Brian, our thoughtful editor, piqued my curiosity with his June 14 column introduction noting Bob Dylan’s early 60’s song and album Highway 61 Revisited. Having paid only sporadic attention to Dylan then, I was brought up short that he made our road so famous so long before this column.
It turns out that it is sort of our road he sings about, mostly the same route except maybe for the two tunnels. He named the album after the highway, which then connected his birthplace of Duluth, Minnesota, to southern cities famed for their musical heritage, including St. Louis, Memphis, New Orleans, and the Delta blues area of Mississippi.
In his memoir Chronicles: Volume One, Dylan wrote: (U.S.)”Highway 61, the main thoroughfare of the country blues, begins about where I began. I always felt like I’d started on it, always had been on it and could go anywhere, even down to the deep Delta country. It was the same road, full of the same contradictions, the same one-horse towns, the same spiritual ancestors … It was my place in the universe, always felt like it was in my blood.”
When I-35 replaced U.S. 61 as the main thoroughfare to the North Shore in 1977, U.S. 61 was made to end in Wyoming, Minnesota. The State now keeps up our orphaned highway 61.
The song itself has somewhat murky lyrics. Wikipedia gives this description:
“The song has five stanzas. In each stanza, someone describes an unusual problem that is ultimately resolved on Highway 61. In Verse 1, God tells Abraham to “kill me a son.”[2] God wants the killing done on Highway 61. This stanza refers to Genesis 22, in which God commands Abraham to kill one of his two sons, Isaac. Abram, the original name of the biblical Abraham, is the name of Dylan’s father. Verse 2 describes a poor fellow, Georgia Sam, who is beyond the welfare department’s help. He is told to go down Highway 61. Georgia Sam may be a reference to Piedmont blues musician Blind Willie McTell, who occasionally went by Georgia Sam when recording.”
Verse 4 is about the “fifth daughter” who on the “twelfth night” told the “first father” that her complexion is too pale. Agreeing, the father seeks to tell the “second mother,” but she is with the “seventh son,” on Highway 61. The inspiration for this verse may be drawn from the enumeration pattern at the beginning of the Old Testament book of Ezekiel.
The fifth and last verse is the story of a bored gambler, trying “to create the next world war.” His promoter tells him to “put some bleachers out in the sun / And have it on Highway 61.” There is an evident political undertone in this absurd tale.
The 3rd verse caught my special attention.
Well, Mack, the Finger said to Louie the King
I got forty red white and blue shoestrings
And a thousand telephones that don’t ring.
Do you know where I can get rid of these things
And Louie the King said let me think for a minute son
And he said yes I think it can be easily done
Just take everything down to Highway 61.
Most of us have trouble getting rid of things that become absurd by their obsolescence or quantity. Someday my household must have a “Come and Get It Sale.’” It will feature some 2,000 books and 50 boxes of buttons. We will not pay you to take it away until, perhaps, the Last Day. In the meantime, we content ourselves with Grand Marais Sell and Swap, a Facebook group. I first sold a surplus propane furnace. We recently got a cute, explosive tabby kitten from one source, a litter pan, and a travel cage from others. All free except, of course, for the follow-up vet bills at our pleasant Cedar Grove Clinic. Then came the obligatory cat tree and hammock and 99 catnip mice now all residing under various furniture pieces.
P.S. I would have printed the whole murky text of Highway 61 Revisited for us but my lawyer-self persuaded my writer self that the copyright enforcers would not mind one verse but would balk at the whole song text. Those same copyright enforcers should thank us for promoting the song and album that are now nearly 60 years old. Of course, you can read it all on multiple internet sites and hear multiple versions on YouTube, including one by Joan Baez, my favorite folky.
P.P.S. With enough popular demand, a future column might cover “Seven Bridges Road.”
Steve Aldrich is a retired Hennepin County lawyer, mediator, and Judge, serving from 1997-2010. He and his wife Myrna moved here in 2016. He likes to remember that he was a Minnesota Super Lawyer before being elected to the bench. Now he is among the most vulnerable to viruses. Steve really enjoys doing weddings, the one thing a retired judge can do without appointment by the Chief Justice. He has never officiated at a Skype, Zoom, or Google Team wedding. Contact him at stevealdrich41@gmail.com.
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