Dave Frishberg on “Van Lingle Mungo”
With the recent passing of Danny Gardella, who was one of the players featured in the classic song “Van Lingle Mungo,” a discussion was started on SABR-L, the members-only email listserv, as to which players mentioned in the song were still alive. With the recent passing of Danny Gardella, who was one of the players featured in the classic song “Van Lingle Mungo,” a discussion was started on SABR-L, the members-only email listserv, as to which players mentioned in the song were still alive. To much delight, legendary jazz artist Dave Frishberg, who penned the tune, shared his experiences with the email group. Here is a small excerpt of his SABR-L Post which is available in full in the SABR-L archives: The only other guy [besides Eddie Basinski] from the song I ever met was Mungo himself, who arrived from Pageland, South Carolina, to be on the Dick Cavett show and listen to me sing the song. This was 1969, when Cavett had a nightly show in New York. Backstage, Mungo asked me when he would see some remuneration for the song. When he heard my explanation about how there was unlikely to be any remuneration for anyone connected with the song, least of all him, he was genuinely downcast. “But it
Originally published: April 11, 2005. Last Updated: April 11, 2005.