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View Full Version : Al Aronowitz--early rock journalist/man who helped Beatles meet Dylan dies...


BeatleChick
Aug 01, 2005, 08:44 PM
Very sad news--I used to go to his site quite often, and loved reading his writings about the lads, and other rockers... All the best to his soul as it continues on...

His site:

http://www.theblacklistedjournalist.com/

The obit:

Obituaries in the news

Associated Press
http://www.timesleader.com/mld/timesleader/news/nation/12279431.htm

Al Aronowitz

ELIZABETH, N.J. (AP) - Al Aronowitz, a pioneer of rock journalism who introduced Bob Dylan to the Beatles, died Monday, his son said. He was 77.

Aronowitz died of cancer, said his son, Joel Roi Aronowitz.

Al Aronowitz became a journalist after studying at Rutgers University in the mid-1950s. In 1959, at the New York Post, he wrote a 12-part series on the "beat" movement.

In reporting the series, he became a friend of such early counterculture luminaries as poet Allen Ginsberg and novelist Jack Kerouac. "He really fell into the whole lifestyle," said Gerry Nicosia, author of the Jack Kerouac biography "Memory Babe."

The pieces have been described as early examples of participatory journalism, a technique perfected by better-known writers such as Tom Wolfe and Hunter S. Thompson,

The 1964 summit of the Beatles and Dylan came about as Aronowitz was covering the British band for the Saturday Evening Post. He also claimed that Dylan wrote "Mr. Tambourine Man" in his kitchen.

In his last years, Aronowitz self-published two books, "Bob Dylan and the Beatles" and "Bobby Darin Was a Friend of Mine." He was working on another, "Mick and Miles," about Mick Jagger and Miles Davis, when he

twovirgins
Aug 02, 2005, 12:17 AM
may have been a huge huge turning point for the Beatles!
Thats when paul had the "seven levels" vision :laugh5:

HMVNipper
Aug 02, 2005, 03:47 AM
Wow...we met Mr. Aronowitz at Chicago Beatlefest last summer (my husband, son and myself) and he was a nice man. I particularly remember him chatting so kindly with my little son at the Fest -- he had a table across the room from mine and when Jamie got bored he went over and talked to him.

He certainly had some interesting stories about the Beatles and Bob Dylan! :smoking1: :smoking1:

May he rest in peace.

beatlelover45223
Aug 04, 2005, 08:13 PM
RIP Mr. Aronowitz, thanks for some wonderful written memories.

lennonluvr9
Aug 05, 2005, 05:36 AM
I saw that on the Beatlefest website...that's too bad...

Starry-eyed
Aug 05, 2005, 11:36 AM
I saw it on the Beatlefest website as well last night; I also met him at last year's fest in Chicago, and he seemed like such a nice man. So sad... :sad3: