POSITIVELY PORCO- Mike Porco's vinyl collection WOW

Jim McGuinn, banjo

These albums can no longer be found in stores. In other forms, yes. But these are artifacts.

The recordings have become digital for all to purchase for their own listening pleasure, but you'll need to search for these albums still in plastic, handled with care, mostly by me.

40 and 50 year old vinyl…once owned by Gerde's Folk City originator, Mike Porco.

Many of what you see below are gifts TO Mike Porco, not necessarily bought BY Mike Porco, but these are his very ones left behind for me to find.

They sit where Mike left them 22 years ago, in the bedroom where dear old Dad now lives and sleeps.

pristine

unopened

I guess it would be assumed by the 300,000 readers of my blog that I love my Pop. Of course I do, but that's not the point. The point is that I wonder: Does or did my dad love his dad? My guess would be no. But that's ok. They were family to each other. And my father not only inherited Mike Porco's records, but also his bed, his 'stuff' and his Lauderhill, FL condo.

practically sitting on the albums

I just returned last night. I photographed some of the albums and I took a gasp at the pictures. I wondered, who would really treasure these things besides me??

I have plans to mail a few to myself….but I said that LAST year when I last went to FLA to interview my dad, Bob Sr. and Mike Porco's other son, Angelo. The interview is part of the Mike Porco/GERDE'S FOLK CITY documentary.

In 2013, I took video of my discovery of Grandpa's collection, but it was staged. I had gone through them years ago only to find them again and again every time I visited my father. But they are SO FUCKING WOW that I definitely must UPS some of that shit to myself.

I will keep them for 'safe keeping' but I just don't have the room nor can I claim that they are more valuable to me than to the artist on the label….or to the fans and collectors of COOL SHIT.

Thanks to my father for keeping the place 'just so' as if it were all a museum, when really, it's just that he sweeps away the path that he has already worn day after day. Dust will collect elsewhere in the room with the vinyl. 

I can collect dust from Mike's time there if you truly want something to remember him by.

Lucinda Williams, not for resale

not for sale

~~~~~~~~~~~~

I can, however, say that these albums ARE worth something to me now. (Thank you Grandpa! They may come in handy…)

I have begun another, (YES, ANOTHER!) crowd funding campaign. My 69 blog followers and 40 twitter followers and I will fund my FOLKUMENTARY ourselves and savor to premiere when we bring it around the world!….right?

''Crowd'' as in: People who know Mike Porco, know the scene, know about the people in the scene, care about the people in the scene and want to see the scene get a feature length documentary completed about the scene….as in $$$$

I don't have a slew of big time (not small time) producers to call. Does one simply just call Scorsese or Ken Burns? No, silly. They need my number, or I need theirs. Help wanted.

So in the meantime, I'm selling some 'stuff' to get BREAD to hire some BIG GUNS to dress POSITIVELY PORCO up in a sweet tart package and tote the film world wide. Believe it.

And for those who say 'Bob, you're stealing from Mike' or 'you're pimping Mike's stuff' I say, yup. Fuck off and put my project under someone's nose instead of complaining. Make yourself useful…or buy a sticker and shut up. 

And for those who 'dig it'….if you know me, I'll give you your album(s) for yourself to keep. For those who may want Mike Porco's personally owned Dylan albums, here is a place to open discussion: ROCKETHUB

Here's the catch: you gotta know who Mike Porco was, know that these were his personal items, know that Dylan, Simon, George Harrison, The Clancy Brothers and nearly every one in his collection were once his friend. You must also take utmost care in preserving the album, or else I'll just let them sit where they have for the last 22 years. Included may or may not include: Introducing the Beatles, The Basement Tapes, Bringing it All Back Home, Another Side of Bob Dylan, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, Blood on the Tracks, Still Crazy After all These Years, STILL IN ORIGINAL PLASTIC MINT COND. Many other rare pressings also available. Make offer pay through rocket hub.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On display (with all varying combinations of product and price considered) are:

VINYL IN PLASTIC:

Introducing the Beatles

Vee-Jay recording 1062

Bob Dylan- Basement Tapes, Blood on the Tracks, Another Side of Bob Dylan, Bringing it All Back Home, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (possibly others)

Simon and Garfunkel- Greatest Hits

George Gerdes- Obituary

Tom Intondi- House of Water

Jack Hardy- various titles

Judy Collins- Hardtimes for Lovers (with hole punch)

Paul Simon- Still Crazy

Peter, Paul and Mary- Late Again

Many other artists. List provided.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

OPENED VINYL

Dozens including very good condition:

Dylan live at Budokan, Blonde on Blonde, Infidels, Shot of Love

Jimi Hendrix- Electric Lady Land

(not for sale)

Simon and Garfunkel- Wednesday Morning 3AM, The Graduate, Parsley, sage, Rosemary and thyme 

Knob Lick Upper 10,000

Jose Feliciano

Chad Mitchell Trio w/ Jim McGuinn

The Clancy Brothers- A few albums, worn nicely

Brother John Sellers- Baptist Shouts (actual album known to have once hung behind the stage at original Gerde's)

The Song Project- In Rome

The Beatles- A Hard Days Night soundtrack

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

SLEEVE ONLY, NO JACKET

Several 

Fast Folk Musical Magazine pressings.

Other acetates and first pressings given to Mike by several artists.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

PS- Those albums signed by the artists inscribed ''To Mike'' are certainly precious and not for sale. Thank you Lucinda Williams, Victoria Spivey, Sally Spring, Vinnie Vok

PPS- It occurs to me that there may be only a few albums in such condition unopened for decades such as The Basement Tapes, Bringing it All Back Home, Introducing The Beatles Vee-Jay 1062, another Side of Bob Dylan and Blood on The Tracks…..The Beatles album or the Basement Tapes may not have a price you can think of. But do try. Contact me: folkcity50@gmail.com

POSITIVELY PORCO PROMO- Gerde's Folk City Folkumentary

Blogging. I guess some people who dont blog think that bloggers have lots of time to blog their thoughts and blog to their followers. Please note, I don't have many followers on this blog because I'm not a crafty blogger with thousands of followers. I can't "suggest" via Twitter or my own site opinions that get re-tweeted or re-thunk, like some others.

I still believe in the use of this site because I can add to it when I want...and I can add to it remotely. I'm sitting in the smallest room in my house uploading a video in the other room.

....and here it is…..

This video has all I need to say in it. Please have a look. Bring your lunch.

My opinion on my own film Positively Porco, is that it is going to be seen as a real FEEL GOOD movie. I will feel good when I get a production house to make it all work for and with me. I've got the goods. And it's good to give it back to the people eager to see it.

It's the tale of an immigrant making sauce and mixing drinks in a restaurant on 4th Street while, in the same room, American music history was being made.

This is the final push for crowdfunding. Unlike blogging, crowdfunding works. Of course, I'd prefer instead of a dozen "producers" making it possible for me to hire the right people, that only one or a couple of people step forward and say, "Bob, we got a fucking winner here."

Feel free to back this movie. A little or a lot. It will go a long way. And if you are not seeking a bumper sticker or a t-shirt, please share it with those who may be interested. Many thanks!!!!

Here is the portal for funding

http://www.rockethub.com/projects/52440-positively-porco-feature-film-about-nyc-s-first-folk-music-cabaret


~~~~~~~
"Positively Porco"
Folkumentary on
Gerde's Folk City and
Mike Porco
Under construction

What Mike Porco did for work:
http://youtu.be/A8pqKnZshpw

facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/positivelyporcomovie?ref=bookmarks

twitter:
https://twitter.com/PositivelyPorco

trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5O6T44CC0M

POSITIVELY PORCO: Folkumentary on Gerde's Folk City

@10:55 
I ran into Mike on the street one day he said, 'Johnny! Why you no work for me no more.?" And I said 'I gotta get paid too. You don't pay me enough.'
He was very cheap.
But….he loved the music…He had the best venue,
……what was so phenomenal about gerdes was that a lot of the great blues artists:
Lightnin' Hopkins, John Lee Hooker, Roosevelt Sykes, Jesse Lonecat Fuller, Babe Stoval…played at Gerdes. And they all stayed around the corner at the broadway central hotel……The blues scene in New York was Gerde's folk city. ….where else could you see Roosevelt Sykes??!!
~John P. Hammond
12.17.13
Positively Porco

53:55
they think ya know something because you've been around long enough and they'd say 'Arlo, what do i have to do to be a musician?'
i would just look at em
i say you want to be a musician?
quit doing everything else
just don't do it
and if you starve to death, you will have starved to death a musician.
~Arlo Guthrie 8.9.13
from Positively Porco
Folkumentary on Gerde's and Mike Porco

@9:15
cuz I got to play all different kinds of music
and all i had to do was play
and i thought that was wonderful!
what a wonderful gift!
to have musical talent
and
have other individuals ask me to play.
~Bruce Langhorne, 7.6.13
photo bob porco

Official Trailer

SEEKING SERIOUS EXECUTIVE

All currencies and forms of small budget sized advances accepted. Big market push would equal in kind returns.
Sometimes ya don't know what you have, sometimes you can't give it away.
Word of Positively Porco needs to go around the world because everyone should know how to write their own songs. They should know about Gerde's Folk City and everybody once housed there.

~Bob 

BOB DYLAN NEW YORK CONCERT PHOTOS B&W and low rez for your enjoyment

FIVE LORDS A-LEAPIN'
Beacon Theater, NYC
12.2.14

…ever since Jerry died…the group has grown, this merry band of brothers and sisters. Bob Dylan and His Band deliver!
Enjoy these pictures. Contraband pictures, that is. Complete with shots of each moment Bobby caught me filming. Cool!!
~bob

PS- don't forget to search Gerde's Folk City folkumentary POSITIVELY PORCO, watch the trailer, tell your friends, find me press and  a deep pocket interested in seeing Mike Porco's name go 'round the world as much as I do.

The right hand directs time

walk the walk

'you want brass balls?'

I'm not saying what this is

'Hey, that kid with the camera has the look of a Porco'

how you like me now?

Five Lords a-leapin

Bob sees the LCD glow in the balcony

Bob sees the LCD glow in the balcony, doesn't say anything

THE ANSWER MY FRIENDS

No offense to the other Bob, but he's been known to tell tall tales. 

Was he a carnie in New Mexico? A hobo? Does his driver's license say Jack Frost, Elston Gunn or Robert Zimmerman? Only the shadow knows.

I finally had the opportunity to talk to the sweetest woman living in Riverdale, New York, Delores Dixon. We had promised ourselves a visit with each other back when we met in May of this year. Somehow, that engagement stretched out all the way until today, a sunny and blustery Bronx day in November.

It's not everyday you get to have pizza and chat with a Greenwich Village Folk pioneer. Her name may not be known in every household, but she played an important role in the propagation of American Folk songs in the early 1960s with her trio, and sometime quartet, the New World Singers.

Gil Turner, Bob Cohen, Happy Traum and a young lady named Dee Dixon joined forces to create a band that would go on to be the very first to record the most replicated and re-recorded song of all time, Bob Dylan's 'Blowin' in the Wind.'

It was on a record called Broadsides and legend has it that a young Bobby Dylan showed up at Gerde's one day with the song when he was finally satisfied with the final product. He 'wowed' Gil Turner with the historic song in the basement, and Dylan let Gil be the first to perform it for an audience upstairs at Folk City. 

But the song had to come from somewhere. Of course, the melody had been 'borrowed,' in the folk process form of the word, from a song called 'No more auction block for me.' Delores Dixon became an accomplished singer and pianist playing such Gospels for her church amongst other numerous engagements and concerts. She was pals with 'Robert' and one day in East Harlem, they were tooling around with melodies and arrangements…Jamming, as it were, verbally.

"I watched him as he wrote the lyrics at my mother's house. He had a journal full of lyrics. He could put lyrics together in minutes. He liked the melody I had come up with.''

The other Bob is a little too busy confirm, clarify or to wax poetic about the past. But Dee Dixon just spilled some beans on film for me. Mr. Dylan also said in ''Chronicles'' that Delores was a dancer, journalist and from Alabama, neither of which are true. Make of it what you will.

~~~~~~~~~

I will be continuing to make the definitive documentary on the legendary Folk cabaret, Gerde's Folk City. It's called POSITIVELY PORCO. It's a story made by braiding together all the first person accounts from all the originals on the 'scene.' Delores was there. Robert was there. Gil Turner. Mike Porco. Arlo Guthrie. Odetta. Oscar Brand. John Lee Hooker. Suze Rotolo. Ratso. Stoner. Hammond. Feliciano. The club was truly home to American music history. 

I'm happy to become witness to the most interesting collection of memories and tales I could think of. And I'm more than happy to call Delores a friend, too. She doesn't want me to set the record straight or make a fuss. She speaks matter-of-fact about her past. And you can't change the past. She was part of the first group to record 'Blowin.' Case closed. Robert was at the recording session and was happy to share it with his friends. I think Dylan said it best in that Super Bowl commercial: You can't fake original.

~Porco

JOSÉ FELICIANO adds insight to POSITIVELY PORCO

Words can hardly explain how familiar my time with José was this week.

Finally, after 5 years since meeting him and getting to know him and his lovely wife, we were able to sit for his moment on film to speak about Mike Porco for the Gerde's Folk City documentary, Positively Porco.

I will give you a quote from my friend. Thank you for the lesson, José. See you soon.

~bob

Talkin' Bob Porco blues

''I would like to say something TO Mike Porco, because as far as I'm concerned, in my memory and in my soul, he still lives and I would like to say 'thank you Mike! A poor kid from the hills of Puerto rico become somebody. Your help and advice was an inspiration to me. His advice was 'keep going.'

He encouraged me and by playing Gerde's, I became somebody.''

~ José Feliciano, 11.3.14

The warmest place on Earth

José digs POSITIVELY PORCO

Two Puerto Ricans from the Bronx