University of Virginia Library

II

First off, the relativist approach
will not work here. I
could tell you this book is no
Life of Mayakovsky. I could
bore you with the observation
that the interplay between volumes
is like that found in Don
Quixote, which means the teller
must constantly deal with the
published fact of the first part
in carrying off the second.

Bobby Zimmerman (1959)

As it happened, Trip One,
the result of the first trip to
Hibbing — a series of pieces the
Village Voice ran in the winter
of 1969 — led to an assignment
from Richard Goldstein of US
magazine for a follow-up (Trip
Two). Together, complete with
a Mulnesque format —
splashes of small impressions,
bits and pieces like fragments
of colored glass — Positively
Main Street is being published
today in New York.

Glimpses, not a sweeping
narrative, are what emerge.
Hibbing today is often tested
against the recollections the
traveler gathers from Dylan's
brother, his mother, friends
and others. And places, like
Crippa's Record Store:

When Bob used to go in
there, they invariably had
never heard of whoever he
wanted to hear. He bought his
first harmonica there, and
today they stock his records.
Milton Glaser's psychedelic
DYLAN adorns the wall,
though the local radio station
(all 1,000 watts of it) seldom
plays his stuff even now. They
say they are a "middle-of-the-road"
station, and most of the
Hibbingites would rather forget
the freak, anyway.

A main source for material
is Dylan's old high school girl
friend, Echo Helstrom ("Girl
from the North Country").
They had gone steady during
their junior year, and Echo
liked Toby enough to tell him
some things.

Gradually it begins to
unfold: a silent, chubby little
Jewish boy, with his greasy
slicked back hair, his guitar,
and his firm conviction that
Smokey Robinson is America's
greatest living poet: Bobby
Zimmerman, Hibbing High
School, Class of 1959.

Echo: In the late fifties
"the only rock and roll you

could get in Hibbing...was late
at night over a colored station
from Little Rock, Arkansas."

"It was that same year,
eleventh grade, that Bob came
over to my house and told me
he'd finally decided on his
stage name. Yes, it was
'Dylan'...after the poet." Also,
that year:

"The Hibbing High School
Auditorium, 1957. The Jacket
Jamboree Talent Festival and
Bobby Zimmerman! Hibbing's
original blue-eyed soul brother,
on dirty blues piano...(Jesus
Christ!)

"Electric Bob, mad for
volume, decides that the
group's several microphones
and amplifiers just won't do
the job. It's a big hall and Bob
wants to blow these Philistines
out of their seats as far back as
the last row...Fast and hard
enough to get in there and
destroy some brain cells.
Electroshock therapy!"

He broke the fortissimo
pedal on the upright Baldwin,
while the crowd laughed and
booed in confusion. As Echo
describes it, Dylan's "wild
imagination" sheltered him
from the reality of the
surrounding failure to
comprehend or enjoy. They
could never understand why a
nice boy like Bobby
Zimmerman would want to
stand up in public and sing and
carry on..."like a nigger!" His
love was oblivious to their
chagrin. He was entranced by
the very sounds he created.