Small Town Talk

prologue: into the mystic

All quotes from author interviews with Artie Traum, Simone Felice, David Boyle, Ed Sanders, Maria Muldaur, Elliott Landy, Jonathan Donahue, Karl Berger, and Brian Hollander.

part one: a place i’d feel loose

1 the uneasy alliance

All quotes from author interviews with Robbie Dupree, Keith Reid, Elliott Landy, Maria Muldaur, Ed Sanders, Bruce Dorfman, Norma Cross, Jonathan Donahue, Cindy Cashdollar, and Brian Hollander, except as follows:

16 “Like Balboa, from his ‘peak in Darien,’”: Evers, Woodstock, 414.

18 “there are motives that bring opposites”: Hervey White quote from The Wild Hawk from Evers, Woodstock, 476.

19 “an uneasy alliance between art”: Evers, Woodstock, 476.

19 “If you come into Woodstock”: Quoted in Geertsema, “The Scene at Woodstock.”

19 “You people think you’ve invented it all”: Quoted in Blelock and Blelock, Roots of the 1969 Woodstock Festival, 44.

20 “the most cosmopolitan village in the world,”: quote from Evers, Woodstock, 604.

20 “you stoked your own wood stove”: Meyer, Night Studio, 38.

2 folk songs of the catskills

All quotes from author interviews with Mark McKenna, Richard Heppner, Dean Schambach, Billy Faier, Bruce Dorfman, Happy Traum, Maria Muldaur, Peter Yarrow, and Milton Glaser, except as follows:

26 “I must have been in Woodstock”: Ramblin’ Jack Elliott quote from Griffin, Million Dollar Bash, 19.

29 “For us it was an artists’ community,”: Jean Young quote from Blelock and Blelock, Roots of the 1969 Woodstock Festival, 43.

3 inside albert grossman

All quotes from author interviews with Billy Faier, Paul Fishkin, Barry Goldberg, Michael Friedman, Peter Yarrow, Jim Rooney, David Boyle, Jane Traum, Dean Schambach, Arline Cunningham, John Byrne Cooke, Milton Glaser, Norma Cross, Peter Walker, Ronnie Lyons, and Jonathan Taplin, except as follows:

31 “I got to Chicago,”: Heil, “Dave Van Ronk.”

31 “gross irregularities.”: Spitz, Dylan, 179.

31 “He couldn’t get a job very easily after that,”: Ibid., 564–565.

32 “He was a very generous man,”: Goldberg, “Albert Grossman.”

32 “If the audience wasn’t attentive”: O’Conner, “Albert Grossman’s Ghost.”

33 [Footnote] “Integrity bothered Albert,”: Spitz, Dylan, 178.

35 “He would simply stare at you”: Hadju, Positively Fourth Street, 56.

36 “Albert was a most interesting man,”: Einarson, Four Strong Winds, 68.

36 “He signed us as much for our looks”: Ibid., 67.

37 “Not your usual shopkeeper,”: Dylan, Chronicles, 97.

37 “a Cheshire cat in untouched acres”: Shelton, No Direction Home, 106.

37 “This was a real big deal”: Hadju, Positively Fourth Street, 96.

38 “I thought he was a terrible singer”: Ibid., 106.

38 “Albert wanted to get into music publishing”: Ibid., 106.

38 “general strangeness and mystique”: How Sweet the Sound.

39 “A lot of Albert did in fact turn up in Bob,”: Aronowitz, Bob Dylan and the Beatles, 250.

39 “The mere mention of Grossman’s name”: Dylan, Chronicles, 290.

40 “What you see today in the music business”: O’Conner, “Albert Grossman’s Ghost.”

4 “the greatest place”

All quotes from author interviews with Richard Heppner, Milton Glaser, Ronnie Lyons, Jonathan Taplin, Arline Cunningham, Peter Yarrow, Norma Cross, John Byrne Cooke, Jeremy Wilber, Paul Fishkin, Peter Walker, Daniel Kramer, John Hammond, Jr., Fern Malkine, Billy Faier, D. A. Pennebaker, David Boyle, Al Kooper, and Bruce Dorfman, except as follows:

42 [Footnote] “spied a house he liked”: Dylan, Chronicles, 116.

43 “a little two-room hut”: Delehant, “Impressions of Bob Dylan.”

43 “we stop the clouds, turn time back”: Dylan quote from Robert Shelton, No Direction Home, 166.

43 “Woodstock was a place”: Lost Songs.

44 [Footnote] “While we were watching The Seventh Seal”: Blelock and Blelock, Roots of the 1969 Woodstock Festival, 51–52.

44 “I had real upward mobility”: O’Conner, “Albert Grossman’s Ghost.”

45 “I believe in his genius,”: Rotolo, A Freewheelin’ Time, location 2787.

45 “I thought I was going to have a ball”: Merrill, “Mason Hoffenberg Gets in a Few Licks.”

46 “heart-stopping soprano voice”: How Sweet the Sound.

46 “I have rode alone”: Rotolo, A Freewheelin’ Time, location 2556.

46 “He was so relaxed then,”: Israel, “Dylan Returns Home with Friends.”

47 “We drove straight back”: Spitz, Dylan, 273–274.

47 “He kind of moved in with us”: Shelton, No Direction Home, 262.

48 “Bob sure knew how to maul me,”: Rotolo, A Freewheelin’ Time, location 2906.

48 “We all thought he was God,”: Aronowitz, Bob Dylan and the Beatles, 265.

48 “silent and creepy,”: Rotolo, A Freewheelin’ Time, location 2864.

49 [Footnote] “grew up together as kids in Minnesota”: Short, Interview with Bob Dylan.

50 “not going to sign with that fat pig.”: Hadju, Positively Fourth Street, 209.

5 boy in the bubble

All quotes from author interviews with John Byrne Cooke, Al Kooper, Billy Faier, D. A. Pennebaker, Norma Cross, Daniel Kramer, Al Aronowitz, Peter Coyote, and Paul Fishkin, except as follows:

51 “you had to brace yourself”: Dylan, Chronicles, 48.

51 “I could never figure out”: Aronowitz, Bob Dylan and the Beatles, 341.

52 “an asshole who bent over for quarters”: Maymudes and Maymudes, Another Side of Bob Dylan, 127.

52 “Don’t worry,”: Hadju, Positively Fourth Street, 247.

53 “He obviously fell for her,”: Ibid., 249.

53 “lovely blue nightgown”: Heylin, Bob Dylan, 167.

53 “a huge transparent bubble of ego.”: Baez, Daybreak, quoted in Scaduto, Bob Dylan, 202.

53 “You travel with an entourage now”: Silber, “Open Letter to Bob Dylan.”

54 “I want to meet him,”: Aronowitz, “Eyewitness.”

54 “very awkward, very demure.”: Miliard, “The Go-Between.”

55 “Obviously Bob liked Elvis Presley”: Helmore, Unpublished interview.

55 “[They] were a very special trio,”: Rotolo, A Freewheelin’ Time, locations 2972, 2865, and 2878.

55 “I think the whole Albert thing: Scaduto, Bob Dylan, 205.

56 “into a kind of piping whine”: Siegel, “Bob Dylan.”

57 “I came up with a nickname for Albert”: Goodman, The Mansion on the Hill, 94.

57 “going mad with it all.”: Hadju, Positively Fourth Street, 251–252.

58 “I was just trying to deal with the madness”: How Sweet the Sound.

6 something is happening

All quotes from author interviews with Al Kooper, Milton Glaser, Barry Goldberg, Harvey Brooks, Michael Friedman, Bruce Dorfman, Ronnie Lyons, Levon Helm, Rick Danko, D. A. Pennebaker, Al Aronowitz, Ed Sanders, and John Hammond Jr., except as follows:

59 “We had come up from New York,”: Crowe, Essay.

60 “He was so excited”: Miss Information, “Woodstock.”

61 “cawing, derisive voice.”: Larkin, Review of Highway 61 Revisited.

61 “They had gotten to the point”: Goodman, The Mansion on the Hill, 8–9.

62 “This was the Birth of Rock,”: Boyd, White Bicycles, 107.

63 “a rather persevering soul,”: Wenner, “Bob Dylan Talks.”

64 “I used to remember Albert”: Siegel, “Bob Dylan.”

64 “something very dangerous”: “An Interview with Phil Ochs.”

65 “the circumstance of one man”: DeLillo, Great Jones Street, 1.

65 “Dylan represented a certain milieu”: Bauldie, Wanted Man, 76.

66 “I got paranoid when I heard rumors”: Warhol and Hackett, POPism, 108.

67 “It broke my heart when Levon left,”: Gill, “The Band.”

68 [Footnote] “knew [Dylan] was playing with heroin,”: Spitz, Dylan, 344.

68 “It was a source of his power,”: Hadju, Positively Fourth Street, 282.

69 “That onstage posturing”: Fowles, A Concise History of Rock Music, 42.

part two: going up the country

7 hundred and forty dollar bash

All quotes from author interviews with D. A. Pennebaker, Peter Coyote, Danny Goldberg, Rick Danko, Al Aronowitz, Al Kooper, Happy Traum, Bruce Dorfman, Jonathan Taplin, Artie Traum, John Simon, Jeremy Wilber, Graham Blackburn, Al Kooper, Larry Campbell, Simone Felice, Garth Hudson, and Levon Helm, except as follows:

73 “the most commonly quoted crash site”: Perry and Gilnert, Fodor’s Rock & Roll Traveler USA, 57.

74 “[This] was the time that he was most caressed”: Holzman and Daws, Follow the Music, 341.

74 “he seemed like he was very high on speed”: Griffin, Million Dollar Bash, 69–70.

74 “comatose”: Spitz, Dylan, 366–367.

74 “Something’s gotta change,”: Fong-Torres, “Knockin’ on Bob Dylan’s Door.”

75 “I was driving right into the sun,”: Shepard, “A Short Life of Trouble,” 198–199.

75 “It was away from his ordinary life,”: Sounes, Down the Highway, 263.

76 “I just remember how bad”: Shepard, “A Short Life of Trouble,” 199.

76 “This accident may have been a good thing,”: Pearl, “The Mystery of Folk Singer Bob Dylan.”

77 “stared at the ceiling for a few months,”: Saal, “Dylan Is Back.”

77 “We were all trying to live a ‘normal life’”: Batson, “The Original Woodstock 1960’s Rock & Roll Band.”

78 “I suppose they were close enough”: Griffin, Million Dollar Bash, 64.

78 “Robbie called me up one day”: Lost Songs.

80 “typical basement, with pipes”: Ibid.

80 “We were dealing with men in their early twenties,”: Thomson, “If Your Memory Serves You Well.”

81 “They were a kick to do,”: Wenner, “Bob Dylan Talks.”

81 “It was the kind of music that made you feel”: Lost Songs.

81 “Bob would sit at the window”: Fleming, “The Secrets of the Sessions.”

82 “They seemed to be a million miles away,”: Lost Songs.

82 “You kind of look for ideas”: Ibid.

82 “I didn’t have nothing to say about myself,”: Ibid.

84 “It’s always interesting”: Ibid.

8 frankie and judas

All quotes from author interviews with Jonathan Taplin, Ian Kimmet, Linda Wortman, Peter Yarrow, Bruce Dorfman, D. A. Pennebaker, and Happy Traum, except as follows:

86 “is not seeing anybody”: This and all other Iachetta quotes in this chapter are from Iachetta, “Scarred Bob Dylan Is Comin’ Back.”

87 “Bob did not know”: Maymudes and Maymudes, Another Side of Bob Dylan, 128.

88 “I finally had to sue him,”: Shelton, No Direction Home, 379.

88 [Footnote] “Did Grossman rip off Dylan?”: Lefsetz, “Cowboys and Indies.”

88 “There is the music from Bob’s house”: Aronowitz, “Friends and Neighbors Just Call Us the Band.”

88 “the sound that Gordon Lightfoot was getting”: Wenner, “Bob Dylan Talks.”

89 “dealing with the devil in a fearful way”: Cott, “Bob Dylan.”

89 [Footnote] “wasn’t all the way for Al Grossman,”: Weberman, phone conversation.

90 [Footnote] “two writers were approaching.”: Goldstein, Another Little Piece of My Heart, 49.

90 “My first hint of bad blood boiling”: Aronowitz, Bob Dylan and the Beatles, 257.

90 “He calmed down,”: Scaduto, Bob Dylan, 258–259.

90 “far more friendly, far less distracted”: Heylin, Bob Dylan, 291.

90 “the ideal loving couple”: Aronowitz, Bob Dylan and the Beatles, 263.

91 [Footnote] “I don’t know,”: Landy, Dylan in Woodstock, 96.

91 [Footnote] “a primitive way of looking at things”: Dylan, Chronicles, 283.

92 “so changed, serene, smiling, oddly respectable”: Roxon, “The Woody Guthrie Concert.”

9 something to feel

All quotes from author interviews with Ken Mansfield, Rick Danko, Robbie Robertson, Al Kooper, Jim Weider, Elliott Landy, Artie Traum, Michael Friedman, Barbara O’Brien, Lucinda Hoyt, Jonathan Taplin, Happy Traum, and Bruce Dorfman, except as follows:

93 “just as Bob was leaving”: Helm, This Wheel’s on Fire, 160.

93 “I was there when Robbie realized”: Helmore, Unpublished interview.

94 [Footnote] “transports him out of the longed-for”: Roth, American Pastoral, 86.

95 [Footnote] “There was a Caravans song”: Haust, Liner notes.

95 “John Simon understood the recording console,”: Hoskyns, Across the Great Divide, 150.

95 “[It] came as a bit of a shock in 1968,”: Houghton, I’ve Always Kept a Unicorn, 187.

98 “Music From Big Pink is the kind of album”: Aronowitz, “Friends and Neighbors Just Call Us the Band.”

98 “Bob goes to bed every night by nine,”: Toby Thompson interview quoted in Cott, Dylan, 115.

98 “He’d like to be somewhere comfortable”: Scaduto, Bob Dylan, 209.

99 “totally frustrating and painful”: Love, “Bob Dylan.”

99 [Footnote] “My old lady Joey”: Spitz, Dylan, 389.

99 “It was strange”: White, Rock Lives, 170.

100 “Bob was an odd person,”: Thomson, George Harrison.

101 “Let’s get all the boys over on that side”: Ibid.

10 paint my mailbox blue

All quotes from author interviews with Artie Traum, Danny Goldberg, Milton Glaser, Graham Blackburn, Cindy Cashdollar, Jon Gershen, Richard Heppner, Robbie Dupree, Michael Lang, Keith Reid, Harvey Brooks, Jeremy Wilber, Dean Schambach, Fern Malkine, Lynne Naso, Mark McKenna, Daoud Shaw, David Boyle, Gary Klein, Warren Bernhardt, and Larry Packer, except as follows:

102 “The visibility unnerved me,”: “Philip Roth Unleashed, Part One.”

102 “a combination of social seclusion”: Roth, Shop Talk, 132.

102 “billboards, garages, diners”: Meyer, Night Studio, 174.

104 “We like that name”: Aronowitz, Bob Dylan and the Beatles, 277.

105 “tilling the land in the Catskill Mountains”: Goldstein, Another Little Piece of My Heart, 103.

105 “a town but more a name”: Evers, Woodstock, 668.

105 “I can’t say that Dylan”: Landy, Unpublished transcript.

106 “once in a while, after about his twelfth”: Blelock and Blelock, Roots of the 1969 Woodstock Festival, 57.

106 “The house is a beautiful country home”: Atlas, “Interview with Tim Hardin.”

111 “its sadness comes not from contemplation”: Sheff, “Suite for Tim and Damion Hardin.”

11 everybody’s apple pie

All quotes from author interviews with Happy Traum, Beverley Martyn, JoHanna Hall, Jeremy Wilber, Michael Friedman, Maria Muldaur, Bruce Dorfman, Dean Schambach, David Boyle, Robbie Dupree, Graham Blackburn, John Niven, and Peter Yarrow, except as follows:

114 [Footnote] “He proceeded to fall apart”: Wirth, “Interview with Al Stewart.”

114 [Footnote] “The last time I saw him,”: Houghton, I’ve Always Kept a Unicorn, 55.

115 “He didn’t want me to be seen”: Quotations of Martyn’s writings in this chapter are from her book Sweet Honesty.

116 “In many ways [it] achieves”: Quoted in Heylin, Bob Dylan, 302.

117 “I wanted to set fire to these people,”: Dylan, Chronicles, 117.

117 “went into the bucolic and mundane”: Dylan, Chronicles, 123.

117 “carrying this song around in my head”: Spitz, Dylan, 411.

12 combination of the two

All quotes from author interviews with Elliott Landy, Danny Goldberg, Paula Batson, Michael Friedman, Peter Coyote, Paul Fishkin, John Byrne Cooke, Jim Rooney, Linda Wortman, Norma Cross, Warren Bernhardt, Keith Reid, Ronnie Lyons, John Simon, Ed Sanders, Dean Schambach, Ian Kimmet, Jonathan Taplin, Geoff Muldaur, Maria Muldaur, Al Aronowitz, Bill Graham, Robbie Dupree, Larry Campbell, Garth Hudson, Al Kooper, Levon Helm, Libby Titus, Jeremy Wilber, and Rick Danko, except as follows:

120 “Only a fool would not smile back”: Zanes, Revolutions in Sound, 38.

121 [Footnote] “That man’s got to be heard,”: “Interview with Howard Alk.”

123 “trying to snag Janis”: Scully with Dalton, Living with the Dead, 103.

124 “The most well-founded charge”: Friedman, Buried Alive, 108.

124 “They were wonderful players”: Roeser, “Do What You Love.”

126 “betrayed”: O’Conner, “Albert Grossman’s Ghost.”

126 “That put him in a whole other category,”: Jennings, Before the Gold Rush, 203.

127 “burned out”: O’Conner, “Albert Grossman’s Ghost.”

130 “Everything in rock was kind of going”: Hoskyns, Across the Great Divide, 180.

130 “It was a time of year”: Baer, “The Band.”

132 “One night, Hoffenberg recalled”: Merrill, “Mason Hoffenberg Gets in a Few Licks.”

132 “They’d follow when [he] took me for rides”: Titus, “A Miraculous Recovery.”

132 [Footnote] “Though his relationship with Libby: Fagen, Eminent Hipsters, 127.

133 “Some of the other guys in the Band”: Roeser, “Do What You Love.”

13 brand new days

All quotes from author interviews with Van Morrison, Jon Gershen, Ted Templeman, John Payne, Keith Reid, Bob Schwaid, John Platania, Graham Blackburn, Elliott Landy, Jeremy Wilber, and Artie Traum, except as follows:

136 “a hateful little guy.”: Wash, “Astral Sojourn.”

137 “He was . . . suspicious of us and everybody”: Hoskyns, “The Eden Project.”

14 some way out of here

All quotes from author interviews with Christopher Parker, Daoud Shaw, Jon Gershen, Martha Velez, Lynne Naso, and Richard Heppner, except as follows:

142 “Dylan really turned me on,”: Lydon, Flashbacks, 70.

143 “He came in with these Dylan tapes,”: McDermott and Kramer, Hendrix, 136.

144 “Mike was taking a bunch of acid with Jimi,”: Black, Unpublished interview with Jim Marron.

144 “He was telling me about how he wanted”: Black, Unpublished interview with Juma Sultan.

144 “Nobody in Woodstock had a red Corvette,”: McDermott and Kramer, Hendrix, 266–267.

145 “puppies, daybreak, other innocentia,”: Weller, “Jimi Hendrix.”

146 “Mike Jeffery . . . did not like me”: Black, “The Kidnapping of Jimi Hendrix.”

147 “We tried to keep the groupies away”: Hopkins, Hit and Run.

147 “[Jimi] could see the point of expanding”: Jimi Hendrix.

147 “drunk most of the time”: Black, Unpublished interview with Juma Sultan.

147 “The band was grim”: Obrecht, “Jimi Hendrix.”

148 “If Jimi wanted to buy a car”: Black, Unpublished interview with Juma Sultan.

148 “as a warning to teach Jimi a lesson.”: Dannemann, The Inner World of Jimi Hendrix, 76–78.

148 “Jimi told me that he was trying”: Black, Unpublished interview with Claire Moriece.

149 “It was less than a week before the festival”: Landy, Unpublished transcript.

15 back to the garden

All quotes from author interviews with Stan Beinstein, Michael Lang, Keith Reid, Cindy Cashdollar, Ed Sanders, Elliott Landy, Jonathan Taplin, Mike Ephron, Steve Bernstein, and Paula Batson, except as follows:

152 “There will be a village”: Lang with George-Warren, The Road to Woodstock, 37.

153 “joyous, healing feel”: Ibid., 39.

153 “The spirit of the festival”: Turner, “By the Time I Got to Woodstock.”

153 “deloused and have their heads shaved”: Kovach, “Woodstock’s a Stage.”

153 “Now they call them hippies,”: “Meeting Held on Hippie Problem.”

154 “teeny boppers and overaged juveniles”: Geertsema, “The Scene at Woodstock.”

156 “romanticizing”: Lang with George-Warren, The Road to Woodstock, 118.

156 “[Michael] has a way of ingratiating”: Ibid., 120–121.

158 “been invited, so I know it’ll be okay”: Aronowitz, “Woodstock . . . Well, Dylan Likes the Name.”

158 “but I can’t remember anything about him.”: Aronowitz, Bob Dylan and the Beatles, 277.

158 [Footnote] “last time we played here”: Pareles, Review of Bob Dylan at Bethel Woods.

159 “You sit on the big stage”: Anson, Gone Crazy and Back Again, 128.

159 “I looked out there”: Lang and George-Warren, The Road to Woodstock, 233.

159 “He said, ‘“Snow White Lady”: Ibid., 189.

160 “We left by helicopter,”: McDermott and Kramer, Hendrix, 277.

162 “some low-level mafiosi”: Black, Unpublished interview with Juma Sultan.

162 [Footnote] “four or five mobsters”: Black, Unpublished interview with Jim Marron.

162 “It was basically a disaster,”: Black, Unpublished interview with Jerry Velez.

163 “Mike and his crew came in”: Black, Unpublished interview with Juma Sultan.

163 “It was an eerie scene,”: Crowe, Essay.

163 “I told Jimi I would be glad to introduce him”: Richie Havens, They Can’t Hide Us Anymore, cited in “Show Business Disease.”

164 “He’d become an embarrassment”: Smart and Moynihan, Rock and Woodstock, 76.

164 “financial problems”: Moscoso-Gongora, “Woodstock Was.”

164 “an odd memorial”: Smart and Moynihan, Rock and Woodstock, 76.

16 he’s not here

All quotes from author interviews with Richard Heppner, Martha Velez, Bruce Dorfman, Daoud Shaw, Cindy Cashdollar, Stan Beinstein, Maria Muldaur, Keith Reid, Bruce Dorfman, Larry Campbell, Jeremy Wilber, Ed Sanders, Michael Friedman, Al Kooper, Van Morrison, John Platania, Jon Gershen, Mary Martin, Graham Blackburn, Jim Rooney, Ted Templeman, Graham Parker, Warren Bernhardt, and Ed Freeman, except as follows:

165 “You see them arrive at the village green,”: Kaufman, “Woodstock Up Tight as Hippies Drift In.”

165 “We are not opposed to [them],”: Ibid.

166 “people living in trees outside my house”: Cohen, “Don’t Ask Me Nothin’ About Nothin’.”

167 “He was definitely into his kids”: Scaduto, Bob Dylan, 263.

167 “Woodstock had turned into a nightmare”: Dylan, Chronicles, 118.

168 “It became stale and disillusioning”: Rosenbaum, “The Playboy Interview.”

168 “the sum total of all [the] bullshit,”: Loder, “Bob Dylan.”

168 “these really strange characters”: Miss Information, “Woodstock.”

168 “the Woodstock Nation had overtaken”: Loder, “Bob Dylan.”

169 [Footnote] “the stupidest thing”: Dylan, Chronicles, 137.

170 [Footnote] “come to the conclusion”: Weberman quote from International Times 106, June 1971, quoted in Dallas, Singers of an Empty Day, 158.

170 “and then Woodstock started being”: Williams, 1973.

171 “get too happy,”: Heylin, Can You Feel the Silence?, 232.

172 “very human . . . there was no uptightness about it.”: Traum, “Van Morrison.”

172 “the old ladies got involved.”: Rogan, No Surrender, 257.

175 “The drinking thing”: Heylin, Can You Feel the Silence?, 220–221.

175 “I’ve got a problem,”: “Interview with Doug Messenger.”

177 “I drove him to the closing of the property,”: Wise, “Jerry Wapner Hangs Up His Shingle.”

17 oh lord won’t you buy me a mercedes benz

All quotes from author interviews with Barry Goldberg, Maria Muldaur, Geoff Muldaur, Gabe Butterfield, Lynne Naso, Christopher Parker, Graham Blackburn, Jim Weider, John Byrne Cooke, JoHanna Hall, Elliott Landy, D. A. Pennebaker, Peter Coyote, Ian Kimmet, Michael Friedman, David Dalton, Ed Sanders, and Ronnie Lyons, except as follows:

179 “In the blink of an eye,”: Milward, Crossroads, 73.

180 [Footnote] “used to be a time”: Von Schmidt and Rooney, Baby Let Me Follow You Down, 253.

180 “That was the dumbest introduction”: Sander, Trips, 60.

180 “It was thrilling, chilling,”: Holzman and Daws, Follow the Music, 113.

181 “I would’ve plugged my guitar”: Simmons, Essay, 17.

182 “The further Butter moved away”: Houghton, Becoming Elektra, 175.

183 [Footnote] “British rock and roll stars”: Evers, Woodstock, 656.

183 “Paul brought a lot of the great players”: Hollander, “The Survivor.”

184 “shaman mama”: Lydon, Rock Folk, 91.

184 “[she] was actually being merchandised”: Friedman, Buried Alive, 148–149.

185 “I love those guys more than anybody else”: Lydon, Rock Folk, 102.

185 “the elitist concept of ‘good musicianship’”: Willis, Out of the Vinyl Deeps, 129.

185 “We were all crushed,”: Roeser, “Do What You Love.”

186 “[Herald] was very much a typical”: Ibid.

187 “there was only the chasm”: Friedman, Buried Alive, 201.

187 “women endowed the idea of sexual liberation”: Willis, Out of the Vinyl Deeps, 126.

188 “I’ll whip enough piss out of you”: Hawkins with Godard, Last of the Good Ol’ Boys, 198.

189 “I knew that he really liked Janis,”: Roeser, “Do What You Love.”

190 “We left our egos at the train station,”: Festival Express.

part three: dangerous fun

18 if you build it

All quotes from author interviews with Michael Lang, John Simon, Paul Fishkin, John Storyk, Todd Rundgren, Paula Batson, Michael Friedman, John Holbrook, Jim Rooney, JoHanna Hall, Christopher Parker, Jonathan Taplin, Peter Walker, Jon Gershen, Maria Muldaur, Graham Blackburn, Daoud Shaw, Dean Schambach, Lucinda Hoyt, Robbie Dupree, Jonathan Donahue, and Happy Traum, except as follows:

196 “everyone’s talking about that now,”: Wenner, “Bob Dylan Talks.”

198 “The original intent”: Daley, “John Storyk: Thirty Years of Studio Design.” Mix, June 1, 1999.

198 “When Albert really started to live up here”: “Who’s Who in A&R at Bearsville.”

198 “The accountants moved up,”: Ibid.

199 “Ours were, as I recall”: Hund, “Taj Mahal.”

201 “doesn’t have a hand in producing”: Wenner, “Bob Dylan Talks.”

204 “The World’s Foremost Rock Music Tsar,”: Moscoso-Gongora, “Woodstock Was.”

205 “a small, terminally hip and incestuous universe”: Goodman, The Mansion on the Hill, 107.

205 “He gave Woodstock a new persona,”: Smart, “Bearsville’s Baron.”

205 “made [it] attractive for musicians”: Ibid.

19 the shape they’re in

All quotes from author interviews with Libby Titus, Jonathan Taplin, Peter Coyote, Rick Danko, Richard Heppner, Paul Fishkin, Paul Mozian, Maria Muldaur, John Simon, Michael Friedman, Geoff Muldaur, Levon Helm, Bill Graham, Artie Traum, Jim Rooney, Steve Bernstein, and Keith Reid, except as follows:

207 “The Band appeals to an intelligent segment”: Bender, “The Band.”

208 “Heroin was a problem,”: Hoskyns, Across the Great Divide, 232.

209 “This wonderful, nymphomaniac group”: Helm and Davis, This Wheel’s on Fire, 184.

210 “I thought, ‘Let’s have a little bit of a goof’”: Hoskyns, Across the Great Divide, 234.

210 “I found myself writing”: Ibid.

210 “pretty positive”: Smith, “The Band.”

210 [Footnote] “It turned into a game,”: Wale, Voxpop, 70.

211 “I did everything to get him to write,”: Hoskyns, Across the Great Divide, 236.

211 “Some of the shows were real good,”: Ibid., 235.

212 “It was frustrating, a horrible feeling,”: Spencer, Interview with Robbie Robertson.

212 “When I heard that song”: Petersen, Unpublished interview with Allen Toussaint.

213 “The record poses the question”: Hoskyns, Across the Great Divide, 254.

213 “One day when I came in”: Rooney, In It for the Long Run.

213 “Everybody had been so easily satisfied”: Baer, “The Band.”

214 “There’s this alignment that goes on”: Helmore, Unpublished interview.

215 “There were no houses around, just trees,”: Petersen, Unpublished interview with Allen Toussaint.

20 music among friends

All quotes from author interviews with James Lasdun, Jim Rooney, Geoff Muldaur, Mark McKenna, Jim Colegrove, Happy Traum, Graham Blackburn, Maria Muldaur, John Simon, Stan Beinstein, Larry Campbell, Jeremy Wilber, Harvey Brooks, Peter Walker, Michael Lang, and JoHanna Hall, except as follows:

216 “Two fiddles, a guitar, a banjo”: Lasdun, “Oh Death.”

219 “It was a peculiar marriage”: Unterberger, Liner notes.

219 “We were the darlings of that tour,”: Einarson, Four Strong Winds, 232.

219 “came crashing out of the woods”: Frame, “Muldaur Garrett Keith ’n’ Rooney.”

222 “remember anyone with a steady old lady”: Ibid.

222 “Can you come into the city tomorrow”: Traum, “A Recording Session with Bob Dylan.”

225 “I still like the ‘back-to-the-country’ idea”: Yarg, “Individually Yours.”

226 “favorite singer in the place,”: Dylan, Chronicles, 12.

226 “favorite female vocalist.”: Stampfel, Liner notes.

226 “She’s disappeared now,”: “Fred Neil: Where’s It All Going?”

226 “She wasn’t Billie Holiday,”: Unterberger, “Karen Dalton.”

226 “the only folk singer I ever met”: Stampfel, Liner notes.

228 “Bob was one of those people”: Walker, Karen Dalton, 6.

21 the ballad of todd and albert

All quotes from author interviews with Sally Grossman, Michael Friedman, Todd Rundgren, Lucinda Hoyt, Paul Fishkin, JoHanna Hall, Patti Smith, Jim Rooney, Jim Colegrove, Bebe Buell, Paul Mozian, Danny Goldberg, John Holbrook, Mark McKenna, John Storyk, and Barry Goldberg, except as follows:

231 “I think Jesse Winchester”: Myers, A Wizard, a True Star, 36.

233 “I was imitating Richard Manuel”: Ibid., 47.

234 “I think it’s because somebody said”: Ibid., 59.

234 “wanted four times the money he deserved.”: Leviton, “Badfinger at the Crossroads.”

234 “rude and obnoxious.”: Myers, A Wizard, a True Star, 64.

236 “Yeah, the guys really seem to like Cindy,”: Buell with Bockris, Rebel Heart, 44–45.

237 “Bearsville was a small company”: Skelly, “An Interview with Lonesome Dave Peverett.”

238 “He was an interesting man”: Wise, “Jerry Wapner Hangs Up His Shingle.”

22 “creativity and ferment”

All quotes from author interviews with Jonathan Donahue, Ed Sanders, Karl Berger, Steve Bernstein, John Simon, Lynne Naso, Warren Bernhardt, and Mark McKenna, except as follows:

243 “People were more relaxed”: Van Trikt, “Karl Berger.”

244 “Some of the best people”: Panken, “Karl Berger and Ingrid Sertso.”

244 “The CMS became a woodsy outpost”: Hermes, Love Goes to Buildings on Fire, 122.

244 “Even before you get to CMS”: Sweet, Music Universe, Music Mind, 41–42.

244 “a totally unique place in the world”: Ratliff, “Creative Music Studio.”

244 “It’s not like you go to a music school”: Panken, “Karl Berger and Ingrid Sertso.”

246 “we really were running”: Sweet, Music Universe, Music Mind, 90.

247 “The kids of the nineties”: Panken, “Karl Berger and Ingrid Sertso.”

247 “I’ve lived in pretty rural places”: The Making of Jeff Buckley’s “Grace.”

23 in a good place now

All quotes from author interviews with Jim Colegrove, Jonathan Donahue, Paula Batson, Jonathan Taplin, Robbie Dupree, Jim Rooney, Jeremy Wilber, Christopher Parker, Paul Fishkin, Barbara O’Brien, Maria Muldaur, Amos Garrett, Jim Weider, Lynne Naso, Graham Blackburn, and Geoff Muldaur, except as follows:

250 “You learn to live with the underground”: Bollinger, Unpublished interview.

250 “remote and near nowhere in particular.”: Welton, “When Hardy Settlers Decide to Stay.”

250 “One morning I was at the Laundromat,”: Bollinger, Unpublished interview.

250 “One afternoon, Colegrove and N.D.”: Rooney, In It for the Long Run.

251 “It entered my heart”: Ibid.

251 “She’s such a free spirit,”: Petersen, Unpublished interview.

251 “Albert said he would”: Bollinger, Unpublished interview.

252 “Someone brought Fred Neil along,”: Rooney, In It for the Long Run.

254 “That was another song we did”: Bollinger, Unpublished interview.

255 “The very first thing [Albert] did”: Rebennack with Rummel, Under a Hoodoo Moon, 181–185.

257 “knew that Butterfield was his ward”: Goodman, The Mansion on the Hill, 107.

258 “It was remote, cold and creepy,” Ellis III, “Paul Butterfield.”

259 “They were bitching and moaning,”: Goodman, The Mansion on the Hill, 106.

260 “We’re the only band around”: “AllMusic Review.”

260 “It was definitely the furthest”: Ellis III, “Paul Butterfield.”

261 “He and I didn’t get along at all,”: Escott, Liner notes.

261 “I’ve been to his house recently,”: Broven, South to Louisiana, 185.

24 “dope, music, and beauty”

All quotes from author interviews with Happy Traum, Robbie Dupree, Jeremy Wilber, Christopher Parker, Jim Weider, Michael Friedman, Jon Gershen, Jim Colegrove, John Simon, JoHanna Hall, Bonnie Raitt, Stan Beinstein, Amos Garrett, Jim Rooney, Libby Titus, Jane Manuel, Robbie Robertson, and Jonathan Taplin, except as follows:

262 “the Woodstock pop-music boom”: Moscoso-Gongora, “Woodstock Was.”

262 “Everyone is plying his tapes,”: Ibid.

265 “They were real good”: Frame, “Muldaur Garrett Keith ’n’ Rooney.”

270 “My mom left New York in 1970”: LaBruce, “Terry Richardson.”

270 “everything people ought to want”: Marcus, Mystery Train, 63.

271 “like a private club”: Marcus, Mystery Train, 64.

271 “really fucked up.”: Merrill, “Mason Hoffenberg Gets in a Few Licks.”

272 [Footnote] “You cocksucking little limey sonofabitch,”: Scully with Dalton, Living with the Dead, 271.

272 “managerial ties”: Salvo, “Playing in the Band.”

273 “an emotionless trip”: Crowe, Essay.

273 “pulsing, cracking, shaking,”: Fong-Torres, “A Restful Farewell to Tour ’74.”

273 “The most significant thing about the ’74 tour”: Hoskyns, Across the Great Divide, 293.

273 “I found the show powerful”: Alterman and Fong-Torres, “Bob Dylan’s Star-Studded Homecoming.”

273 “a branch of that old nastiness”: Fong-Torres, “A Restful Farewell to Tour ’74.”

274 “The last time I went back”: Frame, “Muldaur Garrett Keith ’n’ Rooney.”

25 a hermit, a true star

All quotes from author interviews with Todd Rundgren, Bebe Buell, Paul Fishkin, Michael Friedman, Sally Grossman, John Holbrook, Mark McKenna, Lucinda Hoyt, John Storyk, Linda Wortman, Kasim Sulton, Paul Mozian, D. A. Pennebaker, Ian Kimmet, Cindy Cashdollar, Danny Goldberg, Ed Sanders, Linda Sheldon, JoHanna Hall, Robbie Dupree, Jules Shear, and Patti Smith, except as follows:

276 “Todd’s willingness to self-sabotage”: Grossweiner and Cohen, “Industry Profile.”

276 “I don’t think Albert kept that kind of distinction”: Myers, A Wizard, a True Star, 41.

280 “squirreling about in the backyard”: Duncan, “Todd Rundgren.”

280 “the scene”: Ibid.

285 “tried desperately to keep the room”: Traum, “My Recording Session with Peter Tosh (and the Stones).”

288 “being tied up in a bag”: Rundgren quote from author interview with Mark McKenna.

289 “It was a horrifying violation,”: Myers, A Wizard, a True Star, 208.

289 “His people skills are like Hermann Goering’s,”: Wirth, “Interview with Andy Partridge.”

26 tuesday night fever

All quotes from author interviews with Brian Hollander, Cindy Cashdollar, Michael Lang, Valma Offord, Jim Weider, Martha Velez, Ian Kimmet, Peter Walker, Christopher Parker, Harvey Brooks, Jane Traum, Kasim Sulton, “Disco” Linda Sheldon, Stan Beinstein, and Eddy Offord, except as follows:

296 “Almost all the business owners”: Frankel, “The Joyous Lake.”

296 “it was where Woodstock met the jet set”: Woodstock: Can’t Get There From Here.

299 “demented, brain-damaged boxers”: Frankel, “The Joyous Lake.”

299 “about to tear it down,”: Woodstock: Can’t Get There From Here.

27 forbidden fruit

All quotes from author interviews with Levon Helm, Libby Titus, Peter Coyote, Ronnie Lyons, Peter Yarrow, Robbie Robertson, Robbie Dupree, Geoff Muldaur, Kasim Sulton, Valma Merians, Barry Goldberg, Lynne Naso, Jim Rooney, Gabe Butterfield, Danny Goldberg, Mark McKenna, Ian Kimmet, Paul Mozian, Liz Butterfield, John Simon, Al Aronowitz, Stan Beinstein, Jonathan Donahue, Michael Friedman, Jeremy Wilber, and Aaron Hurwitz, except as follows:

301 “He had a face like a king,”: Petersen, Unpublished interview with Bobby Charles.

306 “hip tension”: Meisel, “The Woodstock Myth.”

307 “[Paul] looked me right in the eyes”: Ellis III, “Paul Butterfield.”

308 “It would have been nice to say”: Ibid.

309 [Footnote] “A successful alcoholic”: Sullivan, “Interview with Rick Danko.”

309 “Instead of coming up with new material”: Gabites, “The Truth, the Whole Truth and Nothing but the Truth.”

310 “There were some times”: Jordan, “Backtalk with Levon Helm.”

310 [Footnote] “has been defamed”: From a letter included in Aronowitz, The Blacklisted Masterpieces of Al Aronowitz.

310 [Footnote] “Tom [Pacheco] came and sang”: Aronowitz, “Tom Pacheco Honors Al Aronowitz with a Heartfelt Tribute.”

311 “irked to the point of telling”: Spencer, Interview with Richard Manuel.

311 “That’s really what broke the Band up”: Gill, “The Band.”

312 “A lot of people worried about”: Ellis III, “Paul Butterfield.”

312 “He looked terrible”: Ibid.

312 “I went to his funeral”: Ibid.

28 broken heart

All quotes from author interviews with Al Aronowitz, Ian Kimmet, Kasim Sulton, Robbie Dupree, Cindy Cashdollar, Lucinda Hoyt, Mark McKenna, John Holbrook, David Boyle, Ronnie Lyons, Paul Mozian, Peter Yarrow, Dean Schambach, John Simon, Rick Danko, Ed Sanders, John Storyk, Michael Friedman, and Barbara O’Brien, except as follows:

313 “creased old man”: Morley, “Utopia in Woodstock.”

316 “It was a Who’s Who”: Medenbach, “A Beacon in Bearsville.”

317 “I guess we must,”: O’Conner, “Albert Grossman’s Ghost.”

318 “Albert’s only comment”: Ibid.

318 “I’d loved Bearsville’s output”: Holsapple, “Anatomy of a Flop.”

319 “After listening to me silently”: Ibid.

319 “rock and roll’s Citizen Kane,”: O’Conner, “Albert Grossman’s Ghost.”

321 “I ran into Levon once”: Helmore, Unpublished interview.

321 “He got what he deserved,”: Author interview with Kasim Sulton.

322 “He wasn’t a very nice man,”: Spitz, Dylan, 176.

epilogue: “how does that old song go?”

All quotes from author interviews with John Storyk, Mark McKenna, JoHanna Hall, Michael Lang, Peter Yarrow, Ian Kimmet, Ronnie Lyons, Marshall Crenshaw, Jules Shear, Paul Mozian, Jim Weider, Graham Parker, Rick Danko, Robbie Dupree, Jonathan Donahue, Grasshopper, Tony Fletcher, Simone Felice, John Holbrook, Karl Berger, Jim Rooney, Ed Sanders, Artie Traum, Richard Heppner, Milton Glaser, Geoff Muldaur, Bruce Dorfman, and Brian Hollander, except as follows:

328 [Footnote] “Nobody really wants to charge their friends”: Brown, American Heartbeat, 23.

337 “I’m not from here”: James McMurtry, “I’m Not from Here.” Used with kind permission of James McMurtry, with thanks to Jenni Finlay.

coda: didn’t he ramble

All quotes from author interviews with Levon Helm, Happy Traum, Ian Kimmet, Garth Hudson, Stan Beinstein, Grasshopper, Steve Bernstein, Barbara O’Brien, John Simon, Larry Campbell, Paul Fishkin, Marshall Crenshaw, Brian Hollander, Robbie Robertson, Jonathan Donahue, and Rick Danko, except as follows:

344 “I sat with Levon for a good while”: Robbie Robertson, post on Facebook, April 18, 2012.

344 “The story is much more complex”: Libby Titus-Fagen, email to the author, April 25, 2012.

345 “I don’t wish to denigrate”: Van Wagenen, Letter.