Village Interviews: Izzy Young

What did the fly say to the flea?
Folklore Center is the place for me.
~ Bob Dylan

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10
7:30 PM
MNN Channel 67

Dear Friends :

The following can be viewed on any high-speed computer anywhere or on TV in Manhattan:

This Wednesday, September 10 at 7:30 PM, on my little cable program, Famousx2, on Channel 67, I am re-airing a half-hour program combining two interviews I did with Izzy Young in 1994 and 1999.

Izzy, who used to be known as "The Mayor of Greenwich Village", founded and ran the Folklore Center from the 1950s to the 1970s, first on MacDougal Street and then on 6th Avenue. The center was a combination music shop, performance space and mecca for everyone involved in the so-called folk-music scene of that era. Izzy organized Dylan's first official concert and conducted the first interview with Dylan back in 1961. Now, Izzy runs the Folklore Centrum in Stockholm, Sweden.

In this program, Izzy remembers Phil Ochs, perhaps the most politically active folk singer of his generation and a friend of folk singers all around the world, including Victor Jara, and Dylan and the folk club scene in the Village in the 1960s. This is a program that anyone interested in Ochs and/or Dylan should see. Izzy discusses Phil's drinking and inferiority complex in relation to Dylan, his obsession with making the charts and with the Kennedys. He talks about the famous Broadside interview he did with Ochs. He tells the story of the 1972 concert at Lincoln Center, which Izzy MC'd for Ochs, David Bromberg and Doc Watson (whose first NYC concert was organized by Izzy in 1961) and during which there were bad feelings between Watson and Ochs and between Izzy and Ochs. He also has many nice things to say about Phil's songs.Finally, Izzy gives his account of his first encounters with Dylan when he came to NYC the first time and how Dylan put one over on him in his first interview.

If you are in Manhattan and have access to Time Warner, you can see it this Wednesday January 26th, at 7:30pm (DST-that's NYC Daylight SavingsTime) on channel 67. On the RCN system, that should be channel 85.

If you are outside of Manhattan, anywhere in the world, and you have a good high-speed connection on your computer, you can go to MNN and click on channel 67 to see it at the same time.

Sometimes MNN does screw up broadcasts, but usually they air things without too many problems.....Be patient.

Recently, some of you outside of Manhattan have told me you have not been able to tune in by computer. Please let me know if this happens again, and I will give MNN a piece of my mind.

Best,
Jason Howard