A review by bgg616
The Mayor of Macdougal Street by Dave Van Ronk, Elijah Wald

4.0

I really enjoyed the inside story of Greenwich Village in the late 50's and 60's. Dave Van Ronk was there, and met "everybody" in the music scene. I learned a lot I never knew, particularly about the conflict between the clean cut "folk singers" and the scruffy, more authentic singers like Van Ronk. He also goes into a lot of detail about the transition from singing old or folk songs, including the blues, and singer songwriters like Joni Mitchell. This memoir was written near the end of his life, and could have been more extensive if he had had the time to write more or another book.
I listened to the audiobook and although the narrator was competent, I felt his voice was too mellow and nice for the memoir.