Revisiting America, Authenticity, and Highway 61

Judaism in Bob Dylan’s “Highway 61 Revisited”

Bob Dylan is a musical icon. Part of his iconographic presence in American culture is his persona. Through constant evolution, Dylan has made himself a public enigma. His focus on originality is the defining characteristic of his artistic identity. His constant seeking for change and reinvention seeps into his relationship with Judaism, especially his public and artistic relationships with the faith. By attempting to avoid tradition, Dylan ended up avoiding his tradition, Judaism, and instead reworked it to create a larger persona.

Bob Dylan was born Robert Zimmerman, but changed his name in his late teens when he began making music. Dylan’s name change reflected his attitude towards Judaism as a whole: He erased his immediate traditional ties with Judaism, perhaps because it didn’t serve his created mythos and he felt it was at odds with the American, folk, rock image he was trying to project. By erasing this instant association with Judaism, he then had the power to redefine his relationship with Judaism on his own terms and incorporate it however he saw fit. In his 1965 song “Highway 61 Revisited”, Bob Dylan briefly tells the story of Abraham, and his portrayal and framing of this biblical story is indicative of Dylan’s larger relationship with his Judaism in his art. Dylan tried to reconcile his Jewish identity with his artistic identity because he wanted to avoid tradition, but also in the process modernized both of these identities. With the album Highway 61 Revisited, he rebelled against his public image as a folk artist and began making rock music. The titular track exemplifies Dylan seizing back his narrative by reinventing and redefining his entire artistic persona to be on his own terms.

In “Highway 61 Revisited”, Dylan uses the story of Abraham as a reference within a folklore Dylan crafts in the song. He focuses on the implications of the story of Abraham as a story itself rather than as a vehicle to make a spiritual or social point. He wants to see how people interact with the story. Hence instead of spending an entire song toiling through this biblical story, he only spends a verse on it before jumping to his next tale.  Dylan begins “Highway 61 Revisited” with the lyrics, “Oh God said to Abraham, ‘Kill me a son’ / Abe said, ‘Man, you must be puttin' me on’”. In the first line, Dylan remains semi-traditional in order to evoke listeners’ memory of this widespread story. But by the second line of the song, he has already shed religious convention by nicknaming Abraham “Abe” and having a biblical figure speak in modern colloquialisms. Dylan strips this story of its mythic and holy associations quickly. He doesn’t portray this song’s version of God with a kind of untouchable holiness. Rather Dylan sings, “God say, ‘You can do what you want, Abe, but / The next time you see me comin' you better run’”. This God is a playful one rather than a solemn deliverer of sacred texts. Dylan’s transformation of the biblical story is yet another example of him refuting traditional notions of religion and reshaping culture to fit his narratives.

Dylan weaves the story of Abraham into “Highway 61 Revisited” to further hone his own personal mythos. The song’s narrator's improper grammar asserts himself as a people’s storyteller, following in the long tradition of folk and rock music as forms of expression for the common person. This connects to a larger point about Dylan’s framing in this song. Dylan’s real father’s name was Abraham, and Highway 61 is a real highway that runs through Dylan’s hometown, Duluth, Minnesota. So in telling a story of a man named Abraham and his son who go to Highway 61, Dylan makes a synthetic folklore that he is mystically woven into. He includes himself in the narrative. Instead of entirely erasing his Jewish heritage, he abstracts it to fit the story he wants to tell.

Through his references to old American traditions, Dylan allies himself with “authentic” art, perhaps to lend himself credibility. First off, the title of “Highway 61 Revisited” is likely an allusion to Curtis Jones’ “Highway 51”, which Dylan covered on his first album. Then in Dylan’s song, he references “Georgia Sam” AKA Blind Willie McTell, a famous blues singer from whom Dylan derived inspiration. He also mentions “King Louis”, presumably Louis Armstrong. By drawing upon these black musicians’ histories, Dylan inserts himself in their history and implies that he belongs to it too. Dylan’s feeling of connection with this history is summed up best in his 2005 memoir, Chronicles, Volume I, in which he explains, “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 into 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.” Dylan’s mythic diction and somber tone in this passage convey his connection to these authentic American musical figures. Not only does his diction mirror that of these musical icons, but it also suggests that he is irrefutably, intrinsically, spiritually linked to them. In other words, he is authentic simply by existing.

He was born along Highway 61, in the highway’s literal and connotative sense. He was born to Jewish parents just as he was born in a humble town in the American Heartland. The highway, a vein cutting through the Heartland, traces some of the folk and blues traditions. Dylan doesn’t directly link himself to any of these stories in the song. He tells them as visions of America, slice-of-life style stories that make up the fabric of the nation. By placing a biblical story next to stories of respected American musicians, Dylan suggests that all of these things are American, that they all are along Highway 61. So while he doesn’t claim his own identity, his portrayal of his background and influences encapsulates all he is. And he became a legend in his own right, carving a seemingly new brand of authenticity, that actually drew upon all of the influences and backgrounds he alludes to in “Highway 61 Revisited”, thus expanding notions of art, authenticity, Judaism, and America on his own terms. Overall, by this blend of both erasing and slightly acknowledging his Judaism (through his sub-textual winks), Dylan took control over his public image. He determined if he wanted listeners to have this context for his art or not. He turned his background as a Jewish man and an American born in the Heartland into artistic suits he could try on as he pleased. Dylan’s persona is an artistic choice, but, subconsciously or consciously, it is also a political and cultural choice.