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"Squatting with a Folk Legend (sort of)"
When I first started working in NYC, I was living in Montclair, NJ. I hated the commute (and the town), so I was always looking for crash space in Manhattan. For a few days, I squatted at a friend's place after his lease was up and his landlord hadn't started renovating. My friend gave me the keys. His roommate gave keys to Eric Andersen, who needed crash space while he was in town.
Eric Andersen has never heard of you either.
Eric Andersen was a very important folk star in about 1966. He played with Bob Dylan and Phil Ochs back in the day. Later, he went on to work with Lou Reed and Joni Mitchell. He lives in Norway now, but still releases albums and tours the US. He still has a following and recently worked with Susan Vega and Lou Reed. He is very good.
Eric wasn't around when I stopped in after work, so I went on the town with a friend. I wandered back to my "squat" around 1am, but there was no sign of Eric Andersen. Then, in July 2000 at 4am in New York City, the singer/songwriter folk world was rocked when Eric Andersen, an obscure folk has-been, crossed paths with David W. Jacobsen, an obscure folk nobody. (sorry Eric)
He walked in and found me sleeping on the couch where he was crashing. It was a really big couch that was actually two couches that went in an L.
I woke up.
"Excuse me, who are you?" He asked.
I explained myself as a friend of his friend's roommate.
He lent me a pillow and apologized for waking me. He seemed like a really cool guy. I was so awe inspired by our meeting, that I promptly fell back asleep. I had a weird dream where I got on the wrong bus and instead of going down to the East Village, I wound up on a Caribbean island. At first, I thought it was cool. However, I soon found that like every place else I go, there were no single women on the island.
The next day, I went back to NJ for what I thought was a date. I took an hour and 15 minutes to get back to Jersey. I got ready and all psyched for my date. The girl drove 40 minutes to my apartment, stayed 5 minutes to dump me, and then drove 40 minutes home. I went drinking with my roommate and decided that the next time I get dumped, I
want to be dumped over the phone. If she'd dumped me over the phone, I'd have stayed in the city and really met Eric Andersen. I wanted to actually talked to the guy. I stayed at the "squat" the next day, but by then Eric had taken off.
Oh well, now I can say:
Legendary singer/songwriter Eric Andersen has said the following about singer/songwriter David W. Jacobsen:
"Excuse me, who are you?"
Eric Andersen Information
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