John Cohen (2) (1932–2019)
Author of The Essential Lenny Bruce
For other authors named John Cohen, see the disambiguation page.
Works by John Cohen
Mountain music of Kentucky 4 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1932-08-02
- Date of death
- 2019-09-16
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Queens, New York, USA (Sunnyside)
- Place of death
- Putnam Valley, New York. USA
- Places of residence
- Great Neck, New York, USA
- Education
- Yale University (BA|1955, MFA|1957)
- Occupations
- musician
photographer
filmmaker
art teacher
documentarian
Professor of Visual Arts - Relationships
- Seeger, Mike (colleague)
- Organizations
- New Lost City Ramblers
Friends of Old Time Music
State University of New York, Purchase
Members
Reviews
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 17
- Members
- 558
- Popularity
- #44,766
- Rating
- 3.9
- Reviews
- 5
- ISBNs
- 39
- Languages
- 2
Taken together, the photos and interviews hint at the contradiction at Dylan's core, then and ever since. On the one hand, the master of disguise, spinning yarns to make his childhood and youth a vagabondage out of the pages of Jack Kerouac, meant to obscure not only his small-town middle-class origins but also, one suspects, the intensity of his ambition. On the other, the genuine everyman whose life's calling is no better nor worse than that of any other honest handyman. As Dylan tells Terkel: "I go to saw a tree down, I cut myself. If I go to spit tacks, I swallow tacks. It's a tool--that's all I use it as. My life is a street where I walk. This music, my guitar, that's my tool."
The book also features, as a coda, the color photos Cohen made eight years after the first set, as Dylan was preparing the album, Self-Portrait. One of the photos graced the album's back cover.
When Self-Portrait first appeared, I and many others wondered if the title was ironic, since most of the songs on it were cover versions of other people's songs. It turns out that the irony ran even deeper. At the time, I assumed that the bucolic photo in early spring in New York state was taken on his property near Woodstock in the Saugerties. But it wasn't; it was Cohen's place. Other shots, unseen until this book was published, show him wearing Cohen's jacket and hat, feeding Cohen's chickens, talking with Cohen's dog. We didn't know it at the time, but Dylan had left the Woodstock area and returned to Greenwich Village. But, as usual, covering his trail.… (more)