The Gaslight Cafe

'''The Gaslight Cafe''' was an [[United States|American]] [[coffee house]] located in the basement of 116 [[MacDougal Street]] in the [[Greenwich Village]] neighborhood of the [[Manhattan]] [[borough (New York City)|borough]] of [[New York City]], [[New York]]. The ''Gaslight'' (alternatively known as "The Village Gaslight" opened in 1958 and was a well known venue for [[folk music]] and other musical acts, until it closed in 1971. ==History== 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 dark, steamy, subterranean Gaslight had showcased [[beat poet]]s [[Allen Ginsberg]] and [[Gregory Corso]] but later became a [[folk music|folk-music]] club. Clarence Hood bought the club in 1961, and he and his son Sam managed the club through the late 1960s. Ed Simon, the owner of another popular Village coffeehouse, ''The Four Winds,'' reopened the Gaslight in 1968. The club was run by Betty Smyth (who is the mother of [[Scandal (American band)|Scandal]] lead singer [[Patty Smyth]]), and blues guitarist/performer Susan Martin until its closing in 1971. Among those who performed at the Gaslight were [[Bill Cosby]]; [[Bob Dylan]]; [[Luke Faust]], a five-string banjo player and singer who sang Appalachian ballads; [[Len Chandler]]; [[John Wynn]], who played gut-string guitar and sang folk songs in an operatic voice; [[Paul Clayton (folksinger)|Paul Clayton]]; [[Luke Askew]]; [[Wavy Gravy]]; and in 1972, [[Bruce Springsteen]]. 1964–1966 saw many early performances by [[Richie Havens]], [[Jose Feliciano]], [[Tom Paxton]], [[Phil Ochs]], [[Eric Andersen]], [[John Herald]], [[Ralph Rinzler]], [[The Greenbriar Boys]], and [[Dave Van Ronk]].The first public "electric" appearance of [[The Blues Project]] (with [[Danny Kalb]]) took place at the club. [[Mississippi John Hurt]] played there. [[Jimi Hendrix]] sat in one night at the Gaslight with [[John Hammond, Jr.]] An array of musicians also performed at the club in the late 1960s and early 1970s, including [[Odetta]], [[Mississippi Fred McDowell]], [[Bonnie Raitt]], [[Reverend Gary Davis]], [[Big Mama Thornton]], [[Link Wray]], [[Mimi Farina]], jazz musician [[Charles Mingus]], [[Happy Traum]] and [[Artie Traum]], [[Doug Kershaw]], [[Bob Neuwirth]], [[David Bromberg]], [[David Buskin]], [[Janis Siegel]] (who later joined [[The Manhattan Transfer]]), and others. Folk musician and actor [[Gil Robbins]] worked as the club's manager during the late 1960s. The club was next door and down the stairs from the street-level bar called the ''Kettle of Fish'', a bar where many performers hung out between sets. Some nights the bar the (Kettle of Fish) was "locked" down to the public because a young "reclusive" singer and poet was in attendance...Bob Dylan. Also next door was the Folklore Center, a bookstore/record store owned by [[Izzy Young]] and notable for being a musicians' gathering place and center of the New York folk-music scene. ''[[Live at The Gaslight 1962]]'' (2005), a single CD release including ten songs from early Dylan performances at the club, was released by [[Columbia Records]]. In the ''Folk 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." ==See also== *[[Cafe Wha?]] *[[Live at The Gaslight 1962]] *[[Cafe Au Go Go]] *[[Gerde's Folk City]] *[[The Bitter End]] ==External links== *[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VMWACzDI0o Bob Neuwirth at the Gaslight ''Rock Salt and Nails'' 1967] *[http://www.google.com/search?q=The+Gaslight+Cafe&hl=en&safe=off&client=firefox-a&hs=8ro&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&tbs=tl:1&tbo=u&ei=lLyyS9a6BoX7lweiw-CIBQ&sa=X&oi=timeline_result&ct=title&resnum=11&ved=0CCsQ5wIwCg Google Timeline for the Gaslight Cafe] {{coord missing|New York City}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Gaslight Cafe, The}}