 The former site of the Gaslight Cafe as seen in November 2021. | |
 Interactive map of The Gaslight Cafe | |
| Location | 116MacDougal Street New York City,New York United States |
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| Coordinates | 40°43′47.01″N74°0′1.93″W / 40.7297250°N 74.0005361°W /40.7297250; -74.0005361 |
| Owner |
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| Type | Coffeehouse |
| Events | Folk music, et al. |
| Opened | 1958 |
| Closed | 1971 |
The Gaslight Cafe was acoffeehouse in theGreenwich Village neighborhood ofManhattan,New York. Also called The Village Gaslight, it opened in 1958 and became a venue forfolk music and other musical acts.[1][2] It closed in 1971.[3]
The Gaslight was originally a "basket house" where unpaid performers would pass around a basket at the end of each set and hope to be paid. Opened in 1958 by John Mitchell, the Gaslight showcasedbeat poetsAllen Ginsberg andGregory Corso but later became afolk-music club. John Moyant bought the club in 1961. Moyant's father-in-law, Clarence Hood, and his son, Sam, managed the club through the late 1960s. Ed Simon, the owner of The Four Winds, reopened the Gaslight in 1968. The club was run by Betty Smyth, mother ofScandal lead singerPatty Smyth, and blues guitarist/performer Susan Martin until it closed in 1971.[1][4]
Folk musician and actorGil Robbins worked as the club's manager in the late 1960s.[5][6]
The club was next door and down the stairs from the street-level bar, theKettle of Fish, where many performers hung out between sets,[7][8][9] includingBob Dylan.[10][11] Also nearby was the Folklore Center, a bookstore/record store owned byIzzy Young and notable for being a musicians' gathering place and center of the New York folk-music scene.[12][13]Live at The Gaslight 1962 (2005), a single CD release including ten songs from early Dylan performances at the club, was released byColumbia Records.[14][15]
In theFolk Music Encyclopedia, Kristin Baggelaar and Donald Milton wrote "The Gaslight was weird then because there were air shafts up to the apartments and the windows of the Gaslight would open into the air shafts, so when people would applaud, the neighbors would get disturbed and call the police. So then the audience couldn't applaud; they had to snap their fingers instead."
Brian Fallon, the lead singer and guitarist ofThe Gaslight Anthem, has said that the band's name came from The Gaslight Cafe as he had heard it was one of the first places thatBob Dylan had played and liked the sound of the word and the imagery it brought about.[16]
Among those who performed at the Gaslight wereBill Cosby;[17]Bob Dylan;[18]Joni Mitchell (her first ever appearance in NYC, in 1966, with Chuck Mitchell);Luke Faust, a five-string banjo player and singer who sang Appalachian ballads;Len Chandler;Paul Clayton;Luke Askew;Wavy Gravy;Joan Rivers;Bruce Springsteen. 1964–1966 saw many early performances byRichie Havens,Jose Feliciano,Tom Paxton,Phil Ochs,Eddie Mottau,Eric Andersen,John Herald,[18]Ralph Rinzler,[18]The Greenbriar Boys,Ramblin' Jack Elliott,Carolyn Hester,Elizabeth Cotten andDave Van Ronk. The first public "electric" appearance ofThe Blues Project (withDanny Kalb) took place at the club.Mississippi John Hurt andJesse Fuller ("Lone Cat") played there.Jimi Hendrix[19] andEric Clapton sat in together[20] for a week at the Gaslight withJohn Hammond Jr.[21] An array of musicians also performed at the club in the late 1960s and early 1970s, includingOdetta,Son House,[22]Mississippi Fred McDowell,Bonnie Raitt,Reverend Gary Davis,Sonny Terry &Brownie McGhee,Big Mama Thornton,Link Wray,Mimi Fariña, jazz musicianCharles Mingus,Happy Traum andArtie Traum,Doug Kershaw,Bob Neuwirth,David Bromberg,David Buskin,Janis Siegel (who later joinedThe Manhattan Transfer), and others.[23][24][4][25]
Bob Dylan stands between Ralph Rinzler and John Herald of the folk and bluegrass group the Greenbriar Boys at the Gaslight nightclub in New York City, 1959.
Authority control databases: Geographic |
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