"I don't think I went a year or so without a record between 1959 and 1979, sometimes two"
About this Quote
It’s a brag, but it’s the kind folk musicians make with a shrug: not about charts, about stamina. Dave Van Ronk’s casual math - “a year or so,” “sometimes two” - turns a 20-year stretch into a workman’s calendar, the way a union guy might count seasons on a job. The intent isn’t to dazzle you with productivity so much as to normalize it. Recording isn’t portrayed as a lightning strike; it’s what you do if you’re in the circuit, paying rent, staying visible, keeping the songs moving.
The subtext is the difference between fame and presence. Van Ronk’s whole legend sits in that gap: a central figure in the Greenwich Village folk scene, a “mayor” more than a marquee, influential enough to shape peers and repertoires even when others got the big commercial moment. So the line quietly reframes success away from celebrity and toward continuity. He’s measuring a life in output because the culture he came up in rewarded persistence, not virality.
The dates do heavy lifting. 1959 to 1979 covers folk’s boom, its politicization, Dylan’s electrification, the British Invasion, the singer-songwriter era, the acid-rock hangover. Van Ronk’s point is that he stayed in the room through all of it. “Sometimes two” hints at the hustle behind the romance: live gigs, small labels, shifting tastes, the perpetual need to put another artifact on the table that says, I’m still here, and the tradition is, too.
The subtext is the difference between fame and presence. Van Ronk’s whole legend sits in that gap: a central figure in the Greenwich Village folk scene, a “mayor” more than a marquee, influential enough to shape peers and repertoires even when others got the big commercial moment. So the line quietly reframes success away from celebrity and toward continuity. He’s measuring a life in output because the culture he came up in rewarded persistence, not virality.
The dates do heavy lifting. 1959 to 1979 covers folk’s boom, its politicization, Dylan’s electrification, the British Invasion, the singer-songwriter era, the acid-rock hangover. Van Ronk’s point is that he stayed in the room through all of it. “Sometimes two” hints at the hustle behind the romance: live gigs, small labels, shifting tastes, the perpetual need to put another artifact on the table that says, I’m still here, and the tradition is, too.
Quote Details
| Topic | Music |
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