Greenwich Village
in the 1960s
By Gary Wien
A year before his fatal plane
crash, Buddy Holly moved to
an apartment in Greenwich Village where he recorded his final
demos. Like many local musicians, Holly used to perform in
Washington Square Park. Locals
say he often went unnoticed,
blending in as just another musician despite having songs on
the top of the charts. But he
didn’t just live in the Village, unbeknownst to many music fans,
Holly was also on top of the
emerging folk scene.
“The legend goes that he was
going to the clubs, but especially
The Village Vanguard,” explained
Richard Barone. “I live behind
the Vanguard so when I first
NewJerseyStage.com
started reading about this it hit
me that I’m in the middle of what
was the hotbed of that activity.”
Barone, who became famous
in the 1980s as part of the influential new wave band, The
Bongos, is currently paying tribute to the artists in his neighborhood who helped usher in the
singer-songwriter movement
with a record called Sorrows
& Promises: Greenwich Village
in the 1960s. The album begins with “Learning the Game”
by Buddy Holly, one of the last
songs he ever recorded.
The record features Barone reinterpreting songs by artists like
Tim Hardin, John Sebastian, Phil
Ochs, Eric Andersen, Janis Ian,
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