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He played a big role in Bob Dylan's early career. First, by giving him a place to sleep when Dylan arrived without enough money for a place to live, and then by educating him, and introducing to the folk scene in Greenwich Village at the time.
They were pretty close, but Ronk was among the jealous crowd when Dylan got signed by Columbia within a year.
I saw an interview with him where he said that Dylan was different with respect to his work ethic in comparison to the other people in the folk scene. He said that Dylan would listen in to their b.s. sessions about ideas for new directions in folk music, and the glaring need for modern, original compositions. Because at the time, the repertoire of the average folk singer consisted of mainly Appalachian Folk Music, and older ballads from the British Isles. The first folkies could best be characterized as interpretative troubadours. A modern American folk style had yet to be developed.
So while other performers were content to sit around drinking and talking about what this new genre might be, 19 year-old Bob Dylan was not. Their ideas were not really b.s.. The ideas Ronk and others tossed around had real merit.
Dylan would listen in, take in what he heard, and through long hours of painstaking dedication to writing, he implemented the style and crafted the genre that the others only talked about. He stole their ideas, essentially.
Dylan rationalized (probably correctly)that they were never going to move on their ideas anyway. Dylan's "genius," could be credited more to having a work ethic, ambition, and a boldness that surpassed the older, more established folk performers.
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