Bob Neuwirth | |
---|---|
Birth name | Robert Neuwirth |
Born | June 20, 1939 |
Origin | Akron, Ohio, U.S. |
Occupation(s) | Singer-songwriter, record producer |
Instruments | Vocals, guitar, banjo |
Years active | 1960s–present |
Bob Neuwirth (born June 20, 1939) is an American folk music singer, songwriter, record producer and visual artist.
A mainstay of the early 1960s Cambridge, Massachusetts, folk scene, he subsequently became a friend and associate of Bob Dylan alongside whom he appears in D.A. Pennebaker's documentary Dont Look Back and Dylan's own self-referential romantic fantasy/tour film Renaldo and Clara. The lower half of him appears behind Dylan in Daniel Kramer's front cover photo for the album Highway 61 Revisited. Neuwirth assembled the backing band for Dylan's 1975 Rolling Thunder Revue. With Janis Joplin and poet Michael McClure, he co-wrote the song "Mercedes Benz". He also introduced Kris Kristofferson to Janis Joplin.
Colin Irwin writes:
Painter, road manager, sidekick, confidante, henchman, poet, underground cult hero, womanizer, party organizer, self-appointed king of cool, and baiter-in-chief of Baez, Donovan, and any other unfortunate who wound up in the line of fire of his sledgehammer jibes, Neuwirth went on to become a film-maker and a credible singer-songwriter in his own right, co-writing the wonderful 'Mercedes Benz' with his friend Janis Joplin.