The Bitter End (The Other End)

The Bitter End at 147 Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village is New York City's oldest rock club, open since 1961. A 230-capacity room in the heart of the Village, it has launched more careers, hosted more legendary nights, and witnessed more of American music history than almost any other venue in the country. It was briefly renamed The Other End in 1975, but the original name stuck.

Dylan's connection to The Bitter End runs from the early '60s through to one of the most storied nights in rock history. On 3 July 1975 — when the club was going by The Other End — Dylan was in the audience watching Ramblin' Jack Elliott. Elliott spotted him, started playing "With God on Our Side," and invited him onstage. Dylan joined for "Pretty Boy Floyd" and "How Long Blues," initially declining to sing on his own. Then he changed his mind, borrowed Elliott's guitar, and performed "Abandoned Love" — a song nobody in the room had heard before. It was the only time he ever played it live.

Someone in the audience made a bootleg recording that became legendary in collector circles. Eyewitness Joe Kivak later called it "the most powerful performance I've ever heard." The song was recorded in studio during the Desire sessions but wasn't officially released until 1985's Biograph.

That same summer, Dylan saw Patti Smith perform at The Other End and the experience planted the seed for the Rolling Thunder Revue — the roaming, collaborative tour he launched in October 1975 with Joan Baez, Roger McGuinn, Joni Mitchell, Ramblin' Jack, T-Bone Burnett, Mick Ronson, and others. The Bitter End is considered the birthplace of the Revue.

In 1971, Kris Kristofferson invited a young Chicago mailman named John Prine to open for him at The Bitter End. Kristofferson had seen Prine play at the Earl of Old Town in Chicago after Steve Goodman dragged him there late one night. "By the end of the first line we knew we were hearing something else," Kristofferson later recalled. "Twenty-four years old and writes like he's two hundred and twenty."

In the audience at The Bitter End that night was Jerry Wexler, president of Atlantic Records. The next day, Wexler offered Prine a $25,000 recording contract. Prine's self-titled debut — featuring "Sam Stone," "Angel from Montgomery," "Paradise," and "Illegal Smile" — followed shortly after and is now regarded as one of the greatest debut albums ever made.

The Bitter End wasn't just a music venue. It was one of the most important comedy rooms in America. Woody Allen, Bill Cosby, Richard Pryor, Billy Crystal, George Carlin, Cheech & Chong, Andy Kaufman, Lily Tomlin, and Ray Romano all performed here. Lady Gaga played the club as an unsigned act before returning for a special free late-night show in 2016 during her Dive Bar Tour.

The Bitter End is still open and still hosting live music seven nights a week. It was granted official New York City landmark status in 1992. The room is small, dark, and buzzing — exactly as it should be. It sits on the stretch of Bleecker Street between MacDougal and LaGuardia Place that was the epicentre of the 1960s Greenwich Village folk scene, alongside Cafe Wha?, the Village Vanguard, and the remnants of Gerde's Folk City.