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This Day in Music: Bob Dylan’s first NYC gig
Ask any working musician and they will tell you, there’s no such thing as an overnight success. Talk to any new band and they’ll tell you it can take years to craft a batch of songs worthy to be heard by an audience. And, even the most seasoned veteran will tell you how hard it can be to find yourself in the good graces of a reputable promoter. I guess nobody told Bob Dylan.
Instagram was only in business 526 days before being acquired by social medial mogul Facebook, which is by no means a small feat. But, three months was all Dylan needed to land his first major gig in New York City. It was fifty-one years ago today that Bob Dylan opened for blues legend John Lee Hooker at Gerdes Folk City, then located at 11 West 4th St.
In January of 1961, a nineteen-year-old Bob Dylan walked into New York City with the I-don’t-give-a-damn attitude of Holden Caulfield, talked in the tongue of a Kerouac character, and baulked at the traditions of an already untraditional subculture. While he blended well with the other Bohemians, Dylan was possessed by a passion for music that gave him a distinct creative vision and voice. So much so that Mike Porco, one of the club’s owners, signed on as Dylan’s guardian, in order for the underaged upstart to obtain the necessary union card and cabaret license that would enable him to open for Hooker. Just over half a century later, the prolific poet continues to prove why Porco’s push to get him on the bill that night was such a pivotal one.
Time has shown that technological trends, like Instagram, and most recording artists have at least one thing in common; a rather short shelf life. I guess that’s something else nobody told Bob Dylan.