Thursday, March 28, 2013

The Present Day Bohemian Poseur Refuses to Die

Well, now I've seen everything. Or something like it.

In any case, please behold in breathless wonder a recently unearthed film, shot on the night of June 22, 1983, that documents the first annual Greenwich Village Bob Dylan Imitators Contest at a now-defunct club called the Speakeasy.



Friend of PowerPop Peter Spencer is the guy who wins "Best thank-you," incidentally.

I should add that I lived around the corner from the Speakeasy, and played there a couple of times, but never -- to my lasting regret -- got to see any of the Dylan imitators shows over the years. So this tape (which apparently aired sometime on Danish television) is a particular treat for me.

I should also add that one of the times I played the Speak, I looked out into the audience and seated directly in front of me was notorious New York City subway shooter Bernhard Goetz. To quote the old joke, I figured I had better be a hit that evening or I'd be hit tomorrow.

3 comments:

Ken J Xenozar said...

Two things I love about this video:
1) Those 80's mustaches. Yikes
2) The parade of talent reminds me that NYC is chock full of great musicians.

steve simels said...

Frank Christian, the big winner of the evening, and a thoroughly lovely guy as well as one of the aforementioned great musicians, passed away unexpectedly just a month or two ago.

Very sad...

edward said...

A few years before this the LA radio show the Cool and the Crazy had a great running contest called Dyls Pills: The Best of the Dylan Imitators. Was quite hilarious and they promised to release an LP of the winners, but I guess they couldn't get the clearances. Tapes of the shows must exist somewhere.

And 4 Becks and 2 Michalobs? There's and indication of how tastes have changed in 30 years;>