1969: The year that was, still is, and always will be. Resistance is futile.

Everything you need to know about this one can be found in the title...


CURSE YOU, DAVE BINDER AND YOUR VERY BRIEF DEADLINE-SURFING ANSWERS TO MY E-MAILED INTERVIEW QUESTIONS!

A heavily researched panic attack by David O’Connell

(published September 18, 2003 in The York Dispatch under a shorter, less self-referential title)
What do you get when you type the name “Dave Binder” into an Internet search engine?

Among other things, you wind up with links to the many Dave Binders of the world. A few of them are athletic minded individuals: Dave Binder of Decatur, Ga. recently took home a first place trophy in a local “golf gala," while another Dave Binder tends to the walking wounded as the University of New Mexico’s head athletics trainer.

Some of them should probably get out a bit more often; for instance, Dave Binder of the Illinois Dave Binders Local 151 recently “dungeonmastered” a Star Wars role-playing game that, in the words of a fellow player, was “unique” and “really neat.”

To ignore other Dave Binders might cost you your life: Dave Binder’s work as a member of the Emergency Film Group of Edgartown, Mass. has taught us important lessons on how to handle anhydrous ammonia, a dangerous gas that can severely burn the eyes, lungs and throat.

Perhaps the strangest Dave Binder of them all is Dave Binder of Coupeville, Wash., who for $20 will teach interested persons the obscure art of “napkin folding," in which ordinary napkins can be transformed into candlesticks, bagpipes, or elf’s shoes.

Though all of these Dave Binders play important roles in American society, one Dave Binder stands head and shoulders above the rest in terms of popularity (or number of Internet mentions, anyway) and that is folk singer Dave Binder.

Oddly enough, this Dave Binder is somewhat at odds with the Internet. Yes, he does have his own website, http://www.davebinder.com, and uses it to promote upcoming concerts such as the “1969: The Year That Rocked The World” extravaganza taking place Thursday night on the Penn State York campus.

And yet the whole purpose of a show like “1969” is to take us back to a simpler time when the Internet didn’t exist, a time when putting together a list of America’s many Dave Binders was not the easy task that it is today. An age when the CD format on which Binder’s six albums are available was merely a gleam in a Dutch physicist’s eye. Why, back in 1969, Binder was ten years away from playing his first show, and more than two decades away from receiving the first of ten consecutive Campus Entertainer of the Year Award nominations. Life’s been very good to him since 1969, in fact, so why the look back?

“It started in 1989 when I realized that no one was doing a twenty-year Woodstock tribute,” explains Binder, a 47-year old Massachusetts native. “It grew from there as I realized all the other events of that year.”

Binder’s show takes the big hits of the “Summer of ‘69” and places them into context alongside the landmark events of the day. For instance, a discussion of Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the moon segues into a solo acoustic rendition of David Bowie’s “Space Oddity.” From the Beatles to Richard Nixon, no important musical or historical figures are left out of this unique tribute, just one of several theme shows Binder puts on for college audiences across the country.

Catch Binder one night and you might see him in full James Taylor drag, leading a sing-along of “You’ve Got A Friend” as he strums his way through “Fire and Rain: An Evening of James Taylor.” See him on a college campus, and you might get to witness Dave whipping a group of incoming freshman into shape through his “Orientation” program of songs and sketches. (Perhaps something like that is in the cards for his Saturday morning show at York College of Pennsylvania.) On other occasions, you might get to watch him squirm as he takes “Any Reasonable Request," an improvisational show where the audience dictates the set list and dares Dave to “play it or fake it.” Regardless of which Dave Binder show you take in, you can rest assured that at no time will you be asked to fold a napkin into the shape of a duck. Dave “Folk Singer” Binder himself guarantees it.

-Dave O'Connell