Jochen Markhorst's Where Are You Tonight? (Journey Through Dark Heat) -- A Review

"I couldn't tell her what my private thoughts were
But she had some way of finding them out."--Bob Dylan

I just finished reading Jochen Markhorst's rewarding little breakdown of Bob Dylan's wonderful "Where Are You Tonight?" the closing track on Street Legal one of my favorite Dylan albums. How it came to be  so disparaged by the critics is beyond me. Markhorst states that it began with a cutting review by Greil Marcus in Rolling Stone, calling it "empty."

Why do we allow critics to have so much power over our decisions? Why do we let critics decide what we should like and not like? It happens with movies, with books, in the art scene... Markhorst states that U.S. reviewers (for the most part) agreed with Marcus, whereas in Europe the album was very well received. In fact, some were even "over-enthusiastic."

Brush and ink. Street Legal inspired.

Fortunately, I was unaware of the negative press when I first acquired this album. From the energetic and enigmatic "Changing of the Guard" through to "Where Are You Tonight?" this album is packed with gems. The only song on the album that I didn't care for was "New Pony," so I had a cassette made with the rest of the album and leaving that song off. I listened to that cassette for years until I bought the remastered 1999 CD version of the album. A few years later (shortly after Love and Theft) I made a CD of fave Dylan songs that began with "Changing of the Guard" and included "Where Are You Tonight?" plus several Love and Theft tracks. I played this CD till it was raw. 

All this to say I was ready for this deeper dissection of this great song, which Markhorst calls a "disregarded and forgotten masterpiece. 

David Kinney, in his book The Dylanologists, identifies the various kinds of Dylan fans like this: the Dylan Scholars, the Stalkers/Garbage Collectors/crazy ones, the Collectors, the Tapers, the Religious and the "Saved", the "Front Row"-ers, and the Lyric Dissectors. Markhorst falls into this last category. There are purists who say lyric dissectors are on a fool's errand and that Dylan himself disses those who attempt to de-mystify and explain his songs, nevertheless, this is a tribe I identify with.

Those who knock the dissectors have to ignore the essence of Dylan's Nobel Prize for literature which acknowledged his literary contributions "for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition." In other words, his significance is directly related to the roots woven into his songs.

And so it is with a robust enthusiasm that writers like Markhorst go a-diggin' for gold in the veins of Dylan's catalog. There are gold flakes everywhere and nuggets galore.

This is in no way an attempt to diminish the rewards of simply being present in his concerts, or just one who relishes the simple joy of being surrounded by the music as we walk together through life.  

Before diving into meanings Markhorst first addresses the form of the stanza, noting how the aabccb structure of the sextets.

* * *

The book's chapters correspond to the order of the sextets, each one offering the author to weigh in with his various opinions and insights. 

I like writers who have opinions and aren't afraid to express them. Markhorst holds nothing back as he praises this album and this song, despite its lettered naysayers. 

Which brings us to the song's opening line. "There's a long distance train rolling through the rain, tears on the letter I write." The reference to a train has been perceived by some as a foreshadowing of the transition to come in Dylan's life. We're referring to Slow Train Coming, the advent of Dylan's gospel trilogy. Markhorst, however, snips this thought in the bud by citing, accurately, that trains are prominent in a whole host of songs. 

I agree here with Markhorst, as opposed to the other writers he cites who see this as a pre-announcement of what's to come. In my view, I've always felt that "Señor" was the better pre-announcement. The song opens with:

Señor, señor, can you tell me where we're headin'?
Lincoln County Road or Armageddon?
Seems like I've been down this way before.
Is there any truth in that, señor.

It's particular interesting, because the word for "Lord" in Spanish is Señor.

* * *  The book is a relatively slender volume (just over 80 pages) but it's packed with insights, links to a full range of sources, both familiar and unfamiliar--movies, literature, fairy tales, the Crossroads, French poets, Faust and facets of his own catalog. 

For those unfamiliar with this album, I strongly recommend it. For those who already appreciate the song and enjoy reading illuminating passages about the music they love I also recommend this offering.

Related Links

Street Legal: Overlooked, Under-Appreciated and Strongly Recommended

For this and other books by Jochen Markhorst

The Dylanologists: Miscellaneous Notes in the Form of a Review

Dylan Indeed Contains Multitudes

“I’m a man of contradictions, I’m a man of many moods
I contain multitudes.”--Bob Dylan

Of course Dylan contains multitudes. We've known this for ages, but only in more recent years have we discovered how vast the span of those multitudes really was.

He'd begun inhaling multitudes when he took deep dives into friends' record collections when he went to Dinkytown in Minneapolis upon leaving home. When he landed in New York Dylan's first stop was Izzy Young's Folklore Center at 110 MacDougal Street. It became a place to hang out, where he could continue his threshing of the American songbook.

I use the word threshing because it's the process of separating the wheat from the chaff. I'll carry that notion further and compare what he does to the magical process of baking bread. The ovens in Dylan's mind were continuously processing, reconfiguring all these human experiences into the songs of his experience.

This process of sifting, baking and serving his delicious aromatic product (songs) to the world also got him accused of plagiarism. What's apparent is that those accusations came from people who didn't understand the historical basis of intertextuality.

It wasn't till I heard Harvard Classics professor Richard F. Thomas speak at Duluth Dylan Fest in 2018 that the light went on most fully for me. Among other things, he talked about Intertextuality. At one point he cites a statement from T.S. Eliot: “Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different.”

Dr. Thomas, who had been a lifelong Dylan fan, began to see Dylan's later source material more clearly than most because Thomas teaches the Harvard Classics and was thus more intimately acquainted with Ovid, Virgil and Homer than the average man or woman on the street. Here's an excerpt from an interview with Dr. Thomas by the editorial staff of Harvard's Persephone:

P: When did you first begin to notice intertextuality between Bob Dylan and classical authors?

RFT: It really wasn’t until 9/11. Dylan had an album that came out on that morning called “Love and Theft.” Now I had noticed intertextuality of a similar sort in 1997 with the song “Highlands” from the album Time Out of Mind, a very long, narrative song that 2 has the refrain “My Heart’s in the Highlands.” So [that was from] Robert Burns... But it wasn’t really until the 2001 album “Love and Theft” [that I noticed intertextuality with classical authors]…Now if the intertexts are activated in the mind of the listener, it’s not just Vietnam, the war of Dylan’s youth, it’s all of these literary wars, including the Roman wars of Aeneas and the Civil Wars, for which they in some way stand.

* * * *
Like many others who listened to I Contain Multitudes the day after it was released, my mind noticed how all these pieces were stitched together into a whole, but it would take a few days to isolate its component parts. Murder Most Foul similarly is an enormous patchwork quilt of references. What I'm going to suggest is. that there's a common denominator in the two.

If we consider I Contain Multitudes as a self-portrait, Murder Most Foul is a portrait of our generation. That is, that these are influences that we--or more precisely, the generation of Bob's peers--have shared in common. Wolfman Jack, conspiracy theories about the assassination we all witnessed and lived through, the music, films, a historical tsunami of life-shaping inputs, including those Dylan himself showered on us, sometimes pelting, sometimes nourishing.

The string of images in both these songs strikes me as similar in construction to Desolation Row of his early songwriting, another sprawling cast of characters lined up along a flowing music track that serves as a lyric background landscape.

David Kinney, in his book The Dylanologists, breaks Dylan fans into eight categories from Pilgrims and Collectors to Front Rower-ers and Scholars. And then there are the Lyric Dissecters. This last category is probably the most energized by these kinds of songs. There are simply so many endless clues to follow, rabbit holes to enter. As Dr. Rollason notes on his Bilingual Culture Blog, "‘I Contain Multitudes’, clocking in at 4:36 minutes and, while shorter than its lengthy predecessor, still replete with allusions in numbers enough to keep the planet’s Dylanites happily occupied."

* * * *

Page from The Measure of His Song, Holy Cow Press

The references to other poets have already been noted by many these past few days, most readily to Poe, Blake and Whitman.

I'm not going to do lyrics dissection here, as so many have been undertaking this already, but I did think the opening lines interesting enough to lay side by side with Whitman's Song of Myself 51.

Today and tomorrow, and yesterday, too

The flowers are dyin’ like all things do.

      --Dylan, I Contain Multitudes

The past and present wilt--I have fill'd them, emptied them.

And proceed to fill my next fold of the future.

      --Whitman,'Song of Myself, 51 

Both poems begin with the trisection of time, Dylan's conveying a looking back, and Whitman still looking to fill his next fold.


As with all things Dylan, much more can be said. Though many things have changed since he first appeared on the scene, one thing that's unchanged is that you never know what revelations tomorrow will bring.

When I was young I audited a class on the Book of Revelation at Princeton Seminary taught by the esteemed Greek scholar Dr. Bruce Metzger. There's a sense in which dissecting Dylan lyrics can be a little like interpreting the Book of Revelation, so rich with symbols. At the end of the semester, after teaching all the various ways that this last book of the Bible had been interpreted he was asked by a student, "And what do you believe?" He smiled and said, "The Book of Revelation attracts people who are cracked, or leaves them that way."

Can the same be said of obsessive Dylanite Lyric Dissecters? I dunno. The puzzles are many and considerably problematic while remaining immensely entertaining.

“I carry four pistols and two large knives."

Related Links
"Go Away Bomb:"---Dylan Writes A Song for Izzy Young
Walt Whitman: The Measure of His Song       
Whitman's Song of Myself, 51
Harvard Classics Prof Pulls Back the Curtain to Reveal New Insights on Dylan's Art
An Interview with Richard F. Thoomas on Bob Dylan and the Classic by the Harvard Persephone Editorial Staff 
Why Bob Dylan Matters

Scott Warmuth Weighs In On Dylan's Latest Appropriations

Early example of Dylanesque obfuscation.

When accusations of plagiarism began emerging after Dylan's Nobel Prize lecture was released two weeks ago, I headed to Scott Warmuth's Goon Talk blog to see whether he had published anything yet. Nothing. That is, nothing on this topic. A few years back I began following his Pinterest page devoted to revealing the sources of lines and word imagery appropriated into Chronicles: Volume 1, Masked and Anonymous, Time Out of Mind, Modern Times, Together Through Life, Tempest and "Love and Theft" and what an interesting undertaking he's immersed himself in, noteworthy enough to have received inclusion in David Kinney's The Dylanologists.

In a Spin.com article by Marc Hogan, Kinney calls Warmuth the Internet sleuth "who deciphered Dylan’s own Da Vinci Code." Rather than wait however long before getting his take I took the initiative and was rewarded with the following interview.

EN: The initial response to Dylan's speech, most writers took it as straightforward, calling it "Extraordinary", revealing and a work of art. But a few days went by and the questions began, focusing primarily on the Moby Dick section. You would add that this (Moby Dick) is only the beginning. What are some of the other sources you've observed so far in this speech?

SW: The Charlie Poole verse from "You Ain't Talkin' to Me" that doesn’t appear in Poole’s version was a topic of discussion and news articles. bobschool on expectingrain.com suggests that it is likely a contemporary verse written by a fellow named Jim Krause.

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/article155018229.html

http://www.expectingrain.com/discussions/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=90732&p=1756185&hilit=poole#p1756185

There’s material that appears to be crafted from the CliffsNotes to All Quiet on The Western Front and The Odyssey. Below are a couple of examples.

Dylan: This is a book where you lose your childhood, your faith in a meaningful world, and your concern for individuals.

https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/a/all-quiet-on-the-western-front/summary-and-analysis/chapter-7    This generation is one that has lost its childhood, its dreams, its faith in a meaningful world, and its concern for the individual.

Dylan: All around you, your comrades are dying. Dying from abdominal wounds, double amputations, shattered hipbones, and you think, "I'm only twenty years old, but I'm capable of killing anybody. Even my father if he came at me."

https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/a/all-quiet-on-the-western-front/summary-and-analysis/chapter-6   Only twenty years old, he is already a grim mercenary capable of killing all adversaries, even if his "own father came over with them."

EN: What was the first trigger event that inspired you to dig this deeply into Dylan's appropriations?

SW: During that awful September of 2001 I tossed Dylan's "Love And Theft" in my cart on a whim while shopping at a big box store, not expecting anything. It became my favorite album of all time, and I am a record collector with thousands of albums. I became captivated by it, and with thoughts of Dylan’s writing process.

A trigger event beyond just loving the record was an article in The Wall Street Journal in 2003 that discussed how a fellow named Chris Johnson discovered some parallels between some of the lyrics on "Love And Theft" and an oral history of a Japanese gangster. I was fascinated with that story, but not because it was a case of “gotcha” or anything like that. It was the serendipity strikes component tied with learning about some of the moving parts of a work that I love that captivated me.

In 2006 I appeared on NPR's All Things Considered and I told Robert Siegel that I wanted to know what was on Bob Dylan's bookshelf (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6076801). I had some basic questions: I wonder what Bob Dylan reads? I wonder what’s in his record collection? I also had questions about his creative process. I tried to create fortunate happenstance and look in the right places. The works I was initially most interested in were “Love And Theft,” Chronicles: Volume One and the Masked And Anonymous script. More recently I’ve been spending time considering his paintings. I've learned that he reads a lot of books and listens to a lot of records.

EN: Dylan has always played cat and mouse with the media, hasn't he? What do you surmise with regard to this latest set of appropriations? He seems too smart for this to be just a faux pas. He has to know "people are paying attention." What's your take on Dylan's motivations? And since nothing ever remains the same, how have your views changed over the two decades you've been doing this?

SW: In the lecture Dylan states, “If a song moves you, that's all that's important. I don't have to know what a song means. I've written all kinds of things into my songs. And I'm not going to worry about it – what it all means. When Melville put all his old testament, biblical references, scientific theories, Protestant doctrines, and all that knowledge of the sea and sailing ships and whales into one story, I don't think he would have worried about it either – what it all means.”

So, there’s that aspect, which I get – just enjoy it for what it is. There is another side to that as well. In my essay “Vive le Vol: Bob Dylan and the Importance of Being Ernest Hemingway” I suggest that Dylan aligns himself with German music critic Eduard Hanslick (1825 – 1904), who argued for the active listener, one who listens to music with the intent of discovering the method of composition, over the passive listener, for whom music is merely sound to float in. I argue that Dylan does this via the use of bits from Hanslick’s 1854 book On the Musically Beautiful in Chronicles: Volume One.

If Dylan has written all kinds of things into his songs, as he states, it is incumbent on the dedicated student to consider these things.

I’m not interested in the “Bob Dylan is a plagiarist” angle at all. There’s nothing more boring. I am taken with the notion of Dylan positioning himself as outlaw appropriation artist. Dylan writes about meeting "Robyn Whitlaw, the outlaw artist" - a fictional character - in Chronicles: Volume One. His interactions with Richard Prince play into this as well.

I like outlaw appropriation art, especially if it pisses people off. I love that there aren’t any rules and that everything goes. The Cramps have a wonderful song that asks, "How far can too far go?" What matters is if an artist has anything to say. Bob Neuwirth makes this point in No Direction Home. He says, "Basically, the way people were rated you know, they'd say 'Have you seen Ornette Coleman? Does he have anything to say?' And it was the same with, like with Bob or anybody else. Do they have anything to say or not?"

Bob Dylan has plenty to say and I dig that he isn’t interested in articulating his subversiveness as doctrine. On an episode of Theme Time Radio Dylan stated, “I’ve always believed that the first rule of being subversive is not to let anybody know you’re being subversive.”

When Dylan’s outlaw appropriation artist persona is firing on all cylinders it is nuanced and fascinating. He combines language from a New Orleans travel guide and Hemingway to deliver a telescoped version of The Snows of Kilimanjaro, creating a subtext about his unattended, neglected muse that lies hidden behind a shaggy dog story about a hand injury in Chronicles: Volume One.

He crafted "Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum," using found lines and musical source material, to function as a response to the Grateful Dead's "Uncle John's Band."

Those things went unnoticed for years, and it's the type of outlaw appropriation art I can get behind. It takes time to recognize some of these things. Slow is the new fast. The Nobel lecture has only been around for a couple of days. You must consider the possibility there are things going in in that lecture that we don't recognize yet. All sorts of things could bubble up.

Perhaps it's not the type of work that some want from Bob Dylan, but it's the kind of work he's been doing and it's apropos to explore these themes and approaches.

There’s the push and pull between finding what is there (such as the low hanging fruit in the Nobel lecture) and considering why it is there. I argue that in his essay in The Beaten Path catalog Dylan has incorporated a bit from a John Greenleaf Whittier short story called “The Fish I Didn’t Catch.”

That story ends with, “When I hear people boasting of a work as yet undone, and trying to anticipate the credit which belongs only to actual achievement, I call to mind that scene by the brookside, and the wise caution of my uncle in that particular instance takes the form of a proverb universal application: ‘Never brag of your fish before you catch him.’”

Locating a few of the moving parts in the Nobel lecture is not catching the fish.

EN: You stated in one post that you were already delving into Together Through Life before it was released. How did you acquire your copy so you could be so quick on the draw?

SW: It was leaked on the Internet. Nothing special – a lot of people had the recordings before the release date.

EN: And since nothing ever remains the same, how have your views changed over the two decades you've been doing this?

SW: That small window into his artistic process has freed me in terms of making my own art. Learning about how Bob Dylan goes about creating some of his work has been liberating. I had great respect and admiration for his work before I ever started looking into with any type of real focus, and now I have even more respect and admiration.

Check out my Instagram feed if you haven't already.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BQ0d47GgFcM/

My 3rd Richard Prince/Bob Dylan book. 8x10" (20x25cm), matte hardcover, standard paper 60lb/90gr, 34 pages. Edition of 2. (2017) NFS. From The Richard Prince/Bob Dylan Series

https://www.instagram.com/p/BQEGXwfD9TL/

My 1st Richard Prince/Bob Dylan book. 8"x10" (20x25cm), matte hardcover, standard paper 90gr, 26 pages (2015) NFS. From The Richard

Prince/Bob Dylan Series

https://www.instagram.com/p/BPNUiEBhH7j/

https://www.instagram.com/p/BNFARs2B2Wj/

https://www.instagram.com/p/BFgZGvOre-6/

https://www.instagram.com/p/BFgbN2uLeyb/

* * * *

In Closing

For more on Love and Theft, check out the source material where some of the tunes themselves originated.

And finally, my previous blog post about Mr. Warmuth.

* * * *

Meantime, life goes on all around you. Open your eyes. 

Sometimes Even When You Don't Understand a Dylan Song You Can "Get It"

“I don't like the idea of 'understanding' a film. I don't believe that rational understanding is an essential element in the reception of any work of art. Either a film has something to say to you or it hasn't. If you are moved by it, you don't need to have it explained to you. If not, no explanation can make you moved by it.” ~Federico Fellini

There it is. This is what some people mean when they talk about art, whether music, poetry or a painting. It's like a joke; you shouldn't have to explain why the punch line was funny.

To this day I don't "get" Dylan's "Changing of the Guard," but it moves me every time I hear it, and remains one of my favorite Dylan songs. What's it all about, Alfie? The images connect with something inside like a series of dreams, rising up from a subconscious sea teeming with shimmering mysteries.

In his book The Dylanologists David Kinney devotes one chapter to the Lyrics Dissecters. These are the ones Fellini is calling out above. It's like Dylan's lyrics are a secret code to be cracked, if only we had an Enigma Machine.

People have the same problem with abstract art. "I don't get it" has been exclaimed in art museums and galleries all over the world.

"Ballad of a Thin Man" is another song that falls into this category, difficult to apprehend but one that definitely haunts. The opening bars on the piano send a chill through the room and the confounding imagery shocks and frightens. Something's happening, even if you don't know what it is. "You try so hard, but you don't understand," Dylan hisses.

The words and images can confuse, but when ignited there can be light, revealing the outlines of shapes and scenes that darkness conceals.

* * * *

For what it's worth, Duluth Dylan Fest is just around the corner. May will be here faster than you know it. The events are slated for May 22-29 this year. If you want to celebrate with us here in Dylan's home town, mark your calendars. There will be a birthday celebration on his 75th, May 24, in front of the house he grew up in. And there will be plenty of music... some of it you'll "get" with your head and some with your heart.

Meantime life goes on all around you. Be a part of it. 

Two Novel Interpretations of Dylan's She Belongs To Me

The other day when I wrote about this song I had some additional thoughts I'd wished to share but felt it would be a dilution to throw too many disparate elements together in one blog account.

In his recent book The Dylanologists, Pulitzer Prize-winning author David Kinney identifies various classifications of Dylan fandom, from memorabilia collectors to those who follow his concerts to the lyrics dissectors. Followers of this blog know that I occasionally dive into the dissection of lyrics and have even been occasionally reprimanded by some who consider it a useless pursuit to try and explain what everything he's written means. Sometimes these folk may be right.

Nevertheless, holding a magnifying lens over various passages of poetic verse is a difficult habit to break, especially when it often yields surprising rewards. At times it can be a stimulating form of entertainment.

One of the websites I return to now and then is songmeanings.com. It's a site where people share their insights and interpretations of songs from popular culture. In some respects it's a form of crowdsourcing. You have a particular perspective on something and then go here to discover ten other ways of looking at the same picture.

But it's not the only source of ideas for interpreters. Here are two interpretations of "She Belongs To Me" that I found especially intriguing, notably because of their novelty.  The first here is by lyrics dissecter Tony Atwood.

It's About His Little Girl

Never has a 12 bar blues sounded so beautiful, so relaxed, so warm, so kind. Perhaps a listener who is in his 20s smoking dope might not find it so, but anyone who has a daughter instantly sees it, feels it, warms to it.

If the lyrics don’t convey the message then the music and the accompaniment does. The most famous version of course is on Bringing it all Back Home, but there are also examples on the curious Self Portrait album, recorded at the Isle of Wight, and a truly lovely version on “No Direction Home”. This last version is perhaps the earliest attempt by Dylan to have an instrumental break without a lead instrument – something that he worked on over and over again in the concerts and recordings of the late 90s and early 21st century.

The girl in the song has everything – she never stumbles, she has an Egyptian ring, she’s got everything she needs…

Of course it is a child – the child who can play forever with the simplest toys, who can paint or crayon a picture and make it exactly what she wants it to be. She is the girl you idolize, the girl you bow down to, the girl whose birthday you make into the biggest occasion in the history of the world. The girl to whom you want to say, “I made you, you are everything, this is the world I give you.”

And of course you buy her toys.

How he got this from the song is explained when you read the rest his blog entry at Tony Atwood's Untold Dylan blog. Bookmarking recommended.

It's About The Catholic Church

Here's another interesting interpretation that doesn't immediately jump out at you, but it struck me as intriguing for reasons I will explain afterwards.

This song is about the Catholic church
“But you will wind up peeking through her keyhole down upon your knees” refers to the confessional
“She never stumbles” refers to the church’s infallibility
“She’s nobody’s child” refers to the Jesus being the son of God (and not of man)
“She wears an Egyptian ring” refers to the Papal ring
“Bow down to her on Sunday (weekly mass), Salute her when her birthday comes (Easter)
For Halloween buy her a trumpet (All Saints’ Day, which is the day following Halloween)
And for Christmas give her a drum (nice interplay with the song Little Drummer Boy)”

What's cool about this interpretation is that it's not entirely impossible that even though the song itself is a completely different story, the inspiration (or catalyst) for this song could have conceivably been germinated by something Dylan had read about the Church, with a capital C.

I say this because my own recently published story A Remarkable Tale from the Land of Podd was itself a veiled re-telling of a wholly unrelated workplace incident that took place two decades ago. When you read the story you have no clue whatsoever that we're talking about a corporate environment and a lesson derived from that culture. Yet the story is not about corporate culture at all. The lessons it teaches have to do with self-esteem and courage.

This is the way creativity works. Someone sees an article that triggers a memory of an experience which becomes a catalyst for something wholly other, such as Yertle the Turtle or Frozen.

This is all hypothetical, of course. It may simply have been what it appears to be. But then, that would be so un-Dylan, wouldn't it? Or would it?

* * * *

EdNote: A Remarkable Tale is now in print, available at both Createspace and Amazon, the latter possibly with a Black Friday deal.

Dylan Days, Dylanology, The Dylanologists and a Happy 73rd to the Elder Statesman of Rock

Yesterday I tried to write a review of David Kinney's The Dylanologists, but got stalled. After three false starts I left for Hibbing for Dylan Days. What a perfect day as far as weather goes. Blue skies and summer's kiss gave the whole town a lift.

As for me, by day's end it could not have gone much better. I saw things I could not photograph, photographed things I cannot share, heard rumors I cannot repeat, made new friends, strengthened ties with old friends and lived to tell about it. I made the trip to Hibbing in the company of John Bushey, host of KUMD's radio program Highway 61 Revisited, which this evening will be dedicated to Bob Dylan's 73rd birthday.

I had two primary aims for the day and the rest was gravy. First, to see the Daniel Kramer exhibit that was making its first U.S. appearance here in Dylan's hometown. Second, to meet David Kinney, author of The Dylanologists, who was going to be signing books at Howard Street Booksellers at 3:30.

The photography of Daniel Kramer was billed as An Exhibition Exploring Major Milestones in Dylan's Career in the mid-1960s. It is a selection of photos co-curated by Daniel Kramer, presented by The Grammy Museum and the City of Hibbing. For the next few months the exhibit will be on display at the Paulucci Space Theatre on the Campus of Hibbing Community College.

Daniel Kramer is a photographer who managed to be in the right place at the right time as far as rock history goes, the year everything changed, 1964-65. Many of his iconic photos from that year are familiar to all of us, including the album covers for Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61 Revisited. Since we were not permitted to take photos of the photos, the best way to see examples of his work is to do a Google search. As it turns out, it was a Daniel Kramer image that Simon & Schuster used for the cover of The Dylanologists.

Bob Santelli, executive director of the Grammy Museum, was on hand to welcome us to the opening. What a small world it is, as Mr. Santelli's had previously been executive VP at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, my own home town till I was 12. When I went to college in 1970 (Ohio University) the first girl I met while waiting in line at Convocation Hall to sign up for classes was from Cleveland. She agreed to see me and that evening shared the vision her circle of friends had for a Rock N Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. Though it took more than a decade the dream was achieved. Santelli, who served there in the 90's, stated that he spent seven years trying to get a Bob Dylan exhibit there.

The current exhibit primarily features what appears to be 14"x 20" black and white photos framed and mounted against a blue background. The images are striking, in part because of the clarity and quality of the reproductions themselves, and in part because of their familiarity. Many of these images have become a part of history, much like Matthew Brady's historic images of Civil War battlefields.

Members of the media had the privilege of viewing the exhibit from 4-5 and then at 6:00 p.m. a Skyped interview with Daniel Kramer was scheduled to take place, conducted by Mr. Santelli. The Skype feed failed to give us an image, but it succeeded in providing an audio feed and the interview provided many special insights into both Mr. Kramer's experiences of that year as well as his career making pictures.

Bob Santelli interviewing Daniel Kramer via Skype.

Mr. Santelli began by outlining the path this exhibit took to reach us here, and where it will be headed. It was originally unveiled in Paris, travelled to London and now to Hibbing, the correct place for its U.S. grand opening... and Dylan Days being the proper time. From here it will travel to Little Rock, a place in Mississippi and to Tulsa's Woody Guthrie Museum. Ultimately it will be housed in L.A.

Daniel Kramer began by saying he was sorry he could not be with us, but that his wife took ill and he had to stay home this week. Bob Santelli then conducted the interview, which lasted nearly an hour. How did you get into photography? What was your first experience of Dylan? What is it about Dylan that is so compelling? etc.

Mr. Kramer indicated that he did not know who Dylan was at all until he saw him sing The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll on television. He said, "It was his words that found me."

It took the photographer six months to get the Woodstock shoot to happen. It was to be an hour in length but ended up being six hours. He did not hear Dylan sing at the time, only spent time with him doing various things. Dylan then invited him to a concert in Philadelphia, thus beginning the long year.

What was significant here is that before that year he was "Bob Dylan" and after that year he was Dylan. The musician went from artist to icon.

When asked how he got this assignment (or relationship) he said, "I sell trust. I feel a responsibility to protect my subjects."

He described being present for the Bringing It All Back Home sessions, which was a totally new kind of music. He observed Bob way of talking to the musicians. His comprehensive understanding of all that was going on far exceeded his years. He was still a youth.

What was important to Kramer was not the images themselves, but how they revealed the inner person. He twice made reference to the notion of "peeling back the layers of the onion."

When asked what other people he has photographed and he mentioned three years of shooting Norman Mailer, plus many writers, actors and others, including Janis Joplin.

When asked if there was a particular image he was fond of from the collection he commented on the famous shot of Dylan with his hand in front of his face, twinkling eye glistening. It was as if he were saying, "Now you see it, now you don't."

Dylanologists David Kinney and John Bushey

There was a fairly large audience on hand in the theater there, and afterward all were invited to the reception, which included a variety of pastries and desserts plus juice. The lingering crowd -- which included Hibbing dignitaries, Dylan fans, locals, and author David Kinney -- seemed energized by the show and the experience.

David Kinney had earlier made a presentation at a book signing at Howard Street Booksellers at 3:30 p.m. It only seemed natural that a Dylan fan who wrote a book about Dylan fandom would be present for Dylan Days. This was his second Dylan Days event, the first being in 2011 as he was researching his book.

Because of the temporary closing of Zimmy's, the singer/songwriter contest -- which has always been a highlight of Dylan Days -- was moved to the Crown Ballroom, an utterly different venue, but not so different event.

There are far too many other impressions to share from yesterday's excursion, but today's another day and it's time to get on with it. There will be a review of The Dylanologists sometime soon. (Thank you, Mr. Kinney, for contributing to this special day. And to Joe and Mary, owners of Howard Street Booksellers. And to you, too, Bill.

Today, Bob Dylan is celebrating his 73rd birthday. Daniel Kramer began documenting that pivotal year of rock history exactly a half century ago. What a great way to celebrate this major milestone, with friends and fans from all over the world, sharing and making memories.

Meantime, life goes on all around you. Celebrate it.

A few of the treats at Howard Street Booksellers.

Now We Know Why People Were Sifting Dylan's Garbage: Original Like a Rolling Stone Lyrics May Fetch a Million or Two at Sotheby's

Johnny Carson once had a guest on his who who had been a bus boy at a high end restaurant where important people frequently ate, perhaps something on the order of Bohemian Grove. His novel obsessions, which began in the late 1950s, was the collection of partially eaten sandwiches by famous people. Johnny, of course, found this amusing and was certain his audience would as well.

When asked how this unusual passion got its start the man said he was clearing plates from Richard Nixon's table and noticed he'd not eaten part of his sandwich. Back in the kitchen he wrapped it, and later labelled it before placing it in cold storage in his freezer. Two decades later he had more than 500 such sandwich remnants.

This anecdote came to mind as when I simultaneously considered this week's news about the lyrics of Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone" going up for auction this summer and the release of David Kinney's The Dylanologists: Adventures in the Land of Bob. 

We live in a culture where proximity to celebrity imbues value to a thing. I do not know whether those sandwich parcels ever had serious value anywhere beyond the collector's freezer, but I do know that the manuscript for John Lennon's "A Day in the Life" garnered 1.2 million dollars, which is hardly chump change.

I remember reading how when Dylan lived in Woodstock people would sift through his garbage to find relics, or climb up on his roof to catch a glimpse of him as he came out of his house. To say that this would become annoying is an understatement, yet we see now that leftovers from a manuscript or discarded doodles may just happen to contain heritage that someone might indeed attach value to one day, evidence again that "one man's garbage is another man's treasure." I doubt any of these garbage sifters ever kept a half eaten sandwich with Dylan's DNA on it, but you never know.

To be clear I am not condoning celebrity garbage sifting, but I can imagine this kind of upscale dumpster diving might be comparable to investing in lottery tickets. You buy the numbers in conjunction with that fleeting sensation of hope. Naturally this why people like Dylan go to such lengths to maintain their privacy.

As for The Dylanologists, I will be getting a copy to read and review here. Supposedly it's a good read. I do hope, however, that Kinney differentiates between those who write about his music and paint pictures of the man and the fellow who assembles sandwich frags like a butterfly collection.

Some people collect seashells, others experiences. Some are passionate about travel. Some are passionate about Dylan. And some have travelled with Dylan. We all have our passions.

What do you think this Chelsea Hotel stationary with two doodles and the lyrics to "Simple Twist of Fate" will fetch me?

Meantime... life goes on all around you.