Following Bob Dylan, and Maybe Even Bono

Travel Blog  •  Michael Yessis  •  09.12.05 | 4:20 AM ET

In his 2004 memoir, Chronicles: Volume One, Bob Dylan recalls spending an evening with Bono and telling U2’s singer that he should take a trip through Minnesota to the birthplace of America, following a road along “the river up through Winona, Lake City, Frontenac.” What Dylan didn’t reveal is what Steve Dougherty figured out when he opened a road map.

Dougherty writes in an excellent New York Times story that the unnamed road in “Chronicles” is Highway 61, “the fabled Blues Highway that runs from the Mississippi Delta through Duluth, where Mr. Dylan was born, and that Mr. Dylan mythologized in his 1965 masterpiece ‘Highway 61 Revisited.’” That revelation sparked Dougherty’s own road trip, following the trail Dylan suggested to Bono. Among the places Dougherty visits on his excursion: Rollingstone, Minnesota, population 697.

I’m no Bobcat, but I care enough about Dylan’s music that I borrowed “Chronicles” from a friend a couple months ago. It’s a rambling, somewhat cryptic read, but it also contains at least one terrific sequence of travel writing. The passage takes place in 1989 in New Orleans during the recording of his album “Oh Mercy.” The sessions with Daniel Lanois were sometimes contentious, so at one point Dylan escapes by hopping on his motorcycle and taking a trip through the bayou with his wife. His vivid retelling of the trip includes a visit with a man called Sun Pie at King Tut’s Museum outside of the city. I can’t find any of the passage online, but if you can get your hands on it I highly recommended that you do.



5 Comments for Following Bob Dylan, and Maybe Even Bono

p0rn st0rm 09.12.05 | 2:04 PM ET

yea-uh i read that article. i thought it was a little goofy. i’m not sure he really got what was going on with norse statue. but he’s right sugarloaf in winona is really cool.

i’ll check out chronicles

Frank 09.12.05 | 2:27 PM ET

As a matter of fact, it is pretty cool. I actually grew up in Winona.  Here’s an overwrought account I did a while back for the Star Tribune Travel Section, if you’re interested:

http://www.startribune.com/stories/1513/28855.html

Rotten Doctor Commie Rat 09.29.05 | 12:46 AM ET

“I’m no Bobcat,”
Don’t lie.

“but I care enough…”
Why so defensive?

I’ll burn you a copy of the original Blood On The Tracks, New York sessions. You’ll weep, wail and be well on your way to earining a masters in Dylanology.

If anyone’s interested in Bob’s “Chronicles” passage on New Orleans, e-mail me.

Thanks for the link.
—Rotten Doctor Commie Rat
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

annemarie 12.30.05 | 7:15 AM ET

I’ll never forget the nite I read Chronicles..(it was US election night)...CNN volume was off…with a fresh pot of tea by my side..curled into my sofa..I began ... . into Bob’s journey…I actually smelled the lavender in New Orlean’s while on back of his (my vision)bike…that’s how this genius/poet grab’s me ( at a wee 51 yrs young!) and by the time I finished the book ..it was 9 AM…I had begun around 9 PM the previous day/nite…does it matter??? BOB ON RADIO???this is awesome…GO BOB…and uh…I’m just a listener/fan..and dont mind letting everybody know..how lovable Bob is to my own soul, to my own perception…to my own ear’s…..God bless the dude…...and all of us…who ride the poetry in motion express wit him…A Lucky 2006 greet from here in the Lowlands…(no punt intended anywhere).....sisterlee

Matt Marek 02.05.07 | 10:48 PM ET

Blood on the tracks track listing said it was recorded in new york but thats only because the leaflet went to press too fast or bob didn’t feel like crediting the real musicians but a good portion was recorded in dinkytown up in the cities. Winona is a great place to be from i understand why bob would mention it. My favorite moment of the road is passing juvenile hall up in red wing, the setting for all along the watchtower.

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