Al Aronowitz’s BLACKLISTED MASTERPIECES is a powerful collection of pieces deemed publishable as there is to much truth in them. I have to raise $20,000.00. My edition of this work is available for the person who makes a substantial contribution to my cause. I’m 73. It is time this collection from the fabled father of New Journalism found a home where it cane be safe for the future. There are not that many of these out there.
“Hey, Reg, this is Al. Are you going to drink poison?”
The year was 1981. The voice on the telephone belonged to famed journalist Al Aronowitz.
I had read an interview with him in THE SOHO NEWS.
From it I learned that in the 1950s his editor had sent him down to Greenwich Village in New York to write a hatchet piece on a bunch of crazy young men who spouted poetry, flashed switchblade knives, were Queer and smoked pot.
Al was then a crime writer. His editor up set because his son was hanging around with such awful people sent Al figuring that as a crime reporter Al would write a piece that would get the cops on these people.
“When I walked in I realized that for the first time in my life I was among living poets,” said Al who then wrote the first positive press about Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs.
Al introduced Bob Dylan to Allen Ginsberg and The Beatles.
Al introduced The Beatles to pot. They were so grateful they gave him part of an album.
Al introduced everybody to every body: Miles Davis to Mick Jagger. You name it.
Now he was on the phone calling me.
After reading the piece in THE SOHO NEWS I wrote him a letter. He wrote back. I replied. He sent another letter in which he wrote that The New Messiah will tear up the money.
I sent back a letter quoting the end of Mark’s Gospel:
15 He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. 16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. 17 And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; 18 they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.”
That was why Al called me. He thought I was going to drink poison. That does not mean that we drink poison our selves. It means that when someone gives us a cup filled with poison we drink it dry.
After that Al phoned often. One day he sounded depressed. I asked what the problem was.
He said, “I’ve written a book. No one will give me a reading.”
I said, “Come to Toronto. I will give you a reading.”
Al came.
After that he got booked into readings all across America. He just needed the one that would get him started.
That one was in Toronto.
One day while Al was in Toronto I said to Al come with me.
I took him to meet my friend Jane Jacobs, author of THE DEATH AND LIFE OF GREAT AMERICAN CITIES.
Mrs. Jacobs was as delighted to meet Al as he was to meet her. Both had been instrumental in the early career of Bob Dylan.
Al and I became great friends.
When I was invited to New York’s Thalia Theater Al introduced me to the audience. After the show he took me on a tour of all the spots in the village that had mattered.
That night in New York Al took me to the fabled Blue Note. It was a privilege to sit at his table watching artist after artist come by to speak with him, to thank him.
The next day All took me to an East Indian restaurant his son liked to take him to.
One day Al called. He said, “I’d like to go up to Toronto, hang out and do a reading.”
I said, “Sure.”
I sponsored a reading at THE TORONTO PRESS CLUB for one night. Canada’s preeminent Journalist Robert Fulford introduced that which caught big the jaded temperaments of the journalists in the room.
The best however was the next night at The Cineforum.
My long time friend Bernard Hashmall took pictures. I will share them with you.
It was amazing to watch Al with young writers. It was especially amazing to watch him with difficult and troubled writers. What Al knew that most don’t is that is the first sign of a gifted writer. It means the person is thinking.
When I self-published my free verse retelling of THE EPIC OF GILGAMESH all sent me a note saying, “It made me tingle.”
When it comes to poetry praise does not come better than that.
I loved Al.
He was one of the great men. Great people are not necessarily famous but they are all generous.
When Al met someone with talent he introduced them to other people with talent. Al introduced just about everybody who mattered to just about everybody else who mattered.
When Al’s wife died of cancer he got a call from Miles Davis.
Davis, “Said do you need help?”
Al said, “No. I’m okay.”
Quietly Miles Davis paid the bill for the funeral of Al’s wife.
Shortly before his death Al called. He said, “I want to come up to Toronto.”
I said, “Sure.”
Al never made it.
He died shortly after.
Part of Al still lives here.
When I was in my last year in High School (I grew up in New Brunswick, Canada. We moved to Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario in 1963) the principal called me into his office. He said, “You have the wrong attitude. If you leave this school today you will starve in two weeks.”
Had I not left I would never had Al Aronowitz for a friend and mentor.
Jan 18, 1978- In an interview with the Chicago Tribune, rock star Frank Zappa described most rock journalism as ” People who can’t write, interviewing people who can’t talk, for people who can’t read.”
Al Aronowitz could write. The people he interviewed could talk.
THE BLACKLISTED MASTERPIECES OF AL ARONOWITZ needs a home where it will be safe for tomorrow.
Make a donation (Minimum $10,000.00).
–Reg Hartt 2019–12–10.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Aronowitz
The Blacklisted Masterpieces Of Al Aronowitz
http://www.blacklistedjournalist.com/
Al Aronowitz
Al Aronowitz was often described as “the godfather of rock journalism”. His POP SCENE column in the NEW YORK POST turned him into one of the most powerful rock journalists in the world. Those columns – plus his writings in THE SATURDAY EVENING POST, THE VILLAGE VOICE and many other publications – set the tone for all subsequent coverage of rock and roll. He collected some of his unpublished manuscripts in THE BLACKLISTED MASTERPIECES OF AL ARONOWITZ. As the man who introduced Allen Ginsberg to Bob Dylan, Bob Dylan to the Beatles, and the Beatles to marijuana, Al was known to boast that “the ’60s wouldn’t have been the same without me”. He was right. He died in 2005.
https://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Writer/al-aronowitz
Rock and Roll; Shakespeares in The Alley; Interview with Al Aronowitz [Part 1 of 3]
Tell us when you first heard Bob Dylan? Were you already writing here at that time?
http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_0B9DFB840EEE4886800B3B806DA66E1A
Rock and Roll; Shakespeares in The Alley; Interview with Al Aronowitz [Part 2 of 3]
As I say that meeting not only changed Bob it also changed the Beatles
http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_769D9D5DC55F4435A27A7091D23F22CB
Rock and Roll; Shakespeares in The Alley; Interview with Al Aronowitz [Part 3 of 3]
Tell us about going to see the Beatles arrive at JFK in ’64. Was the press there?
http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_4E06E9EF0C0B41C9BC4EDCE8280E24A4
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