The Minnesota highway that Bob Dylan fixated on: “I always felt like I’d started on it”
Throughout Bob Dylan‘s early discography, there are many times when the legendary songwriter chose to return to tried and tested themes and lean heavily into specific settings to tell his stories.
Of course, war has always been at the front of his mind, with him having written several prominent protest songs against the conflict in Vietnam and the prospect of total annihilation coming as a result of America’s involvement in the Asian country’s civil war. ‘Talkin’ World War III Blues’ and ‘Masters of War’ are notable examples of this, taken from his early career, and Dylan would return to these subjects on multiple occasions afterwards to highlight his continued discontent with how it was being dealt with.
Something else that Dylan frequently used to weave into his lyrics was talk of locations both near and far to his whereabouts, travelling from his adoptive home in New York all the way back to his roots in the Midwest, with multiple songs that reference the North Country in specific relation to the remote northern areas of the region he was raised in.
But how was Dylan getting from place to place in all of these songs? While he has numerous songs that reference specific modes of transport that may have helped him on his travels, covering ‘Freight Train Blues’ on his debut album and talking about ‘When The Ship Comes In’ and his view ‘From A Buick 6’, Dylan was more interested in the routes he needed to take and the things that were occurring on these transitional roads.
Highways are one of the most common recurring themes on early Dylan records; he started out with a cover of ‘Highway 51’ by Curtis Jones and then went ‘Down the Highway’ on The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, but despite taking these distinctly different paths, there was one road he would find himself travelling time and time again, to the point that he ended up having to reference his constant returns to this highway.
Highway 61, a road that passes through his home state of Minnesota, where he grew up, and all the way down to New Orleans, is frequently referred to as the ‘blues highway’, on account of the fact that it connects many of the major cities that are synonymous with the blues.
Dylan’s repeated trips down this route were not just a tribute to the fact that so much of the music he was influenced by had originated from the cities that lay on this highway, but also because he could weave so many different narratives from the region and tell stories about the troubles faced by the people in remote towns on the route. ‘Highway 61 Revisited’, taken from the album of the same name, is a fantastic example of him exhibiting this and talking about his fascination with the road.
“I always felt like I’d started on it, always had been on it, and could go anywhere from it,” Dylan later explained of his obsession. There was virtually no other place where he could have situated this meeting of God and Abraham, their deadly deals, and his commentary on how America’s ills deeply affect those in this part of the country. He was so familiar with Highway 61 that it had to become the focal point of many of his greatest stories.
It wouldn’t be the last time he ended up on the road in his music, but it makes sense that the title ends up as ‘Highway 61 Revisited’, as it’s a place he comes to time and time again to tell the rich stories of America through.
Never Miss A Tale
The Far Out Bob Dylan Newsletter
All the latest stories about Bob Dylan from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.