The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #95444 Message #1856298
Posted By: Jerry Rasmussen
11-Oct-06 - 07:18 PM
Thread Name: The 60's in Greenwich Village & Berkeley
Subject: RE: The 60's in Greenwich Village & Berkely
Hey, Marty:
Yes, I knew Roy Berkley. As a matter of fact, when groups were materializing out of thin air, Roy got me and Maria Muldaur together one evening to see if we could play together. It sounds more like a weird dream to me now, looking back on it. It certainly didn't take very long to find out that we would make a horrible combination.
Roy went on after that and formed a string band ... was it the Old Reliable String Band, that cut one album for Folkways? (I think.)
The ghosts of Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland on a drug-induced trip hung over the Village in the early 60's with a variant of "Let's put on a show," being "Let's form a group!"
The thing about Greenwich Village that attracted me as much as the music, was the willingness to accept people (for the most part) as they were. Like a large Mister Rogers Neighborhood. I'd always felt a little foreign to the planet in those days. When I first "Discovered" the Village, I felt immediately at home, even though I was a clean machine and not into drugs or hopping into the sack with every 14 year old runaway girl from Tenafly. Somehow, it didn't seem to make a difference. The only other time in my life where I felt immediately at home in a new environment was the first time I went to a black Baptist Church. Go figure. I guess that in both instances, I felt comfortable being who I was, with no pretences. I think that the folk community has always been very giving in that way, and despite some sniping that goes on here, I think it's true of the Cat, as well. That's nothing to take for granted.
Jerry