Last Call is a song by

Dave Van Ronk David Kenneth Ritz Van Ronk (June 30, 1936 – February 10, 2002) was an American folk singer. An important figure in the American folk music revival and New York City's Greenwich Village scene in the 1960s, he was nicknamed the "Mayor of Mac ...

, originally released on his album

Songs For Ageing Children ''Songs for Ageing Children'' (sub-titled ''Let the Feeling Talk to You'') is an album by American folk and blues performer Dave Van Ronk, released in 1973. The album has not been released on CD, but a needle drop of the album has appeared on dig ...

in 1973, and released in a different version on Going Back To Brooklyn in 1994, and is one of the few songs he has written. Van Ronk claims that he woke up one morning after a night of drinking with

Leonard Cohen Leonard Norman Cohen (September 21, 1934November 7, 2016) was a Canadian singer-songwriter, poet and novelist. His work explored religion, politics, isolation, depression, sexuality, loss, death, and romantic relationships. He was inducted in ...

and Joni Mitchell, and the lyrics to this song were written on a piece of paper. Neither of them admitted to writing it, so he had to assume that he had

In popular culture

Crime writer

Lawrence Block Lawrence Block (born June 24, 1938) is an American crime writer best known for two long-running New York-set series about the recovering alcoholic P.I. Matthew Scudder and the gentleman burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr. Block was named a Grand Mas ...

took the title of his

Matthew Scudder Matthew (Matt) Scudder is a fictional character who appears in novels by American crime writer Lawrence Block. Fictional biography Scudder debuted in 1976's ''The Sins of the Fathers'' as an alcoholic ex-cop who had recently quit the NYPD and ...

novel ''

When the Sacred Ginmill Closes ''When the Sacred Ginmill Closes'' is a Matthew Scudder novel, written by Lawrence Block. Based on the short story "By the Dawn's Early Light", and published four years after ''Eight Million Ways to Die'', this novel resurrected Block's interest ...

'' (1986) from the lyrics to the song:

And so we’ve had another night
of poetry and poses,
and each man knows he’ll be alone
when the sacred ginmill closes.

A key scene in the novel has ex-cop Scudder listening to the song late one night in the studio apartment of a bartender as they drink their lives away, and the song serves as a structural and philosophical theme for the book.Song of the day: DAVE VAN RONK – Last Call (1973 / 1994) , Music Musings and Miscellany
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References

{{authority control 1973 songs