Bob Dylan In Minnesota Now Available at Zenith Bookstore: A Handy Tool for Music-Based Tourists

Music-based tourism is well developed and growing, especially in countries featuring both mature tourism and music industries, such as the USA and the UK. 

So begins an abstract about a paper by David Leaver and Ruth A. Schmidt titled Before they were famous: music-based tourism and a musician's hometown roots.

They go on to say "Mintel estimated destination driven trips as 75 per cent of all music tourism at approximately 55 million annual visits worldwide, including domestic and international travel. It relies on evidence of cultural activities, incidents from the past, and tangible artifacts that can be photographed (Connell and Gibson, 2003). Memphis, with its strapline “Home of the Blues, birthplace of Rock n Roll” has built, post the mid-1980s, a thriving music based tourism industry attracting some million visitors and a spend of $3 billion (Memphis Convention and Visitors Bureau, 2007). The popularity of heritage attractions is highest among middle aged and older consumers, [“baby boomers” born between 1944 and 1964] with a bias towards the more affluent ABC1 socio-economic groups, with the third-age group, which makes up 25 per cent of the UK population, classed as very heritage-active (Mintel, 2008b). 

"The search for a contextual understanding is a key driver for these heritage tourists. Sites of music production and of births and deaths which emerged in the latter part of twentieth century are central."

This link will bring you to sources for this document: Before they were famous: music-based tourism and a musician’s hometown roots.

If you do decide you want to see points of interest from the early life of octogenarian Bob Dylan, I can recommend a couple of books to help you catch a few scenes you may not have been aware of before. The first, which is now near impossible to find, is Dave Engel's Just Like Bob Zimmerman' Blues.  You can read my interview with Mr. Engel here. The second might me K.G. Miles' Bob Dylan in Minnesota, of which I was one of several contributors. If you are planning a trip to the Northland, I recommend buying it when you visit us here Up North or in the Twin Cities.

* * * 

Thursday night I attended a book-signing by Rick Shefchik and Paul Metsa at Zenith City Books where their newly released Dylan-themed Blood In The Tracks is now available. I noticed that Zenith is also carrying K.G. Miles' fourth book in the Troubador Tales series, Bob Dylan in Minnesota. (Caveat: I saw the last copy pulled from the shelf so hopefully it will be back in stock soon.) Paul Metsa was also a contributor to that book as well, along with three other Minnesotans including myself.

If you're looking for a good read, their knowledgeable staff will help guide you to something worthy of your time. What's more, other than the library, I think Zenith has the most complete selection of works by local authors. There are a lot of excellent writers here, so make time to explore.

Here are a few fotos from Thursday eve.

An attentive crowd for the book signing.

Paul Metsa signs a book for Duluth Dylan Fest chair Zane Bail.

Rick Shefchik adds his signature for Nelson French

Meantime, life goes on all around you. Get into it.

Throwback Thursday: Dreaming of Dylan

Two nights ago I met Bob Dylan. The meeting took place in a dream, so it was not a real encounter with the legendary singer/songwriter. I'm not sure how old I was in the dream, but he seemed to be somewhere in his fifties or sixties.

In the dream we were standing in a room with rather dim lighting, talking. It was a very normal conversation. He didn't smile much but he wasn't cold or aloof. Unfortunately, when I woke I didn't write down any of its details. We met and we talked, like people do sometimes. 

What it made me think of, though, was Mary Lee Kortes' book Dreaming of Dylan, which I wrote about in April of 2019. The book was definitely a fun read. Here are a few excerpts and my review from that time.

* * * * *

Dream 103 / Dylan Vs. Paulsen
I am sitting at the kitchen table with my parents. I’m very young in the dream, only seven or eight years old, and the presidential election is coming. My parents are fighting about who to vote for: Bob Dylan or Pat Paulsen.

* * * *
Dreams are one of those amazing phenomenon that fall into that area of mystery as regards what it means to be human. Studied by psychologists and now the domain or neuroscience, who can definitively say where they come from or what they mean. One thing for certain, our minds produce pretty wild stories sometimes.

What is is that makes our dreams so vivid? The fun part, though, is sharing those dream anecdotes and stories with others, in part because often there doesn't seem to be any kind of logic to the dream at all. It just goes where it wants and you go with it.

And that's what makes these 115 dreams so much fun. Even if you're not a Dylan fan, you'll enjoy these stories because after a lifetime living in this world you will undoubtedly have formed a certain kind of image of the Nobel Laureate so that when he appears in dreams, he's often the caricature of his persona. Or not.

The book, published by BMG Books, is titled Dreaming of Dylan: 115 Dreams About Bob. The author is Mary Lee Kortes, a recording artist and performer who has actually opened for Bob, so in a sense she's already had a dream come true, I suspect.

I don't know how long it took to assemble this collection of dreams, but the final outcome is a totally first rate execution of concept. It's a beautiful book as well as totally entertaining, especially if you're a fan. The contributors come from all over the world, from painters to poets to Patti Smith.

If you're a Dylan fan, you already know where the title of the book comes from, the title of a song on Bringing It All Back Home. The spirit of the book itself is in alignment with another familiar song, Talkin' World War III Blues, which ends with this famous stanza:

Well, now time passed and now it seems
Everybody’s having them dreams
Everybody sees themselves
Walkin’ around with no one else
Half of the people can be part right all of the time
Some of the people can be all right part of the time
But all of the people can’t be all right all of the time
I think Abraham Lincoln said that
“I’ll let you be in my dreams if I can be in yours”
I said that

* * * *

One other feature of the book that is somewhat amusing is the irregular structure. That is, the dreams all have numbers but they are not in the order of the numbers. You might expect 1 to be first and 115 to be the last dream in the book, but then again, tell me a dream in which the story makes sense and I will tell you 50 where it's a jumble of unexpected juxtapositions. I think the absence of a table of contents and the jumbled structure just makes it all that much more fun.

Here's the author's dream, which she shares at the beginning of the book.

Dream 106 / Wrong Key
I was rehearsing for a Losers Lounge show (an NYC series that takes place at Joe’s Pub). I was scheduled to sing Townes Van Zandt's "No Place To Fall" and was rehearsing with the guy who is going to accompany me--Bob Dylan.

We were in a dark dirty white room, just the two of us. He was sitting on the floor strumming a lute and playing the song in a weird key.

"That’s the wrong key," I told him. "I sing it in D. What key are you playing it in?"

He looked up at me. "The key if I"

I was so annoyed. "There’s no such thing," I said.

“That’s the key I play it in,” said Bob.

--Marie Lee Kortes
Musician, Author / Brooklyn

Some of the dreams are more developed and more detailed, stretching two to four pages. Others are brief, and hilarious like this one.

61 / Space Visionary
I have had many dreams about Dylan, and he has never spoken to me in them until recently when he named a hill near where I grew up. “You can see the city from there," he said. But you can’t.

--Jeff Ward
Writer, Singer/Song Writer / Ireland

* * * *

Illustration for Dream 103 / Dylan vs. Paulsen

The titles alone are worth the read... Or, you can skip the words altogether and enjoy the illustrations, photos and design. Yes, Dreaming Of Dylan is an enjoyable experience any way you choose to engage it.

Here are some of the titles of the various dreams...

Desk Set
Fur
Sobering
What's In Your Freezer
Duet With Dog
Meet Me In The Morning
It'll Cost You
Walking The Room
I Dreamed Bob Dylan Had A Crush On My Mom
Time Traveler
O Captain
Not Alone

You can find the book here at Amazon. Dreaming of Dylan. I am confident it would make a great gift for any Dylan fan, including the Dylan fan in your life.

Related Links
For more about the author, visit https://maryleescorvette.com/about
Schedule for Duluth Dylan Fest 2023 

Talking New York, Dylan and More with Peter McKenzie (Part II)

Includes recent Peter McKenzie interview

When I heard this spring that Peter McKenzie's book Bob Dylan: On a Couch and Fifty Cents a Day was coming out soon,  I asked for an introduction in hopes of obtaining an interview. I'd heard that it contained new insights into young Bob Dylan's first year in New York. After we'd spoken a couple times, the interview was delayed because he'd made a promise to ISIS that he would wait till they'd published an interview he'd done with them. 

By the time my turn had come I'd purchased and read the book. Ironically, all the questions I'd initially prepared to ask during the interview were answered in the book. I set about to adjust my game plan and just follow our conversation wherever it went. 

Peter was 15 when 19-year-old Bob Dylan took up a form of residence in his home. There's a sense in which they were like siblings who shared a special bond. Peter admits, "Yes, I idolized him. He was like the big brother I never had. He treated me like a kid sibling. He talked to me about a lot of stuff." 

What follows here are a few anecdotes about Peter's Harvard experience, his career, Bob's songs and insights about the choices we make. At the end there's a link to the book and the first part of this two part interview.

School Days

My senior year at Harvard I had a solo suite with my own bathroom. I was painting, and had a window overlooking the Charles River. Right next door to me were two roommates with whom I became good friends. We used to have breakfast and dinner together a lot. One was Al Gore and the other Tommy Lee Jones.

When Tommy Lee was shooting the first Men In Black, they were doing a scene right outside my now wife’s apartment. I went downstairs and they were on a shooting break. I tapped him on the shoulder and he almost choked. He turned around and said, “Hey Pete!” and I said, “Hi, Tommy, how are ya. I see how well you’re doing. I don’t want to disturb you while you’re at work.” 

Peter's Career

Illustration for Joseph Papp, NY Shakespeare
Festival; Peter McKenzie

I went to the Harvard Graduate School of Architecture. I was going to become an architect. I didn’t like it, so I left. Then I went to Europe and I wound up meeting a couple people in France who were Dutch. I had my harmonica and harmonica holder with me. We went and played on the streets of Paris. They had a guitar with them, so they gave me the guitar and it was the most money I made in an hour, playing on the streets of Paris. “Bob Dylan! Bob Dylan!” It was very funny.

They invited me to visit them when I went to the Netherlands (they lived just outside Amsterdam) and I wound up playing for a couple months in their rock and roll band. 

I came back to the states and embarked on a career as an illustrator and a graphic designer, which I did for many many many many many many years. I had my own little company. I worked for myself designing books, illustrating books and illustrating book covers. That’s what I did. 

Bob always liked to talk to me about my art. It’s the one subject he never challenged me on. You know, he’s the musician of the family; I’m the artist in the family. And I make no comment about Bob’s art other than to say I think he has a great color sense, a great sense of color. God bless him that he likes to draw and paint. 

As the musician and writer, that’s his thing, his talent.

I haven’t met half as many people as he has, and if I lived to be 200 I wouldn’t. Who hasn’t he met? He’s met everybody. That can change a person. That’s his life. As for me, I’ll always look at him different from anybody else. He used the gifts he had to get the life success he could. He had a great way with words and he was an excellent musician. And he was pretty cool at the stage that we were really close. That’s what I can say about him.

Bob’s Songs

1962. Photo credit: Ted Russell. 
Courtesy William Pagel Archives

You have all these people analyzing his songs.    I mean, I will give you two songs that I will tell you about. Obviously, most songs that a songwriter writes are going to have some kind of personal touch and say something about their life, but I will tell you two songs–and I want you to listen to them again. A lot of people know about them but they don’t understand the depth of his connection.

If you want to listen to two songs to try to understand Bob Dylan – and there’s also an earlier song – but if you really want to know the personal Bob Dylan, that’s real with no bull, (listen to) "Girl from the Red River Shore," and "When the Deal Goes Down." Listen to those two songs. You’ll understand what I mean after reading the book. That is personal. That’s feeling. 

So’s the one about Suze very personal, "Boots of Spanish Leather," but I’m talking about later on in life when he’s had all these life experiences. 

Those two songs… and they’re not angry songs, but I’m talking about when he’s sitting and reflecting about life, trying to make sense of it all. They mean a lot to me, because they really do reflect what’s going on in his head. It’s absolutely 100 per cent personal.  You don’t have to analyze every line. You just listen to the song and you get a sense of where he’s really at. They’re amazing.

Luckily, there was a tissue in my pocket the first time I heard “Girl from the Red River Shore.” It’s a knockout for me. I’m just condensing them down to a sensible core of what’s within his soul. It’s just unbelievable to me.

I’m sure there’s part of him that absolutely loves being famous, and loves to be adored the world over, but man, when he said that he walked into a diner and “everyone recognized me, that’s when it all changed.” That’s a horrible price to pay. He’s paid a big price. I couldn’t tell you, in all honesty, if he knew what was in store for him maybe he would’ve decided to just be a teacher. You know what I mean? I don’t know. I couldn’t tell you. 

His dream was to be as big as Harry Belafonte. That was it. He had no idea what was ahead. That’s why those two songs... that’s him away from the rest of the world. The reason he can say stuff like that is because most people don’t know the person he is. It shows what he’s gone through. And some of the longings he’s had and some of the loneliness and so forth.

We All Make Our Choices. 

I never thought of it this way, where people say he wouldn’t have made it unless he had the drive… I don’t think of it that way. I think of him as someone who had a dream, and had the guts to go out and try to fulfill it. 

The only thing I wrote about in that book were my experiences, my past experiences or maybe an experience that was told to me by somebody very close to me. For example, my friend Eric Herter went to a concert that I didn’t attend and told that funny story about the curtain almost knocking Bob over and he made that comment about leprosy. I’m sure I could read a million stories in books about Bob that I don’t know. That’s his life, not my life. There’s plenty about Bob I don’t know, but that wasn’t the point. 

Historian/author Sean (Wilentz) told Peter, “What you’ve done with your book is showed a big foundation of what made Bob who he is. Rather than trying to analyze every song or why he did this or why he did that, you’re showing a fundamental grab of the root of the person, and then the career happened." 

When I say what’s in that book is what all these people have been looking for, I meant it.

Links

BOB DYLAN: On A Couch & Fifty Cents A Day

A Visit with Peter McKenzie, Author of Bob Dylan: On A Couch & Fifty Cents A Day (Part One)

A Few Things Things I Learned This Week During Dylan Fest

Bob Prophet (Claude-Angele Boni')

It has been anything but quiet here this week in Dylan-Land. Last weekend was the three-day streaming symposium from the TU Institute for Bob Dylan Studies. The range of topics discussed was striking. Dylan's career is touching and has touched people from all walks of life. Today there are even Tweeners getting tangled up in Bob.

Dylan turned 80 on Monday and the first three days of our Duluth Dylan Fest were a challenge because I also wanted to listen to as many presenters from Tulsa. Fortunately, those who paid the price of admission for the Tulsa conference -- a very low hurdle, for the record -- have six months to listen to everything they missed. That was a perk I will take advantage of.

The first presentation was by a young man named Nathan Blue, a student at TU who has the privilege of reading bags of unopened fan mail from 1966. There are literally thousands of documents in moldy mail bags that had to be disinfected for safety sake. His talk was titled "Don't Send Me No More Letters, No."

Those familiar with Dylan's life recognize 1966 as a significant year in his career. It featured his world tour with the band, the recording and release of Blonde On Blonde, and that motorcycle crash that became a 180 degree pivot away from life on the road. 

Michael Kramer's talk was titled "One Should Never Be Where One Does Not Belong." Kramer discussed this post crash period and Dylan's journals from that time as he developed the material for John Wesley Harding. 

What struck me most profoundly was how secretive and yet open Dylan has been his entire life. Let me explain.

Having come from a marketing/PR career I've always seen Dylan as the consummate marketer. He created buzz every time he opened his mouth, a master of misdirection and bafflement. He was photographed continuously. He had photographers documenting what seems like his every move from the moment he stepped into the spotlights very early on. The whole bootleg subculture and unofficial fan culture was profound. The manner in which every one of his concerts and even private playing seems to have been documented and captured -- how many others have had that? 

But the selling of his personal archives for the Dylan Museum in Tulsa, this was simply over the top. I just finished reading a biography of Jack London, written by the scholar who manages the archives of Jack London.  These archives were assembled posthumously. One of the scholars who spoke in Tulsa last weekend has been caretaker of the James Joyce archives. These, too, were assembled posthumously. How incredibly unusual that Dylan's archives have become accessible, are being organized and dissected while the man is still alive. This is something akin to an autopsy while the patient is still alive. It's unheard of.

People were digging through his garbage in the Sixties for anything and everything that could offer an insight into the enigmatic Bob. I just finished reading the section in Chronicles again where he described all these intrusions into his privacy as exceedingly annoying. Yet, today... His most private journals are being made available for microscopic inspection by every Dylanologist out there. What, exactly are we/they looking for? What new things do we/they hope to discover?

Like a master magician, the real Dylan is still playfully elusive. What does it really mean?  

Another big takeaway this week was seeing smiles on faces as we gathered again. This past year had us tangled up in blues. At last we've finally been released.

Related Links

Bob Dylan: Content Marketing King

Marketing Heaven's Door: Bob Dylan's Foray into the Whiskey Business

Dylan@80: The TU Institute for Bob Dylan Studies

Dylan Weighs In on the Disease of Conceit

There’s a whole lot of people suffering tonight
From the disease of conceit
Whole lot of people struggling tonight
From the disease of conceit
Comes right down the highway
Straight down the line
Rips into your senses
Through your body and your mind
Nothing about it that’s sweet
The disease of conceit

Conceit is a word we don't hear used that much anymore. We say things like, "He's full of himself," or "He's got a big head." We also hear quite a bit about narcissism, frequently in the context of dating advice. "Five Signs to Help You Spot Narcissistic Behavior" and "11 Signs that You're Dating a Narcissist" are on the first page when I Google this.

The word narcissism comes from the Greek tale of Narcissus who fell in love with his reflection in a pond. Dylan incorporated this tale into the last verse of "License to Kill" (Infidels):

Now he worships at an altar of a stagnant pool
And when he sees his reflection, he’s fulfilled
Oh, man is opposed to fair play
He wants it all and he wants it his way

Narcissus by Caravaggio

Dylan's imagery hit me like a zap from a 220 volt copper wire the first time I heard it in 1983. What is it about our nature that inclines us to self-deceit and an overweening sense of self-importance?

The opening line of the song sets the stage: "Man thinks 'cause he rules the world he can do with it as he please..." 

Another word that can be used interchangeably with conceit is arrogance. Psychologist Karen Horney (Freud's first female student) in her book Our Inner Conflicts (A Constructive Theory of Neurosis) asserts that the greater the variance between our idealized self-image and our real self, the more amplified our neurotic tendencies. She writes:

"Precisely to the extent that the image is unrealistic, it tends to make the person arrogant, in the original meaning of the word; for arrogance, though used synonymously was superciliousness, means to arrogate to oneself qualities that one does not have, or that one has potentially but not factually."
--Our Inner Conflicts, p. 97

What Dr. Horney goes on to say is that our self-inflation is not something we do consciously. That is, arrogant people are unaware of how divergent their real behavior is from their idealized version of themselves. This is what makes it so tragic and troubling.

Dylan's "Disease of Conceit" breaks it down in some interesting ways. The first stanzas describe the results of conceit. People are hurt. It causes heartbreak. People are crying, and even dying because of it. "There's nothing about it that's sweet, the disease of conceit." 

Then comes the bridge in which he describes conceit as something of a mystery. (Life has many mysteries, doesn't it?)

Conceit is a disease
That the doctors got no cure
They’ve done a lot of research on it
But what it is, they’re still not sure

The song's last stanza is a reminder that we are but dust, a warning to beware of "delusions of grandeur" because ultimately we all await the very same fate. 

There’s a whole lot of people in trouble tonight
From the disease of conceit
Whole lot of people seeing double tonight
From the disease of conceit
Give ya delusions of grandeur And a evil eye
Give you the idea that
You’re too good to die
Then they bury you from your head to your feet
From the disease of conceit 

* * * 

In 1937 Salvador Dali produced a painting that he titled The Metamorphosis of Narcissus. If you Google the word Narcissus and click on images, most of the images will be of a yellow flower called the Narcissus, though more commonly called the daffodil today. 

The Metamorphosis of Narcissus (Salvador Dali) Tate Museum
© Salvador Dali, Gala-Salvador Dali Foundation/DACS, London 2020

Though Dylan's "Disease of Conceit" ends with a rather bleak prognosis (buried from your head to your feet), there's a seed thought in the tale of Narcissus which Dali captures in his painting (currently on display at the Tate Museum in London). Here is a portion of the text that accompanies this image:

Narcissus was a youth of great beauty who loved only himself and broke the hearts of many lovers. The gods punished him by letting him see his own reflection in a pool. He fell in love with it, but discovered he could not embrace it and died of frustration. Relenting, the gods immortalized him as the narcissus (daffodil) flower.

Read the full Tate account here.

The Disciple
Oscar Wilde's ironic twist on the myth of Narcissus

When Narcissus died, the pool of his pleasure changed from a cup of sweet waters into a cup of salt tears, and the Oreads came weeping through the woodland that they might sing to the pool and give it comfort.

And when they saw that the pool had changed from a cup of sweet waters into a cup of salt tears, they loosened the green tresses of their hair, and cried to the pool, and said: "We do not wonder that you should mourn in this manner for Narcissus, so beautiful was he."

"But was Narcissus beautiful?" said the pool

"Who should know better than you?" answered the Oreads. "Us did he ever pass by, but you he sought for, and would lie on your banks and look down at you, and in the mirror of your waters he would mirror his own beauty."

And the pool answered: "But I loved Narcissus because, as he lay on my banks and looked down at me, in the mirror of his eyes I saw my own beauty mirrored."

George Kaiser, The Quiet Man Behind the Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa

"I was young when I left home..."

The big story this week has been the announcement of a date for the opening next year of the Bob Dylan Center. News travels fast in Dylan circles, courtesy the many Dylan fan clubs on social media and our touchstone, Expecting Rain. 

This ArtNet News story expresses the sentiments of most: "For Dylanologists, the opening date of the Bob Dylan Center on May 10, 2022 may as well be Christmas: it could mark the first time the enigmatic musician’s most private possessions are made available to the public." 

That Rolling Stone would write it up was no surprise. Even the New York Times recognized it as newsworthy for its Arts section.

Yesterday's Pitchfork story by Eric Torres opens with a statement about the scale of the collection. "The Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma will contain over 100,000 artifacts spanning Dylan’s career." That is a collection that didn't just come together over night.

It's no wonder, then, that the museum has taken so many years to open. Simply sorting and cataloging a collection of that scale is monumental, let alone all the decisions with regard to how to decide who should have access to what or how to best display it all. 

When Dylan sold a 6000-piece collection of his own personal items -- including notebooks, letters, photographs, audio and video material -- to the George Kaiser Family Foundation in 2016, I remember a few people asking why a Dylan museum would be in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It's proximity to the Woody Guthrie Center answers that question. That George Kaiser has a home there is also a consideration. 

*

Someone recently shared with me an interesting factoid that surprised me. Until five years ago I never heard of George Kaiser. Unlike Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and the Oracle from Omaha, he's not been a household name or headline grabber. 

In 2008 he was listed third on BusinessWeek's top 50 American philanthropists, behind Warren Buffet and Bill and Melinda Gates. According to a recent Forbes story the George Kaiser Family Foundation has contributed more than a billion dollars to early childhood education, among other things.

For Woody Guthrie fans -- Bob Dylan among them -- Kaiser's foundation played an instrumental role in the funding of Tulsa's Woody Guthrie Center, which opened in 2013. He also facilitated, in conjunction with the University of Tulsa, the acquisition of the Bob Dylan archive, which is to be maintained by archivists at the university's Helmerich Center for American Research at the Gilcrease Museum. (1)

WANT TO LEARN MORE about the Bob Dylan Center?
Visit https://www.bobdylancenter.com/

LEARN MORE about the George Kaiser Family Foundation and "The Giving Pledge."
https://www.gkff.org/who-we-are/about-george-b-kaiser/

* * * 

(1) Source: Wikipedia

Daniel Botkin's Riddles for Fans of Bob Dylan: Riddles and Trivia All Rolled Into One

Anyone who has followed Bob Dylan's career over the course of a lifetime will agree that Bob Dylan is one of a kind. I think the same can be said for Daniel Botkin, a lifelong Dylan fan, artist and singer/songwriter in addition to being a Bible teacher and conference speaker.

I first met Mr. Botkin at the 2016 Duluth Dylan Fest and helped orchestrate his one man art show at The Red Mug that year, which also included an artist talk that garnered a good crowd and TV coverage. His creativity extends to performing as well, and he's continued to participate annually in the singer/songwriter contests that have continued in Duluth.

Botkin, who hails from Peoria, Illinois, also has a sense of humor that reveals itself in both his art and his songwriting. On one occasion he was in his house singing "The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest" and his wife told him to sing something his twin daughters would enjoy. He reinvented the song as "The Ballad of Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Priest," which he later performed here in Duluth.

This spring he assembled a collection of riddles for Dylan fans which he may have intended for distribution at our 2020 Dylan Fest which had unfortunately been cancelled due to the pandemic. I obtained a copy a couple weeks back and found it quite entertaining. There's a sense in which it's not only a book of riddles but also a trivia contest. A few of the answers will be obvious, but many will challenge even the most dedicated fan.

Here are a handful of riddles so you can catch the spirit of this book. The 57 page volume includes a chapter on where the idea for this book came from, a brief history of Botkin's relationship to the music of Bob Dylan and some other bonus material. For $7.99 I think it's a pretty good value and might make a good gift for the Dylan fan who already has everything else.

What did the farmer say to his stubborn hen?
A: Lay, lady, lay.
Lay, Lady, Lay

"Motorcycle Black Madonna" -- Painting by D. Botkin

What did the Dylan fan say when the farmer next-door asked him what time he normally woke up in the morning?
A: When your rooster crows at the break of dawn.
Don't Think Twice, It's Alright

What did Bobby Zimmerman‘s mom say to him when he came home after his curfew?
A: Where have you been my blue-eyed son?
Hard Rain

What do Dylan fans say when they set their clocks ahead for daylight savings time?
A: The times they are a changin'.
The Times Are A-Changin'

What does a Dylan fan do when you ask him for $.15?
A: Well, he hands you a nickel, he hands you a dime.
Maggie's Farm

Why can't burglars break into Bob Dylan‘s house?
A: His bedroom window it is made out of bricks and the National Guard stands around his door.
Maggie's Farm

What did the Dylan fan say to a friend who couldn’t remember his own phone number?
A: They say that Pat Garrett’s got your number.
Billy 1

Self-Portrait with Leopard-Skin Pillbox Hat

What did the Dylan fan say to the abacus?
A: Will I be able to count on you?
Is Your Love In Vain

What did the surgeon say to the Dylan fan is they wheeled him into the operating room?
A: You won’t get out of here unscarred.
Narrow Way

What did the Dylan fan say to Marie-Antoinette?
A: You went and lost your lovely head.
Narrow Way

You can tell the book is truly "hot off the press." It even has a riddle from "I Contain Multitudes."

What did the florist say in response to the customers complaint about the wounded flowers?
A: The flowers are dying like all things do

You can find links to Daniel Botkin's Riddles for Fans of Bob Dylan as well as prints of his paintings at DanielBotkin.com.

Related Links
Interview with Artist Daniel Botkin, Winner of the 2012 Dylan Days Art Competition
Like Dylan, Artist Daniel Botkin Reconfigures American Classics
Daniel Botkin's Gallery of Dylan-Themed Art

The NYTimes Interview: Dylan Sheds Light On Where His Head Is At

It's been a long and winding road. What a long, strange trip it's been.

Bob Dylan's first album of original material is being released and the New York Times has obtained the privilege of interviewing the man, now 79, in depth.

The interview, by Douglas Brinkley, is titled Bob Dylan Has a Lot on His Mind.

It begins with Brinkley sharing a two-hour conversation he had with Dylan two years ago. Topics that passed between them included Franklin Roosevelt, the French Revolution, Malcolm X, World War II and the Sand Creek Massacre. Because of this previous connection, when Dylan released his 17-minute Murder Most Foul via a midnight tweet during the coronavirus lockdown, Brinkley reached out to inquire as to whether Mr. Dylan might be available to continue their discussion.

The Times presents excerpts from two longer interviews with the Nobel Prize winner. In it he gets asked about the songs he's recently released, and their array of characters from Anne Frank to Indiana Jones and the Rolling Stones. When he discusses "I Contain Multitudes" he states, "Every line has a particular purpose."

It would be interesting to know what else Mr. Brinkley asked, and how the rest of the conversation went. And, just for the heck of it, what question would you like to ask if you could have been there for a moment?

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Purchase your copy of Rough and Rowdy Ways, Dylan's latest release @

https://bobdylan.lnk.to/RARWAW

Backstage Passes for Duluth Dylan Fest Virtual Events 2020

Sunday evening Cowboy Angel Blue is kicking off our 2020 Duluth Dylan Fest with a Live Virtual Concert from 6 - 8 PM. William Earl Maxwell, James Paavala, and Bill Bulinski will be playing the Dylan tunes we all so love, from right here in the Northland.

With the exception of the first and last, all photos below are backstage passes from various shows at different time periods, courtesy the Bill Pagel Archives.

HOW TO USE THE BACKSTAGE PASSES
1. Download the pass you would like to use.
2. Insert/paste image into a Word document.
3. Size the pass in accordance with backstage pass guidelines, and print.
4. Cut out pass and laminate.
5. Use a hole punch to make hole and affix to lanyard. If you do not have a lanyard, use a shoelace.

And here's your General Admission Ticket which you can recycle
for our Virtual Events this week in our 2020 Duluth Dylan Fest.

Virtual Duluth Dylan Fest Events

May 17--Cowboy Angel Blue Facebook Live (6 - 8:00 P.M.)

May 20--Virtual Dylan Fest Performance by Marc Gartman (7:00-8:00 P.M.)

May 23--Virtual Bob Dylan Revue Reunion Concert Revisited (YouTube) (7:00-100 P.M.)

May 24--Al Diesan, Streaming Live from Rome Italy
Noon-2:00 P.M. CST  Diesan, a Bob Dylan sounds-alike and performer will be streaming live from Rome.

Danny Fox Livestream Virtual Duluth Dylan Fest Event
5:00 p.m. CST--Two-time winner of the Dylan Days Singer/Songwriter contest will be streaming live from Chicago

Gene LaFond and Amy Grillo

7:30 p.m. CST--Bob Dylan Birthday Bash Livestream with Gene LaFond & Amy Grillo
According to Geno, the event "will be a lot of lesser heard Bob tracks, a smattering of stories from my experiences on the road with Bob & his gigs buddy Larry Kegan & a couple of our new originals. It will be big fun honoring the maestro on his 79th!"


Be cool. Wash your hands.