History

Van Ronk features some of his most elaborate recordings with many backing musicians. It includes English language versions of songs by non-English speaking composers (Bertold Brecht and Jacques Brel

Jacques Brel

Jacques Brel was a Belgian singer-songwriter who composed and performed literate, thoughtful, and theatrical songs that generated a large, devoted following in France initially, and later throughout the world. He was widely considered a master of the modern chanson...

).

Another release titled Van Ronk was issued as a double LP

LP album

The LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry...

 in 1972 by Fantasy Records

Fantasy Records

Fantasy Records is a United States-based record label that was founded by Max and Sol Weiss in 1949 in San Francisco, California. They had previously operated a record-pressing plant called Circle Record Company before forming the Fantasy label...

 by pairing Dave Van Ronk, Folksinger

Dave Van Ronk, Folksinger

Dave Van Ronk, Folksinger was a 1963 album by American folksinger Dave Van Ronk.-History:Folksinger was recorded in April 1962 during the same sessions that produced Inside Dave Van Ronk and that would all end up on the Fantasy Records 1989 CD release, Inside Dave Van Ronk...

and Inside Dave Van Ronk

Inside Dave Van Ronk

Inside Dave Van Ronk was a 1963 album by American folksinger Dave Van Ronk.Inside Dave Van Ronk was recorded in April 1962 during the same sessions that produced Dave Van Ronk, Folksinger and that would all end up on the Fantasy Records 1989 CD release, Inside Dave Van Ronk.-Track listing:#"House...

. That collection was later released on CD as Inside Dave Van Ronk

Inside Dave Van Ronk (compilation)

Inside Dave Van Ronk is a compilation album by American folk and blues singer Dave Van Ronk, originally released in 1972 on a double LP called Van Ronk...

.

Reception

Music critic Robert Christgau

Robert Christgau

Robert Christgau is an American essayist, music journalist, and self-proclaimed "Dean of American Rock Critics".One of the earliest professional rock critics, Christgau is known for his terse capsule reviews, published since 1969 in his Consumer Guide columns...

 wrote of Van Ronk: "He shoots his shot at big-label production here, and now and then the orchestration (not to mention the material) turns surprisingly schmaltzy, but for the most part this shouted melee of song collection is a riot."

Side one

1. "Bird on the Wire
   Bird on the Wire
   "Bird on the Wire" is one of Leonard Cohen's signature songs. It was recorded 26 September 1968 in Nashville and included on his 1969 album Songs from a Room. A May 1968 recording produced by David Crosby, entitled "Like a Bird", was added to the 2007 remastered CD...
   
   " (Leonard Cohen
   Leonard Cohen
   Leonard Norman Cohen, is a Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, poet and novelist. Cohen published his first book of poetry in Montreal in 1956 and his first novel in 1963. His work often explores religion, isolation, sexuality and interpersonal relationships...
   
   ) – 3:55
2. "Fox's Minstrel Show" (Michael Small) – 3:05
3. "Port of Amsterdam" (Jacques Brel
   Jacques Brel
   Jacques Brel was a Belgian singer-songwriter who composed and performed literate, thoughtful, and theatrical songs that generated a large, devoted following in France initially, and later throughout the world. He was widely considered a master of the modern chanson...
   
   /E. Blau/M. Schuman) – 3:25
4. "Fat Old John" (Peter Stampfel) – 1:06
5. "Urge for Going" (Joni Mitchell
   Joni Mitchell
   Joni Mitchell, CC is a Canadian musician, singer songwriter, and painter. Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in her native Saskatchewan and Western Canada and then busking in the streets and dives of Toronto...
   
   ) – 4:37

Side two

1. "Random Canyon" (Peter Stampfel) – 2:05
2. "I Think it's Going to Rain Today" (Randy Newman
   Randy Newman
   Randall Stuart "Randy" Newman is an American singer-songwriter, arranger, composer, and pianist who is known for his mordant pop songs and for film scores....
   
   ) – 3:50
3. "Gaslight Rag" (Dave Van Ronk) – 2:55
4. "Honey Hair" (Van Ronk) – 3:15
5. "Legend of the Dead Soldier" (Bertolt Brecht
   Bertolt Brecht
   Bertolt Brecht was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director.An influential theatre practitioner of the 20th century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the...
   
   /Eric Bentley) – 4:05
6. "Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive
   Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive
   "Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive" is a popular song. The music was written by Harold Arlen and the lyrics by Johnny Mercer, and it was published in 1944. It is sung in the style of a sermon, and explains that accentuating the positive is key to happiness...
   
   " (Johnny Mercer
   Johnny Mercer
   John Herndon "Johnny" Mercer was an American lyricist, songwriter and singer. He is best known as a lyricist, but he also composed music. He was also a popular singer who recorded his own songs as well as those written by others...
   
   , Harold Arlen
   Harold Arlen
   Harold Arlen was an American composer of popular music, having written over 500 songs, a number of which have become known the world over. In addition to composing the songs for The Wizard of Oz, including the classic 1938 song, "Over the Rainbow,” Arlen is a highly regarded contributor to the...
   
   ) – 2:30

Production notes

• All Songs Arranged by Dave Woods except "Gaslight Rag" by Dave Van Ronk
• Produced by Dave Woods
• Engineered by Steve Katz
• Cover Art by Anne Friedman
• Morale by Joanne Grace
• Manager – Ron Shelley
• Spiritual – John Jameson
• Polydor: Karen Austin, Jon Sagen