New York/Jack Hardy
March 12th, 2011 by admin | Filed under Greenwich Village, Songs/Songwriters.
Jack Hardy in his apartment on Houston Street (4×5 film) — © Brian Rose
Jack Hardy, the extraordinary song craftsman, and one of my most cherished friends died last night of cancer. New York Times obituary here.
From The Boulevardiers by Suzanne Vega:
(I am the tall lover of the city, Jack the quick and fair.)
He loves the city with the bricks and broken bottles
and the pretty little flowers as they grow against the wall.
He is dark, he is tall, he is the tallest one of all of us.
You are bright and quick and fair
and seems that you have lost some hair
but this is all right.
This is OK. We do not mind.
We write and fight and sing
and this is fine.
This is the cover of one of Jack’s earliest albums. I did the photograph. It was originally a blank LP sleeve, and we called it the White Album. At some point a record company picked it up and a proper cover was made. I don’t remember the location of the photograph, but it was undoubtedly somewhere in Greenwich Village, or very possibly near my apartment in the East Village.
When I met Jack in 1977 he was a charismatic figure full of a sense of personal destiny. The picture above expresses some of that ambitious confidence–and an image carefully cultivated. Later, the trajectory of his career leveled off, but his songwriting skills did not. If anything, they grew and deepened over the years.
Jack Hardy — © Brian Rose
This photo found on the internet is from the same session as the one above. I do not seem to have the negatives, although I haven’t finished looking. I may have some prints. I am guessing that I gave the negatives to Jack shortly after they were made, and they may be in his archive. Nothing was digital in those days, of course.
UPDATE:
Arrived somewhat late to an impromptu memorial concert at Banjo Jim’s, a small club in the East Village. I sang The Skyline, my song about 9/11, which was partly a response to Jack Hardy losing his brother in one of the Twin Towers. I did it a capella, less than perfectly, but I give myself some credit for bravery. Several people did wonderful versions of Jack’s songs, and we ended with Go Tell the Savior led by David Massengill with one of the verses sung beautifully by Jim Allen. I hear that a bigger, more formal memorial is being planned.
MORE PHOTOS:
The Folk Brothers, David Massengill and Jack Hardy, 2010 — © Brian Rose
Folk City 50th anniversary, Mark Dann and Jack Hardy, 2010 — © Brian Rose
Jack Hardy and David Massengill, Houston Street apartment — © Brian Rose
Subscribe Feed (RSS)
nice words brian, jack was a giant and as I’m sure you remember my major songwriting influence. A loss to big to fathom. Hope all is well with you and I’m going to try to make it to Jacks memorial when I find out when it is. All the best , Jeff
I had been wondering what was going on with Jack Hardy…..for the last few weeks ever since I got fiercely interested in the life & work of another folksinger, Al Grierson (1949-2000) I sent a PM to him, introducing myself and expressing my interest in gathering research about Al…and just in the last few days I had decided to contact him again. And then I heard the sad news of his passing…….
I knew it would be difficult to work through the profound spiritual privacy surrounding Al’s life……all the other of Al’s friends I contacted were likewise silent at my queries. But never did I dream of the real reason…..they were apparently honoring the spirit of Jack Hardy during the tragic illness that ended up taking him from us. What sorrowful news! Rest in peace Jack…and thank you for ennobling the concept of “folk”…and keeping us folks noble through your magnificent body of work and love of sharing and community.
Brian, that’s a beautiful photo of Jack in the apartment. See you on 3/31? Cheers.
Chris,
The picture at top of Jack in his apartment was done last year for possible use on Rye Grass. He ended up going with a painting, but I know he liked the photo. I actually did the image with a 4×5 view camera, if you can believe it. I think I bounced a light off the wall just to supplement things.
But no contrivance here. Jack was relaxed and trusted me to come up with something good. He probably would have preferred a dash of the dramatic, the mysterious. He’s worn a cape and a velvet jacket–the last one green. But as Jack himself once wrote:
a cloak will not hide
what your own eyes see
a cloak will not change
what is hidden underneath
just as mine does not confine
the idea of what i am
i am not a tailor i’m a man
Love that song. I love the older ones, although have not listened in a while. I’ve had Lady-O and Guttersnipe taking turns running through my head the past few days.
Jack’s late writing is as good as the early stuff, in my opinion, but I’ve always been partial to the songs he was doing when we first met. I can still remember hearing The Tailor for the first time–I was just stunned. The Guttersnipe was not part of Jack’s main sets, but sometimes late at night, when the audience had thinned out, and a bunch of songwriters were perched at the bar, he would do it. Jack was never better than the third set–2am–on a Friday or Saturday night at Folk City.
I’ll always think of it as The White Album. “You’ve probably seen the promotional T-shirts,” Jack used to say.
The ‘Graveyard shifts’ were great. And, yeah, I had the same reaction to The Tailor – it was the first of his songs I ever heard.