Positively Main Street: Bob Dylan's Minnesota

By Toby Thompson

Book Overview

"That boy . . . this fellow, Toby . . . has got some lessons to learn." --Bob Dylan, Rolling Stone, November 29, 1969

"Toby Thompson was there first." --Greil Marcus

"A first-rate novelistic account of Thompson's own psyche as he uncovers the Dylan few people know . . . A new look at young Dylan done with kindness, enthusiasm and superb language." --William Kennedy, Look Magazine

"Essential reading. Thompson, unprecedentedly, managed to interview not only Echo Helstrom, almost certainly the 'Girl of the North Country, ' but Dylan's mother and brother, his uncle, his friends." --Michael Gray, Bob Dylan Encyclopedia

"Dylan fans will not want to miss this book." --Sioux City Journal

"Enough to satisfy any Dylan fan with all the gossip he'll ever need." --Huntsville Times

"Well worth the attention of anyone who has fallen under the spell of the boy from the North Country." --Los Angeles Times

"It's a must." --Ft. Worth Press

"Thompson tracked down anybody who knew 'Die-lan' (as the Hibbingites called him), including the guy at the local music store, the guy at the motorcycle shop, his English and music teachers, his uncles, his brother David and even his reluctant but ultimately charmingly chatty mother. Of course, Thompson traveled into a few dead ends. But the stuff with Dylan's mom and his high school girlfriend, Echo Helstrom, is priceless. Positively Main Street is a free-wheelin', fun and quick read that is surprisingly informative." --Minneapolis Star Tribune

"Hundreds of books have been written about Minnesota's most famous songwriter; Bob Dylan's life and music has been analyzed by fans, scholars, and even himself. So, why do we need Toby Thompson's Positively Main Street: Bob Dylan's Minnesota? Because it's a forgotten milestone. Published in 1971, it was the first biography on Dylan. Although it's been out of print since 1977, the book is, with the exception of Dylan's autobiography, perhaps the most readable and necessary volume on the folk icon." --City Pages

"The new Positively Main Street is a lovely little book, even better than the original, a cherished addition to the Dylan bookshelf. Thompson and the University of Minnesota Press have enhanced what was already a classic and made it available to a whole new audience. Dylan fans owe them a debt of gratitude." --The Dylan Daily

" Thompson] ends up not only interviewing 'the Girl from the North Country, ' Echo Haelstrom, and 'Bob's' mother and brother and teachers etc., but also filling in for Dylan among his old friends and acquaintances, playing Dylan's songs on the guitar and harmonica and singing them, in a way that may have seemed stratingly revolutionary at the time for a journalist to do, he actually recreates a bit of Dylan's existence as his own." --Michael Lally, Lally's Alley

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 081665445X
• ISBN13: 9780816654451
• Release Date: April 2008
• Publisher: University of Minnesota Press
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.74 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Book Reviewer

In the world of books, where the ceiling on what constitutes a young writer reaches the age of 40, Toby Thompson should be applauded for simply going for it at 24, for packing up his car and heading halfway across the country to a small northern Minnesota town to track down the history of an enigmatic singer by walking up to people he's never met and asking them to talk about their most famous son, Bob Dylan. Crazy? Yeah, sure. Honorable? Gutsy? Pretty damn cool? Yes! Yes! Yes! Such a trek should be required for all aspiring writers, the push out the door (and out of their comfort zone) to find the story that is brewing somewhere in America. Even better is that Thompson knocks out a home run in his debut book, sharing a never-been-told story about Bob Dylan to an audience who was begging for it in 1971 and to future generations who continue to discover the poetry and magic of "Positively 4th Street," among others, as their musical tastes come of age. As the 60's gave way to the 70's, Thompson captures two major forces spreading across America: Bob Dylan and New Journalism, weaving these two complimenting stars together in one wild romp. The running inner-monologue of Thompson's witty thoughts and observations are a cross between Hunter S. Thompson and Tom Wolfe adding up to a style that breathes fire. Above all the story is fun to read, inspired by the passion and idealism of a young man who doesn't know any better. And thank god for that. English professors take note: This should be required reading for all of your students.

Tells of Toby Thompson's travels to learn more about Bobby Zimmerman, the man behind the legend

Bob Dylan is one of the most creative songwriters of the twentieth century. "Positively Main Street: Bob Dylan's Minnesota" tells of Toby Thompson's travels to learn more about Bobby Zimmerman, the man behind the legend. Thompson talks with the people who knew Zimmerman as a boy to further understand the mind behind the music. With interviews conducted by the author and never before released photographs, "Positively Main Street" is a must for any Dylan fan.

"Bobby Z Growing Up"

Superb, intersting account of growing up as Bobby Zimmerman, before becoming Bob "Die-lan". "Die-Lan" is the way Minnesotans pronounce Dylan. (The same way that I pronounced it 40 years ago.) Great interview with Echo Helstrom "The Girl from the North Country". (Thompson doesn't bring up the thought that others think that "The Girl..." is actually Bonnie Beecher.) But from Thompson's accounts I think Echo would be someone very easy to fall in love with. I find it interesting that even after Dylan "Made it" Beatty Zimmerman (Bob's Mother) was still working in Hibbing. This is a recommended read that is as inyteresting as the John Sandford novels are about Minnesota.

We've been waitin', Toby ....

Toby Thompson is truly an Odd Fellow: admitting in this updated, refurbished University of Minnesota Press edition that he first went to Hibbing, MN as a desperate means of "breaking through" in the journalistic market. I would say that takes a lot of nerve but no doubt he admits so because he, like the rest of us before him, has seen that his work far transcends such a naughty, simple conspiracy and the fact that he was able to sit down and interview Bob Dylan's mother in Hibbing at a time when the Zimmerman family still had a viable presence on the Range is nothing short of dreamy, not to mention the quality of the relationship he forged with Echo Helstrom. The book's new preface as well as the recent, upbeat, revealing interview with this great author make this purchase a MUST for fans of Dylan, even those who cherish the first edition from the Stoned Age. Three Cheers for Mr. Thompson.