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Highway 61 Revisited: Bob Dylan Tour
Follow the trail that leads from Robert Zimmerman to Bob Dylan, from the singer’s birthplace in Duluth to his childhood home in Hibbing, and to hangouts near the University of Minnesota campus where the folksinger crafted his signature sound.
DAY 1 Minneapolis & St. Paul
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis Campus. Dylan was enrolled from fall 1959–fall 1960.
Dinkytown, adjacent to the Minneapolis East Bank Campus:
- Ten O'clock Scholar (414 14th Ave SE, now a parking lot). Dylan played here regularly from late 1959 to the fall of 1960.
- Gray's Campus Drug (327 14th Ave SE, now Loring Pasta Bar). Dylan lived here in a 2nd floor room starting in the winter of 1960.
- "Positively 4th Street," runs through the heart of Dinkytown.
- The Podium (425 14th Avenue SE). In 1959, Dylan bought his guitar strings here. In 1974, when Dylan returned to town to record "Blood on The Tracks," the Podium lent him a vintage Martin OO and the Podium staff was tapped to be his backup band during the recording of that album.
The Bastille (an erstwhile coffee house, formerly near the corner of Oak Street and Washington Avenue on the U of M Campus): Dylan played here in the spring of 1960.
St. Paul, The Purple Onion Pizza Parlor (722 N Snelling Ave at the corner of Minnehaha Avenue, now Hamline apartments). Dylan played here in the fall of 1959 and spring of 1960.
South Minneapolis, Sound80 (2709 E 25th St, now another business). In 1974, Dylan gathered Minneapolis musicians to re-record new material for “Blood on the Tracks,” an album he had started in New York.
West Bank, Minneapolis.
- Koerner, Ray and Glover, a local folk-blues group famous in the early 60's with whom Dylan hung out and jammed. Koerner & Glover occasionally perform at the West Bank joint, Palmer's Bar.
DAY 2 Duluth
First home (519 North 3rd Ave East). Dylan was born in Duluth May 24, 1941, and lived here until 1948.
Duluth Armory (2416 London Road). Dylan witnessed the next to the last performance of Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens, who played here in February 1959 just prior to their deaths in a plane crash in Clear Lake, Iowa. Now called the Armory Arts & Music Center, it marks the beginning of Duluth's Bob Dylan Way, a 1.8 mile cultural pathway designated with brown, black and white signs depicting the world-famous singer/songwriter. An exhibit about Bob Dylan Way is at Fitger's, located at 600 East Superior Street in downtown Duluth.
Bayfront Park (home of the annual Bayfront Blues Festival on Duluth's inner harbor). This is near the Duluth Event & Convention Center where Dylan performed in 1998.
"Highway 61 Revisited". Highway 61 runs for over 400 miles in Minnesota from the southeast corner north along the Mississippi River on Great River Road to Minneapolis-St. Paul and then to Duluth and along North Shore Scenic Drive to Canada.
DAY 3 Hibbing
Dylan Days, 4-day tribute festival built around Dylan's birthday, May 24.
Childhood home (2425 7th Avenue East). Dylan lived here from 1948-1959.
Hibbing High School (800 East 21st Street). Dylan's second band, The Golden Chords, performed in a talent show in the Auditorium in 1957. He graduated in 1959.
Dylan Drive (7th Avenue East), named in 2005.
Engraved star on Howard Street in front of Zimmy's Bar & Grill ("Zimmy's Walk of Fame") dedicated in 2005 to honor Dylan.
Hibbing Public Library (2020 East 5th Avenue). Houses a Dylan exhibit based on his autobiography, Chronicles: Volume I.
Zimmerman's Furniture & Electric (1925 5th Ave E) owned by Dylan's father from 1954-1958.
The Lybba Theatre (2135 1st Avenue). Movie house built and operated from 1947-1976 by Dylan's uncles and named after his grandmother. It closed on October 28, 1982. It is now the Sunrise Deli-Lybba.
Braman Music (208 East Howard Street). Dylan took guitar lessons here. Now Walken's Jewelry.
L&B Café (417 East Howard Street). Dylan hangout where he met Echo Helstrom (“Girl from the North Country”).
Collier's Barbeque and Bar (1928 East 4th Avenue). Dylan and The Golden Chords jammed here on Sundays in late 1957 and early 1958. His final Hibbing band, Elston Gunn and the Rock Boppers, performed here during the summer of 1958. It is now the Hong Kong Kitchen.
Memorial Building – Little Theater (400 East 23rd Street). Dylan performed here with The Golden Chords at the Winter Frolic Talent Contest in February 1958. Now contains the Hibbing Historical Society Museum.
Zimmy's Bar & Grill (531 East Howard Street). Dylan-themed restaurant.
