WEBVTT - David Bromberg 0:00:08.600 --> 0:00:12.520 Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to the Bob left Such Podcast. 0:00:13.119 --> 0:00:18.119 My guest today is the one and only David Bromberg. David, 0:00:18.760 --> 0:00:22.560 you're having what is billed as your final concert April 0:00:22.640 --> 0:00:26.400 tenth at the Beacon. How and why is it your 0:00:26.440 --> 0:00:27.160 final show? 0:00:28.840 --> 0:00:36.640 Well, I'm seventy eight, and there's a lot of parts 0:00:36.680 --> 0:00:40.040 about touring that are hard on this seventy eight year 0:00:40.080 --> 0:00:44.839 old body, and so I felt I kind of had 0:00:44.880 --> 0:00:50.680 to stop. But you know, I've always said I'm not 0:00:50.720 --> 0:00:54.440 the one and only David Bromberg. There were seven David 0:00:54.480 --> 0:00:57.080 Brombergs before me. You know. You know, in this business, 0:00:57.120 --> 0:00:58.600 how do you get in the business? You buy your 0:00:58.600 --> 0:01:00.920 way in. And I didn't have a lot of money, 0:01:01.280 --> 0:01:04.120 so all I could buy was David Bramberg. And now 0:01:04.120 --> 0:01:06.319 that I've had it for a while, it's not worth 0:01:06.360 --> 0:01:07.880 anything anymore. I couldn't sell it. 0:01:09.280 --> 0:01:13.160 Ah, Okay, are you known for your sense of humor? 0:01:13.200 --> 0:01:14.440 We've never talked before. 0:01:15.959 --> 0:01:20.080 Oh, I'm sorry. I don't know if I'm known from 0:01:20.680 --> 0:01:22.640 I don't know if I'm known at all. I think 0:01:22.760 --> 0:01:25.679 on the whole I've remained anonymous. 0:01:26.200 --> 0:01:28.639 I wouldn't say that's the case, because I certainly remember 0:01:28.680 --> 0:01:30.720 when your first album came out in Columbia with the 0:01:30.720 --> 0:01:34.120 white cover, etc. Let's get back to the show, but 0:01:34.160 --> 0:01:39.760 I want to talk specifically about you essentially parking your 0:01:39.840 --> 0:01:44.559 career to get into the violin business. Tell me about 0:01:44.600 --> 0:01:45.440 that decision. 0:01:46.920 --> 0:01:52.520 Well, I got burnt out. But now bear in mind 0:01:52.560 --> 0:01:56.320 I never said I was smart, and I didn't figure 0:01:56.360 --> 0:01:58.760 it was burnout. I thought I could never burn out. 0:02:00.200 --> 0:02:03.280 I thought maybe I was really wrong and that I 0:02:03.360 --> 0:02:07.080 shouldn't be doing it at all. I didn't want to 0:02:07.120 --> 0:02:09.320 be one of these guys who drags himself on stage 0:02:09.360 --> 0:02:12.880 and does a bad impression of what he remembers he 0:02:13.000 --> 0:02:18.600 used to do. And I was burnt out. Really, if 0:02:18.639 --> 0:02:22.960 I'd taken a break for six or nine months and 0:02:23.080 --> 0:02:26.120 come back, it would have been fine. I took twenty 0:02:26.120 --> 0:02:30.400 two years instead because I found a different life for myself. 0:02:32.480 --> 0:02:36.320 Okay, but very specifically, how did you come to the conclusion, 0:02:36.400 --> 0:02:39.519 Because this is a business that most people never stop, 0:02:39.760 --> 0:02:40.480 never give up. 0:02:41.840 --> 0:02:45.440 How did I come to the conclusion. Well, I don't 0:02:45.480 --> 0:02:51.680 know how to answer that. It manifested itself. What are 0:02:51.720 --> 0:02:57.040 you doing doing this if it doesn't feed whatever it 0:02:57.080 --> 0:03:03.799 fed before? I was doing a show first, I should 0:03:03.800 --> 0:03:06.000 explain to you that I've never had a set list. 0:03:07.000 --> 0:03:08.799 I just think of the tune I want to play, 0:03:08.800 --> 0:03:11.080 and I play it. And I was doing a show 0:03:11.120 --> 0:03:14.760 in New Jersey and I couldn't think of anything I 0:03:14.800 --> 0:03:17.320 wanted to play. And the truth is I didn't want 0:03:17.360 --> 0:03:21.480 to play. And when I confronted that, it told me 0:03:21.600 --> 0:03:22.639 I should be stopping. 0:03:25.000 --> 0:03:29.720 Okay, you had that gig in New Jersey. In retrospect, 0:03:30.080 --> 0:03:32.760 did you have hints this was going to happen or 0:03:32.840 --> 0:03:35.320 was it like this just this one show hit you. 0:03:38.280 --> 0:03:42.560 I didn't really have hints, but I should let you 0:03:42.640 --> 0:03:47.800 know that I'm not a very observant human, and things 0:03:47.800 --> 0:03:53.160 that would point certain conclusions out to other people I 0:03:53.280 --> 0:03:58.560 blithely let fly by. So I can't recall any other hints. 0:03:59.040 --> 0:04:01.480 Tell me more about my being an observing person. 0:04:02.800 --> 0:04:09.360 Oh boy, people will will put one and one together 0:04:09.440 --> 0:04:12.839 and get two, and I don't see one or one. 0:04:14.560 --> 0:04:17.600 It's difficult to explain beyond that. 0:04:19.400 --> 0:04:22.320 Well, is this something that has haunted you your whole 0:04:22.400 --> 0:04:25.880 life or these just on big decisions. 0:04:27.720 --> 0:04:31.159 No, this is something that's haunted me my whole life. 0:04:31.200 --> 0:04:35.200 And I have a therapist, so I'm not going to 0:04:35.240 --> 0:04:36.120 get into it with you. 0:04:37.440 --> 0:04:41.320 Okay, you're a therapist. Have you always been in therapy 0:04:41.400 --> 0:04:42.480 or is that something recent? 0:04:44.240 --> 0:04:48.760 I was in therapy when I lived in Chicago, and 0:04:48.800 --> 0:04:53.160 then I moved to Wilmington, Delaware, and I was only 0:04:53.200 --> 0:04:58.200 for the briefest period found a therapist in Philadelphia, but 0:05:00.160 --> 0:05:03.840 wasn't going anywhere, and so recently I've started again. So 0:05:03.880 --> 0:05:08.720 there's been a basically a twenty year twenty two year 0:05:08.839 --> 0:05:13.640 gap between me having any serious therapy. 0:05:14.600 --> 0:05:17.919 Well, it's very hard as someone who's in therapy for 0:05:17.960 --> 0:05:20.000 a long time, and to the state, it's very hard 0:05:20.040 --> 0:05:22.480 to find a good therapist. And the more you know, 0:05:22.560 --> 0:05:24.400 the harder it is. How'd you find one? 0:05:25.360 --> 0:05:29.160 I had a friend who I trust, who has always 0:05:29.160 --> 0:05:32.440 referred me to the best doctors, refer me to a 0:05:32.520 --> 0:05:36.400 therapist who couldn't take me on, but recommended another therapist. 0:05:36.760 --> 0:05:39.960 And I called that therapist and she's really good. 0:05:40.839 --> 0:05:42.479 And is there any issue of medication? 0:05:44.240 --> 0:05:47.880 Yeah, I have to find a psychiatrist who will prescribe, 0:05:47.920 --> 0:05:54.279 because I've been taking antidepressant drugs now for a very 0:05:54.360 --> 0:05:58.120 long time, and I'm not sure that's the right thing, 0:05:58.200 --> 0:06:00.680 because depression really jumped on me recently. 0:06:01.560 --> 0:06:08.599 Really, can you tell me more about that. No, okay, 0:06:10.480 --> 0:06:15.480 so was this something? You know? It's funny because Bruce 0:06:15.520 --> 0:06:19.839 Springsteen mentioned I believe in his book that he was 0:06:19.880 --> 0:06:23.920 on antidepressants. And for someone I'm a little bit younger 0:06:23.960 --> 0:06:29.480 than you, but not that much. I'm seventy and sixty 0:06:29.560 --> 0:06:33.160 really fucked me up. And I just turned seventy recently. 0:06:33.960 --> 0:06:37.839 And it's very disorienting because, like, when you're sixty, you 0:06:37.880 --> 0:06:40.480 realize everything you've been told is basically bullshit, Like you 0:06:40.560 --> 0:06:42.240 find out it you don't have to buy this serially, 0:06:42.200 --> 0:06:44.400 you don't have to go to see that movie. If 0:06:44.440 --> 0:06:49.400 it's good, you'll find out. And when you're seventy, you realize, now, 0:06:49.520 --> 0:06:53.039 wait a second, what was important to begin with it? 0:06:53.040 --> 0:06:53.960 It is depressing. 0:06:55.760 --> 0:07:03.600 Well, yeah, I have a lot of remnants of a 0:07:03.720 --> 0:07:12.800 rather peculiar childhood, and I think that's responsible for the therapy. 0:07:14.080 --> 0:07:15.679 My father was a psychiatrist. 0:07:16.640 --> 0:07:20.280 Really, they say that shrinks have the most screwed up kids. 0:07:21.280 --> 0:07:24.400 Well, I think that may be true. I've heard it 0:07:24.440 --> 0:07:29.680 said that doctors always resemble their specialty. That is that 0:07:30.760 --> 0:07:34.880 pediatricians are kind of childish and you know like that. 0:07:35.000 --> 0:07:41.280 But my dad, my dad became a psychiatrist for reasons 0:07:41.320 --> 0:07:46.520 because he was raised his mother was a monster. A monster. 0:07:46.680 --> 0:07:51.520 That's that's pretty definitive. Since she was your grandmother. Why 0:07:51.640 --> 0:07:52.360 was she a monster? 0:07:54.200 --> 0:08:00.720 Oh boy? My grandmother was the first ange knew of 0:08:00.760 --> 0:08:06.960 the Yiddish theater in Europe because her father had the 0:08:06.960 --> 0:08:12.120 first touring group that performed in Yiddish. So she performed 0:08:12.120 --> 0:08:14.680 with Tomashevsky and all of Grace. As a matter of fact, 0:08:14.680 --> 0:08:19.119 if the script called for infants, my father and Paul 0:08:19.200 --> 0:08:27.640 Muni were the two who were used as children. So 0:08:31.240 --> 0:08:35.559 she was you know, I really don't want to get 0:08:35.600 --> 0:08:39.880 into bed mouthing my family. She was difficult. She thought 0:08:39.880 --> 0:08:42.560 of herself and not much about other people. 0:08:43.760 --> 0:08:46.000 Was it a result of her being a diva or 0:08:46.080 --> 0:08:48.160 was it just her personality? 0:08:49.000 --> 0:08:49.440 Beats me? 0:08:51.840 --> 0:08:57.040 Okay, So your mother's parents obviously Yiddish theater in Europe. 0:08:57.280 --> 0:08:58.880 When and how did they get to America. 0:09:00.880 --> 0:09:04.000 They got to America in the early part of the 0:09:04.000 --> 0:09:14.760 twentieth century, so my father was beginning to grow the 0:09:15.200 --> 0:09:19.360 folks being decided that my grandmother was too old to 0:09:19.360 --> 0:09:24.320 be an ingreenoue, so she gave it up entirely. She 0:09:24.320 --> 0:09:26.400 didn't want to be anything else she was the Ingau 0:09:27.280 --> 0:09:32.400 and my folks came with their parents. 0:09:33.920 --> 0:09:37.400 So both of your parents were, as we say, born 0:09:37.400 --> 0:09:38.760 in the Old Country. 0:09:39.040 --> 0:09:41.160 Not my mom. My mom was actually born in the 0:09:41.160 --> 0:09:46.400 Old Country Brooklyn, Okay. 0:09:47.080 --> 0:09:50.400 So how did your parents meet? 0:09:51.840 --> 0:10:00.680 I believe they met because my maternal grandfather was. He 0:10:00.760 --> 0:10:05.600 was a very interesting man. He was a poet and 0:10:05.960 --> 0:10:15.960 a businessman, a thoroughly honest socialist, and a politician, and 0:10:16.160 --> 0:10:21.719 he was extremely popular. Part of it, I think is 0:10:21.800 --> 0:10:24.800 due to the fact that he was painfully honest. I mean, 0:10:25.120 --> 0:10:27.880 he was a socialist. And when he died, he left 0:10:27.880 --> 0:10:31.600 his wife penniless because if somebody needed money and he 0:10:31.600 --> 0:10:35.520 had it, he'd give it. So he basically gave away everything. 0:10:37.000 --> 0:10:39.079 But he was a great man. As a matter of fact, 0:10:39.360 --> 0:10:43.280 his funeral was to this day the biggest in the 0:10:43.320 --> 0:10:46.240 history of New York City. If you read any book 0:10:46.280 --> 0:10:50.560 about Firolo laguardiad always mentions him, and usually will mention 0:10:50.640 --> 0:10:55.160 that that funeral, which went through all five boroughs, and 0:10:55.200 --> 0:10:59.480 the police report was one hundred thousand people. And what 0:10:59.640 --> 0:11:03.720 was his name, borrough Charni Vladik. 0:11:05.120 --> 0:11:10.400 Okay. So then you're so my father is living where 0:11:10.640 --> 0:11:11.640 when he meets your mother. 0:11:13.240 --> 0:11:16.880 He's living in the States, I mean in Brooklyn. Yeah, 0:11:17.520 --> 0:11:21.840 I think so. Uh. And he was one of many 0:11:21.880 --> 0:11:26.800 people who really admired Vladik my maternity and that's how 0:11:26.880 --> 0:11:27.960 he and my mom met. 0:11:29.440 --> 0:11:32.240 Okay, And how many kids in the family. 0:11:33.760 --> 0:11:34.600 In which family? 0:11:34.640 --> 0:11:37.240 In your family? Siblings? Three? 0:11:37.400 --> 0:11:39.320 I have two. I have a brother and a sister. 0:11:39.640 --> 0:11:43.160 And where are you in the hierarchy middle as am? 0:11:43.200 --> 0:11:46.720 I I heard that coming? Okay, So what are your what? 0:11:46.720 --> 0:11:48.080 What do your brother and sister do? 0:11:48.480 --> 0:11:48.520 What? 0:11:48.760 --> 0:11:50.440 How to you know? What the path did they end 0:11:50.480 --> 0:11:50.920 up taking. 0:11:52.720 --> 0:12:00.120 My brother is now retired, but he was a community 0:12:02.280 --> 0:12:05.439 a community service guy. I mean like he had the 0:12:05.480 --> 0:12:11.160 same job more or less as Obama. He served the 0:12:11.280 --> 0:12:16.160 various communities. And my sister was an artist, but she 0:12:16.200 --> 0:12:22.040 became a scientist through an Listen, nothing in my family 0:12:23.080 --> 0:12:27.520 really goes straight ahead. There's just funny stuff. She was 0:12:27.559 --> 0:12:30.840 at a cocktail party and she was talking with somebody 0:12:30.920 --> 0:12:37.080 and she started to talk about memory. And there was 0:12:37.120 --> 0:12:41.319 another thing that she was because there were two topics 0:12:41.360 --> 0:12:44.839 she loved, and my father got the Scientific American and 0:12:44.920 --> 0:12:49.480 she would read it to find out her favorite topics. 0:12:49.760 --> 0:12:52.360 So she was talking to this woman, and she knew 0:12:52.400 --> 0:12:56.559 a fantastic amount about a couple of subjects and nothing 0:12:56.960 --> 0:13:01.680 about the rest of science. So this woman was the 0:13:01.720 --> 0:13:05.199 director of She was the chief of the science department 0:13:05.240 --> 0:13:07.319 at the university, which I don't think my sister knew 0:13:08.559 --> 0:13:17.240 and gave her I don't know what it's called. So 0:13:17.280 --> 0:13:20.640 she went to university and became a scientist. These days, 0:13:20.679 --> 0:13:25.960 she basically translates from English to English from English written 0:13:26.000 --> 0:13:31.160 by people for whom English is the second language, and 0:13:31.280 --> 0:13:37.040 so she translates scientific papers from English to English. 0:13:37.559 --> 0:13:40.320 Okay, and you grew up in Philadelphia. How the family 0:13:40.360 --> 0:13:42.840 get from Brooklyn to Philadelphia. 0:13:43.600 --> 0:13:48.360 I didn't grow up in Philadelphia. I was born in 0:13:48.360 --> 0:13:50.640 a hospital in Philly. My dad was in the Navy, 0:13:52.280 --> 0:13:56.880 but when he got out of the Navy, we moved 0:13:56.920 --> 0:14:00.040 to Queens. And when I was four years old, the 0:14:00.040 --> 0:14:03.920 family moved from Queens to Tarrytown, New York. And that's 0:14:03.960 --> 0:14:05.320 basically where I was raised. 0:14:06.200 --> 0:14:09.199 I remember going to a Chinese restaurant in Terrytown. I 0:14:09.280 --> 0:14:12.440 can't remember the name. My parents. We go back and 0:14:12.480 --> 0:14:15.679 forth to New York. Okay, so you're growing up. All 0:14:15.679 --> 0:14:17.920 the hopes and dreams are in the older sibling. You're 0:14:17.960 --> 0:14:20.320 going to school. Good student, bad student. 0:14:22.000 --> 0:14:27.080 I was a fairly good student. I did well, not 0:14:27.200 --> 0:14:29.200 as well as my older brother, but I did well. 0:14:29.920 --> 0:14:32.640 To give you the picture, my older brother went to Harvard. 0:14:33.040 --> 0:14:34.080 I went to Columbia. 0:14:35.400 --> 0:14:37.800 Where did your sister go? Since we're going this far. 0:14:38.440 --> 0:14:41.840 My sister went to a whole bunch of art schools, 0:14:42.600 --> 0:14:43.480 one after another. 0:14:44.640 --> 0:14:49.000 Okay, so you're growing up, You're doing well in school, 0:14:49.560 --> 0:14:53.000 you have friends, Do you play sports or your nerd? 0:14:53.080 --> 0:14:54.080 What kind of kid are you? 0:14:56.160 --> 0:15:03.880 I was a pretty solitary kid. When I got to 0:15:03.920 --> 0:15:08.320 be thirteen, music took over my life. I learned to 0:15:08.400 --> 0:15:11.800 play when I got the measles when I was thirteen, 0:15:12.480 --> 0:15:14.640 so I learned to play lying on my back. I 0:15:14.840 --> 0:15:18.520 borrowed one of my brother's guitars and one of his books. 0:15:18.600 --> 0:15:21.720 I could already read music. I had studied flute since 0:15:21.760 --> 0:15:28.280 I was about eight, so teaching myself from the book 0:15:28.400 --> 0:15:32.520 was fairly easy. And as I say, music took over. 0:15:33.440 --> 0:15:37.080 Okay, So in a Jewish family, usually kids started taking 0:15:37.160 --> 0:15:40.560 piano lessons. I remember taking piano lessons at age six. 0:15:41.000 --> 0:15:44.040 You never took piano lessons, you just started with the flute. 0:15:44.920 --> 0:15:48.680 I won't say I never took piano lessons. I took 0:15:48.760 --> 0:15:54.000 a few, but I remember my mom asking me what 0:15:54.040 --> 0:15:55.880 would you like to play in For some reason, I 0:15:55.880 --> 0:16:00.280 said flute, and so that's where I went. I think 0:16:00.280 --> 0:16:02.760 I took the piano lessons after the flute lessons. 0:16:02.800 --> 0:16:08.400 Actually, and you'd learn flute with a private teacher or 0:16:08.480 --> 0:16:13.040 with yes in public okay, And you were taking flute 0:16:13.080 --> 0:16:16.640 before you had this epiphany. Did you like playing flute? 0:16:16.640 --> 0:16:17.560 Did you take to that? 0:16:19.080 --> 0:16:20.400 I don't think I really took to it. 0:16:20.520 --> 0:16:25.600 No, Okay, So you had measles. It's nineteen fifty eight. 0:16:27.520 --> 0:16:32.520 Elvis has got, you know, some purchase on the world. 0:16:33.080 --> 0:16:36.600 The folk boom is sort of happening, but really booms 0:16:36.600 --> 0:16:39.160 sort of a little bit later in the early sixties. 0:16:39.680 --> 0:16:42.320 You're there picking up the guitar. What are you playing? 0:16:44.320 --> 0:16:49.800 I was playing whatever was on the radio. And at 0:16:49.960 --> 0:16:56.440 that time, or shortly after, the folks Scare happened, and 0:16:57.840 --> 0:17:03.360 so I found a record in my parents' collection. I 0:17:03.440 --> 0:17:06.119 never saw them listen to any of the music that 0:17:06.119 --> 0:17:09.639 they had. They had about twenty records, and one of 0:17:09.680 --> 0:17:13.080 them was the Weavers at Carnegie Hall, which I just loved, 0:17:13.200 --> 0:17:17.960 and so I got involved with the folk scare, which 0:17:18.080 --> 0:17:21.199 was parallel to the other scare. 0:17:22.640 --> 0:17:26.320 Okay, now you're talking about being able to read music. 0:17:27.040 --> 0:17:29.160 Those of us have come a little bit later than 0:17:29.200 --> 0:17:32.000 you were really getting into the guitar because of the 0:17:32.040 --> 0:17:36.480 Beatles were playing chords. So at that particular point in time, 0:17:36.600 --> 0:17:38.800 you were playing the notes, you were playing the leads. 0:17:40.520 --> 0:17:43.320 No, at that particularly, I started out learning the chords too, 0:17:43.600 --> 0:17:47.199 and I could figure out the chords for anything on 0:17:47.240 --> 0:17:52.399 the radio at the time, so I was doing that. 0:17:53.280 --> 0:17:56.119 You know, the rock and roll tunes, the folk tunes, 0:17:56.160 --> 0:17:59.920 whatever it was, they were all pretty easy to figure out. 0:18:01.200 --> 0:18:02.560 So this came naturally. 0:18:03.640 --> 0:18:06.680 I think I was able to concentrate and teach myself. 0:18:06.920 --> 0:18:11.240 I actually know somebody to whom I believe music came naturally. 0:18:12.200 --> 0:18:14.680 I had to work hard for everything. 0:18:16.119 --> 0:18:17.639 Well, let me put it a different way. I remember 0:18:17.720 --> 0:18:20.439 playing guitars and my friend said, okay, now we're going 0:18:20.480 --> 0:18:23.840 to change key. I remember telling myself, I'm out. This 0:18:23.920 --> 0:18:26.199 is a step beyond me. I could learn how to 0:18:26.240 --> 0:18:29.639 do that, but I don't have that facility. Are you 0:18:29.760 --> 0:18:32.879 saying that every hurdle you had to work to go. 0:18:32.800 --> 0:18:42.440 Through, Yeah, pretty much. I think that's true. And it's 0:18:42.480 --> 0:18:45.280 been pointed out to me that I play music from 0:18:45.280 --> 0:18:50.399 a variety of genres, which I think is true. My 0:18:50.560 --> 0:18:55.919 records have all been salads. And the thing is, I 0:18:55.960 --> 0:18:58.359 never heard anything played on the guitar that I didn't 0:18:58.359 --> 0:18:59.400 want to play myself. 0:19:06.600 --> 0:19:09.200 So can you tell me about your brother had a guitar. 0:19:10.800 --> 0:19:14.520 My brother was studying classical guitar and he had a 0:19:14.560 --> 0:19:17.760 couple of nylon string classic guitars. 0:19:18.200 --> 0:19:20.560 Well, needless to say, you know, when you're starting out, 0:19:20.640 --> 0:19:24.199 certainly picking out notes. Nylon string guitars, they're hard to 0:19:24.240 --> 0:19:28.120 play with a wide neck. Usually the action, I mean, 0:19:28.680 --> 0:19:30.040 it's not an easy jump. 0:19:31.320 --> 0:19:34.840 Well, the action was quite playable because he was taking 0:19:34.960 --> 0:19:38.000 lessons and knew what he was doing, and wide neck 0:19:38.040 --> 0:19:42.920 didn't scare me. I have rather large hands and I've 0:19:42.920 --> 0:19:44.680 never had a problem with a wide neck. 0:19:46.240 --> 0:19:51.120 Okay, so you're thirteen. Measles doesn't go on forever? The measles? 0:19:51.160 --> 0:19:52.840 And where does that leave you musically? 0:19:54.000 --> 0:19:59.639 Playing everything that's on the radio? And I started, I 0:19:59.680 --> 0:20:05.400 started did taping things because I had a wolln Sock 0:20:05.520 --> 0:20:08.000 tape recorder, and then I realized I never listened to 0:20:08.040 --> 0:20:09.320 the tape, so I stopped that. 0:20:09.960 --> 0:20:12.480 Okay, your parents had a wolen sack. I mean that 0:20:12.640 --> 0:20:15.040 was not common in the house in the fifties. 0:20:16.320 --> 0:20:17.719 Maybe it was a voice of music. 0:20:18.160 --> 0:20:20.360 Well, whatever it was, how did you end up having 0:20:20.359 --> 0:20:22.119 a tape recorder in the house? Who bought that? 0:20:24.040 --> 0:20:27.159 I may have, but I can't remember. Maybe it was 0:20:27.160 --> 0:20:29.480 a birthday president, I just don't recall. 0:20:30.560 --> 0:20:33.760 Okay, so you're now playing everything on the radio. You're 0:20:33.760 --> 0:20:36.920 doing this in your house. Do you start playing out 0:20:36.960 --> 0:20:38.520 when you go to a friend's house, when you go 0:20:38.560 --> 0:20:41.520 to summer camp? Do you have groups anything like that? 0:20:43.200 --> 0:20:47.560 I started playing out a bit when I got old 0:20:47.640 --> 0:20:50.199 enough to play in bars. I played in bars and 0:20:50.240 --> 0:20:56.120 I played you know, the classics, Sophisticated Lady in Teeth 0:20:56.160 --> 0:21:04.520 for two and all that. So that was one part 0:21:04.560 --> 0:21:07.440 of it. And then I did go to camp and 0:21:08.640 --> 0:21:12.160 played guitar there. I played guitar everywhere. 0:21:13.840 --> 0:21:17.719 Okay, So how did you make the hurdle of playing 0:21:17.720 --> 0:21:20.640 in bars playing for money? Did you say I want 0:21:20.680 --> 0:21:23.439 to do this or I want to be recognized? What 0:21:23.520 --> 0:21:24.800 was the driving cast there? 0:21:24.840 --> 0:21:30.800 I started playing with some other people and and we 0:21:30.800 --> 0:21:32.879 were looking for any kind of a job. So we 0:21:32.920 --> 0:21:35.320 found a job in a bar where at first I 0:21:35.359 --> 0:21:37.119 wasn't old enough, so I didn't do it. When I 0:21:37.200 --> 0:21:39.640 was old enough, I could do it. 0:21:41.280 --> 0:21:44.960 Okay, you're saying playing the classics for those who don't know. 0:21:45.000 --> 0:21:47.200 I mean, people have no idea how big the folks 0:21:47.200 --> 0:21:49.800 scene was. It was even a you know, the hootiny 0:21:49.880 --> 0:21:53.840 Andy on TV. Tell me about how the folks scene 0:21:53.920 --> 0:21:56.760 burgeoned and then to what degree you got involved. 0:21:57.600 --> 0:22:00.280 Well, wait a minute. When I said the classics, I 0:22:00.359 --> 0:22:04.360 mean the jazz standards. That's what you're playing right in bars. 0:22:04.800 --> 0:22:05.880 Wasn't really funny, I. 0:22:05.840 --> 0:22:09.160 Understand, But ultimately you were talking about being infected by 0:22:09.160 --> 0:22:12.400 the folk virus, and it seemed like you ultimately got 0:22:12.440 --> 0:22:13.960 into that. Yeah. 0:22:14.080 --> 0:22:17.320 I used to go down to Washington Square on Sundays, 0:22:18.160 --> 0:22:21.400 take a train into the city and go down there, 0:22:21.440 --> 0:22:25.440 and people were playing together, and you know, I learned 0:22:25.440 --> 0:22:29.119 from that experience. And from there I would sometimes wander 0:22:29.160 --> 0:22:37.320 over to McDougall Street, where there were clubs, and I 0:22:37.440 --> 0:22:43.879 performed at at one of them. There's a book about 0:22:43.880 --> 0:22:47.720 the early Folks scene and a guy said, one time 0:22:47.800 --> 0:22:50.920 a guy came in and applied to go on the stage, 0:22:51.040 --> 0:22:52.840 and you know, it was a hoot and any kind 0:22:52.880 --> 0:22:56.040 of thing. Anybody could go on the stage. And he thought, oh, 0:22:56.119 --> 0:22:57.959 this is going to be terrible because the kid had 0:22:58.000 --> 0:23:03.080 a bad haircut and it looked weird. That was me, 0:23:03.800 --> 0:23:06.000 and he said when he played it was you know, 0:23:06.160 --> 0:23:06.560 very good. 0:23:08.119 --> 0:23:11.040 Okay, you're a nice Jewish boy. Your father's a doctor. 0:23:12.119 --> 0:23:15.840 Do you view music as a career or do you 0:23:15.880 --> 0:23:18.119 say you know you've been driven into you have to 0:23:18.160 --> 0:23:20.840 be a professional, go to college and this is just 0:23:20.920 --> 0:23:21.679 a sideshow. 0:23:22.800 --> 0:23:26.320 I thought I had to go to college at first, 0:23:27.240 --> 0:23:34.040 but I kept playing and you said something I wanted 0:23:34.040 --> 0:23:38.720 to pick up on. But my memory is not so good. 0:23:39.760 --> 0:23:44.239 Oh yeah, you said, I'm a nice Jewish boy. I 0:23:44.320 --> 0:23:48.400 was born to Jewish parents, but it was really impossible 0:23:48.440 --> 0:23:54.879 for me to be religious. We would celebrate Passover and 0:23:54.920 --> 0:23:57.720 at every sator at some point my father would say 0:23:58.440 --> 0:24:01.880 this God must be a very insecure creature to require 0:24:02.000 --> 0:24:06.639 so much constant praise. I mean, how am I gonna 0:24:06.680 --> 0:24:09.600 go go worship with that? 0:24:11.000 --> 0:24:14.360 Well, what I was referencing that that is certainly very interesting, 0:24:15.080 --> 0:24:18.320 is the values as opposed to go in a shool 0:24:18.480 --> 0:24:22.520 or barmitz for anything like that. You didn't have arms? 0:24:24.000 --> 0:24:24.520 I did you? 0:24:24.640 --> 0:24:26.159 Did you did, okay. 0:24:26.440 --> 0:24:29.199 I mean, my parents gave me a choice to have 0:24:29.240 --> 0:24:31.960 it or not, and I chose not and that was 0:24:31.960 --> 0:24:37.639 the wrong answer, so I had it. I actually didn't 0:24:37.640 --> 0:24:40.720 have any choice, okay. 0:24:40.400 --> 0:24:43.000 But usually in a Jewish family. I'm speaking from my 0:24:43.040 --> 0:24:44.679 own experience and observation. 0:24:45.560 --> 0:24:45.760 You know. 0:24:45.880 --> 0:24:47.840 I knew I was going to college before I went 0:24:47.880 --> 0:24:50.679 to any school, you know, and they say, you know, 0:24:50.840 --> 0:24:53.159 be a professional. And this was driven into before I 0:24:53.160 --> 0:24:56.439 could think for myself, is all I'm saying. And to 0:24:56.560 --> 0:24:59.960 vere from that, my parents were not that supportive. 0:25:01.600 --> 0:25:07.480 Well. In my second year at Columbia, I had a 0:25:07.520 --> 0:25:12.080 bit of a breakdown and took a leave of absence, 0:25:13.440 --> 0:25:19.280 which I've never ended actually, So there I was not 0:25:19.440 --> 0:25:25.760 in college anymore, and I was playing music and going down. 0:25:25.600 --> 0:25:29.680 To the village. How hard was it to drop out? 0:25:31.560 --> 0:25:33.480 I went and did it the right way. I went 0:25:33.560 --> 0:25:38.359 to the dean's office and spoke to them, and he 0:25:38.440 --> 0:25:42.080 sent me to the campus psychiatrist, and he recommended somebody 0:25:42.080 --> 0:25:45.240 for me to see. So I dropped out and started 0:25:45.560 --> 0:25:52.159 seeing this psychiatrist. My father was very angry that I 0:25:52.200 --> 0:25:56.960 hadn't asked him to recommend somebody, but you know, there 0:25:57.000 --> 0:25:57.600 we go again. 0:25:59.040 --> 0:26:02.840 How much as dropping out was college didn't work or 0:26:02.840 --> 0:26:05.239 I'm on this music path and I have to pursue it. 0:26:06.920 --> 0:26:11.480 You know, I've never asked myself that question. I think 0:26:11.560 --> 0:26:14.320 I couldn't handle college. I think that was the main thing, 0:26:16.720 --> 0:26:18.760 but there had to have been some of the other 0:26:19.520 --> 0:26:25.280 involved there. I don't think that human beings do things 0:26:25.320 --> 0:26:29.320 for the black and white reasons all the time. I 0:26:29.359 --> 0:26:30.800 know I certainly didn't. 0:26:32.280 --> 0:26:34.720 So you stop going to school, what's your life like? Then? 0:26:34.760 --> 0:26:36.600 You live in Indian City or you live in back 0:26:36.640 --> 0:26:37.320 in Terrytown. 0:26:39.080 --> 0:26:43.520 I was living in the city and I got offered 0:26:43.600 --> 0:26:48.480 a gig. I'm a State Department tour, which turned into 0:26:48.560 --> 0:26:53.680 two State Department tours, and after that I got various 0:26:53.720 --> 0:26:56.240 gigs here and there. I played rhythm guitar for a 0:26:56.240 --> 0:27:01.880