Bob Dylan: Duluth Ski Bum?

PDD News Sieve May 29, 2018 3 Comments

A profile on Roger McGuinn in No Depression, a quarterly roots music journal, opens with an interesting Duluth-related tidbit.

McGuinn says he and Dylan went skiing in Minnesota — near Duluth or Dylan’s hometown of Hibbing — during a Christmas break in Dylan’s historic 1975-76 Rolling Thunder Revue tour.

“He’s fast,” McGuinn recalls. “I was a beginning skier on the intermediate slope going down cautiously. I look to my right, and Bob goes vroom right past me.”

So, was it Spirit Mountain? Chester Bowl? Mont du Lac? Giants Ridge? Lutsen Mountains? Let the speculation begin.

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3 Comments

Ramos

about 6 years ago 

The answer is blowing in the wind.

Helmut Flaag

about 6 years ago 

Looks like Sean Na Na in that photo. My neighbor's cousin served him at Spirit Mountain probably on that trip. Said he was an asshole.  Does that surprise you? 

Kinda shocked he wasn't too good for Jim McGuinn either who of course was nowhere near the level of a say Gene Clark.

 In fact, it bears repeating Bob Dylan once said he wished he could write songs as well as him and Gordon. All you Bob Dylan flag suckers don't know your rock history.

Paul Lundgren

about 5 years ago 



Louie Kemp's memoir, Dylan and Me: 50 Years of Adventures, seems to validate McGuinn's story and specifies the location as Spirit Mountain.

From the Duluth News Tribune article "Dylan went skiing at Spirit Mountain? Friend's memoir dishes about the Northland's native son.":


Dylan and friends, fresh from the mid-1970s carnival-esque pop-up cross-continent small-venue road cruise, holed up at Spirit Mountain for a bit: Joan Baez, Roger McGuinn of the Byrds, promoter Barry Imhoff and more.

“We skied during the day and hung out in the chalet at night, frolicking, partying, dancing, singing and drinking,” Kemp writes in the self-published book. “Everyone seemed happy to extend our time together by a few more days.”

In Duluth.

The story of a spontaneous shopping trip downtown to the Army-Navy store for winter-wear and a food fight starring Kemp and Baez at the Chinese Lantern is among the tales told in the 25-chapter book scheduled for mid-August release.

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