Cinema that a complete stranger was a bit ‘sweetened’, according to Eric Andersen

It took a few months, as he lives in the Netherlands, but Eric Andersen Finally got time to watch A complete unknown. And the legend of the troubadour, which frequented the same clubs as Village at the same time, was… a little disappointed.

“It seemed a little sweetened,” he says. “It was a little two -dimensional. But I thought it was very fun. I was watching more like a film situation than something I knew. I was watching a movie. So I liked it from this point of view.”

On the other hand, Andersen has every right to criticize. At this point, many of the composers and musicians of that sacred scene of the Greenwich Village have died (more recently Peter Yarrow) or retired from the tours (how Tom Paxtonin 2024). Just a handful of those who helped transform the Village In a musical hub continues to perform and even make new albums – Bob Dylanof course, with Judy Collins, Carolyn Hester, Noel Paul Stookey and very few others.

Andersenwhich turned 82 this year, also follows this list. Although he never had a hit on the top 40, the American composer wrote some songs that are part of the new American folk songbook – “Violets of Dawn”,“Thirsty Boots” – and albums like Blue River1972, are considered milestones of the genre. Its impact was especially meaning in the recent album tribute Songpoet: Songs of Eric Andersenwhich includes interpretations of their songs for Dylan, BeautifulRontadt, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Amy Helm, Lenny Kaye, Dom Flemons, Willie Nilethe duo Larry Campbell and Teresa Williamsand the deceased Rick Danko (which formed a band with Andersen just before you die).

In the last decades, Andersenwho moved to Norway for a while and then settled in Amsterdam 20 years ago, occasionally returned to the United States for shows. In those years, he made albums based on the words of Lord Byron, Albert Camus and the German writer Heinrich Böll; launched a collection of his own spoken pieces; honored his colleagues with covers recordings of Village (The Street Was Always There); and recorded a complete live recreation of Blue River. But last month, he finally released his first set of new songs, Dance of Love and Deathin over 20 years.

With its reflective ballads and gentle rhythms, the album is very consistent with the territory that Andersen began to walk when he arrived in New York in the 1960s. Dylanhe was supported by Robert Sheltonmusical critic of New York Timeswhich also helped Andersen to get a contract with a label. With songs like “Close the Door Lightly When You Go”And“Eat to my bedside”, Andersen He injected an air of mystery and sensuality into the scene. He made friends with names like Paxton, Collins and the deceased Phil Ochs and witnessed a Dylan increasingly isolated enter clashes with your colleagues at the bar Kettle of Fish. He was so inserted in this world that, according to him, lost the historic show of Dylan in Newport, in 1965, because I was scheduled to touch the GasLight Caféone of the essential places of the Village.

Talking about how this community was recreated in the movies, Andersen feel that another recent movie sounds a little more true than A complete unknown. “Inside Llewyn Davis – Ballad of an ordinary man (2013) was much more like the scene I remember, ”he says.“ To the point where I went to Vanguard Records Seeking some money, and the guy really handed me a $ 20 note. I lived in Lower East Sidecooking for addicts, and needed the money to go to the vegetable market to buy things for them. I was coming home and simply stopped in the offices of Vanguard. There is a scene identical to this in Llewyn Davis. It could not have come from me, but the vibration, the scene and the lighting were more realistic than in the other movie. ”

Like many of your colleagues at that time, Andersen It is not a character in A complete unknownalthough it was touched when he heard “There but for fortune”, OCHSin one of the scenes of the performance of Joan Baezinterpreted by Monica Barbaro.

“That was really beautiful,” he says. “It turned out to be the best song in the movie, which is hard to believe, because there are so many amazing songs. What was a little tragic is that Bob It has always been a guy of words. He speaks. It’s not a chatter, but he said things, you know? Usually about writing and things like that. None of this seems to have passed in the movie. But you can’t do much in a movie. You have to give a softened one. ”

Be the result of these movies or a certain rediscovery, Andersen It has felt a greater opening to its style and that was than for a long time. “I remember playing some shows in Boston, when parents took their children,” he says. “And it was them [os filhos] who came to talk to me. Maybe she exploded their minds to see someone there, singing songs about things they think. Perhaps there is some kind of deprivation in their musical world. I don’t know. But even if the parents dragged them to the show, they understood, which was funny. ”

Starting at that time and continuing over the decades, Andersen He lived a lot of the life of poet and nomadic writer. He appeared in an early movie of Andy Warholparticipated in the variety program on TV Johnny Cashwrote songs about his close relationships with Janis Joplin (“Pearl’s Goodtime Blues) And Patti Smith (“Wild Crow Blues”) And asked for Joni Mitchell to be your daughter’s godmother. Also had its quota of disappointments: signed with the entrepreneur of Beatles, Brian Epsteinshortly before his death and had the ribbons of what would be his important successor album of Blue River lost. (They were finally discovered and released – but 20 years later.)

Throughout its 17 tracks, Dance of Love and Death reflects on some of these past times, especially moving in “EVERY Once in a While”About his wife Debbie Greenwho died in 2017.

“Were you jealous of my future? Was I jealous of your past?” He sings. “Yes, it was about her,” Andersen says. “I think everyone has a situation where you think of someone every now and then and that person comes back, and I just sat down and that song came up.”

The album also has moments of intense narrative (“RIVER SPREP [Berlin]”, About an addicted person), relative lightness (“After this life”) And its characteristic intimate romanticism, in a serious voice (the title track).

Although Andersen Not known as a songwriter with political themes, he also ventured into this field with “Season in Crime (Crime Scene)”, Inspired by climate change, after a tour in California with the violinist and former member of the band Dylan, Scarlet Rivera. “She lived in Topanga Canyon And her house was about to burn, ”he says.“ We were talking about sparks and embers in the air. The song started writing alone. You don’t need much to start a song. ” Thanks to the producer Steve Addabbo and collaborating musicians like Kaye and Tony Garnier (bassist from Dylan), the music is a mix of Camera and Rock & Roll Vibrant Folk Beauty.

At the beginning of September, Andersen will return to the United States for a month of shows on the east coast. He read or heard of international musicians who allegedly had their visas revoked or had to deal with fares that corrode profits when they arrive in the country. “So far, it’s all in full swing,” says Andersenwhich has American and Dutch passports. “But things are evolving very quickly. Everyone is tense. I want to go with my guitar and maybe they say, ‘Well, you know …’, because I’m resident abroad. It will be interesting.” About a possible unexpected detention, he plays: “If I are entitled to a call, it will be for you.”

+++ Read more: a complete stranger shines in the performances, but sins in the rhythm of history