Biopic Oscar buzz draws new generation of fans to Bob Dylan’s old neighbourhood
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For more than 40 years, Greenwich Village record shop owner John Pita has had a window on Bob Dylan history.
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His store, the Record Runner, faces block-long Jones Street, where Dylan and his girlfriend and muse Suze Rotolo were photographed on a snowy February day in 1963.
The photo became the cover of Dylan’s second album, The Freewheelin‘ Bob Dylan and a pop culture calling card for one of New York’s most historic and fascinating urban neighbourhoods.
With James Mangold’s biopic A Complete Unknown racking up eight Oscar nominations, including one for Timothée Chalamet’s performance as Dylan, another generation is discovering the legendary singer-songwriter and Nobel laureate.
Both old and new fans can find traces of Dylan in the Village through the places where he lived, wrote and performed in the early 1960s.
“They come all the time,” says Pita of Dylan fans who want to have their own Freewheelin’ moment. He keeps an empty record sleeve for a photo prop. They can also find Dylan’s records among the rows of bins in the small store, along with the movie soundtrack featuring Chalamet.
The Village has changed over the 64 years since Dylan arrived from Minnesota at age 19. Most of the coffee houses and clubs have been replaced by high-priced real estate, restaurants and boutiques. It’s why Mangold shot the movie in more 1960s-looking locations in neighbouring New Jersey.
Yet Greenwich Village’s ties to Dylan and the rise of the bohemian counterculture remain strong.
Love of Dylan is what spurred Tulsa, Okla., fans Celina and Steph Pollard to make the Village their first stop on their recent New York trip. After fuelling up at Bleecker Street Pizza (founded in1915), they walked to Jones Street to recreate the album cover shot.
At age 83, Dylan is a living legend, said Steph. Being where he walked means something.
Whether you’ve never heard “Blowin’ in the Wind,” or you’re a Dylan devotee, the single square kilometre of the Village is a good choice for a lazy exploration on foot in a green and tranquil patch removed from New York bustle.
The neighbourhood breaks from Manhattan’s regimented grid street pattern. Narrow, cobblestone roads lined with brownstones and heritage houses twist and flow like the rivers they once followed. It’s common to see tourists squinting at their phones, trying to figure out directions. Getting lost is part of the experience.
“It is like a village still, as much as it used to be,” said Friedman as we started our tour at the gated entry to Washington Mews. The street is lined on both sides with 19th-century carriage houses for the row of Greek Revival townhomes a block south facing Washington Square Park.
The park is where Dylan comes in. Enter the green space through the marble Washington Square Arch, modelled on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. Dylan often hung out here, strumming his guitar near the Tisch Fountain.
The park was also the site of a Chalamet look-alike contest last fall, where the star surprised fans by showing up out of the blue.
It’s also name-checked in the Joan Baez song “Diamonds and Rust,” which she penned in the aftermath of her breakup with Dylan. It includes a reference to their room in “that crummy hotel over Washington Square.”
The circa–1905 Washington Square Hotel was called the Hotel Earle back then and had flophouse vibes when Dylan stayed there in 1961. Two years later, he and Baez shared room 305, which has what Friedman calls “a New York view.” The window looks out on a brick wall.
Far from its crummy days, the renovated Art Deco-style hotel has a chic dining room and a rooftop garden. It’s proud of its deep music history. Canadian folk duo Ian & Sylvia wrote “Four Strong Winds” there. Michelle and John Phillips composed “California Dreamin’” while staying at the hotel. The Rolling Stones made it their base for their first U.S. tour.
And then there’s Dylan.
“Somebody asked for room 305 when they were on their honeymoon,” said hotel manager Marta Bukala. When guests request 305, she recommends a room with a better view. But Dylan diehards won’t be dissuaded.
We stopped outside a red brick walk-up at 161 West 4th St. to see where Dylan and Rotolo had an apartment on the fourth floor. The Music Inn is across the street. Dylan frequented the store packed with instruments and record bins.
A block from Washington Square is MacDougal Street. Dylan played for the first time in New York at Cafe Wha? at 115 MacDougal. It’s still in business and there’s live music most nights. Former Dylan haunt The Bitter End on Bleecker Street also remains open. Look for the distinctive blue awning. There’s no longer music at Café Reggio at 119 MacDougal St., where Dylan played. But you can get a great cup of coffee at the place that claims to have served the first cappuccino in the U.S. in 1927.
Dylan likely visited the neighbourhood drugstore, C.O. Bigelow Apothecary on 6th Avenue. It’s a local landmark, with its vertical red neon sign, original chandeliers and towering glass display cases and has been dispensing medicines since 1838.
Alec Ginsberg, the 33-year-old fourth-generation owner, said famous patrons from Mark Twain to Lou Reed picked up prescriptions there. So did artists recording at nearby Electric Lady studios, which was commissioned by Jimi Hendrix in 1968.
“I’ve been listening to Bob Dylan since I was born. Like, obsessively,” Ginsberg said. He’s a fan of the movie, saying people who went see to see Timothée Chalamet onscreen could end up turned on to Dylan’s music.
Dylan also had ties to Chelsea, the neighbourhood just north of Greenwich Village.
The magnificent Victorian Gothic-style Hotel Chelsea, built in 1884, also appears in A Complete Unknown. Dylan stayed in room 211, now room 2A, in the early ’60s, where he wrote songs for his 1966 album Blonde on Blonde.
The Chelsea is part of so many stories of the legendary poets, writers, artists and musicians who stayed and created there over the years that it’s earned cult status.
Now an eclectic luxury hotel, room rates start at about $500 U.S. per night.
Dylan fan and musician William Benton is a doorman at the Chelsea. He doubles as historian and guide, taking hotel guests on free tours into the heart of the Chelsea’s past, including Dylan’s time there. He’s seen an uptick lately in people asking about the musician.
“The movie made me curious,” Benton said. “I just saw Dylan (perform) a couple of months ago. What would it be like if this did energize a new generation?”
If you go
How to get there: Air Canada, WestJet and Porter Airlines have direct flights to New York and Newark, New Jersey.
Where to stay: The Washington Square Hotel (103 Waverly Pl.) or The Hotel Chelsea (222 W 23rd St.).
Where to eat: There’s a number of great pizza joints in the Village that were open when Dylan lived there. Dine in at John’s of Bleecker Street (278 Bleecker St.) which opened in 1929. The circa-1880 White Horse Tavern (567 Hudson St.) was a Dylan hangout.