleeker, st. There's a lowing d... shipping a shipped exports, goes out. And imports, come's in also it'snt safer there's it's a... tunnels, too i saw individ... the yrs, 1970s i was a teenagers, thats times this communities, remind me, of georges, twns, that,yrs, it'snt thats cheated too rentals, a ones bed room. And small kitchen living room, bathroom fews den not sure, maybe prices rentals, $650,00 dollars, $670,00 dollars, $780,00 dollars, thats yrs, 1970s
A very nice retrospect. When I was a lad I became aware of Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsburg, Lenny Bruce, associated with "The City" Strange people who had an equally strange pathos, and allure. Despite all the ancestors landing at Boston and boogying to Maine, NYC is "The City". Amazing place, and a gravitational nexus of weird. Yup, great appeal, weird. At best, it's Thoreau's different drum.Now ,present day, it's weird to believe in something, to aspire, to pray. As an ENTJ, I say, do your worst. Back in the day we used to say: "Don't trust anyone over 30." I'm wodering about calcified matrixed people over ? Hey, anyone who is 80 and still becoming is young. Anyone who is 26 and is "all set" is, maybe already, deeply aging.
