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Re: Digest for JackKe-@topica.com, issue 100
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john lynch
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Aug 17, 2004 07:19 PDT
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Of possible interest, Donovan, a 60s folksinger and
pop artist, sort of the first Latest Dylan of what was
to be a long long long string of Latest Dylans, and
who recorded "Catch the Wind", "Universal Soldier",
"Sunshine Superman", "Mellow Yellow", and "There Is a
Mountain" [which became an Allman Brothers jam] has a
new album, "Beat Cafe"
Here is a link to a Reuters story mentioning, as well
as a tinyurl.com link:
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040815/music_nm/music_donovan_dc_1
http://tinyurl.com/4ep3a
The article is mainly talking about how "Lalena" in
the song of the same name was inspired by Lotte Lenya,
Kurt Weill's wife, who many may remember more as Rosa
Klebb in the early James Bond movie "From Russia With
Love", and who "Dippy" in "Epistle to Dippy" was, but
here is the text on "Beat Cafe":
Bohemia, of course, is central to the concept of "Beat
Cafe" -- and Donovan's offbeat release strategy.
"When I realized that what I was presenting was a
bohemian manifesto, I set the media dial to 'beat,"'
he explains. "And what is 'beat'? Cheaply printed
books in underground book shops, read by poets in the
simple little cafes, coffeehouses and bohemian
hangouts. So I thought it would have to be presented
in that context, and found a passionate label with
socially conscious artists like Pete Seeger and Roger
McGuinn (news). And then the launch had to be in small
venues where we could re-create the atmosphere of
'Beat Cafe."'
BEAT GENERATION
Donovan enlisted local pop scenester Richard Barone
(news) to read the opening of Allen Ginsburg's
landmark beat poem "Howl" at Joe's Pub. In the Beat
Generation's epicenter, San Francisco, he brought out
surviving beat poet Michael McClure.
"I wanted to show that the '60s could not have had its
freedoms without the Beat Generation of the '40s and
'50s," Donovan says. "The '60s songsmiths were fully
informed by the bohemian poets. But it's still
happening: There's a plethora of young, hip new
writers who are tipping their hats to we writers of
the '60s, saying, 'We were fed by you, nurtured by
your work."'
But the "beat cafe" of today, Donovan notes, is more
"a state of mind," or "a virtual beat cafe" a la
arts/culture Web site getunderground.com. "The actual
cafe may have passed into history, but I still want to
promote the bohemian idea of the '60s -- the
rediscovery of the roots of folk music and the power
of poetry married with the pop world."
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