bob dylan tour new york city

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Bob Dylan's Greenwich Village Walking Tour

This post is a self-guided tour of places in Greenwich Village that are significant in Bob Dylan's career.

It includes venues he played at, buildings he lived in, and other Dylan-related spots.

SELF-GUIDED TOUR OF BOB DYLAN'S GREENWICH VILLAGE

This self-guided tour has 13 stops and covers approximately 1 1/2 miles. Walking at a casual speed, the tour will take you 90 minutes.

Should you get hungry along the way, there are some fantastic places to grab food and snacks in Greenwich Village. 

See our guide on things to do in Greenwich Village to see a list of places to eat.

This map is interactive. You can make it larger as well as scroll around.

Watch the video clips included with each location for even more detail and images as well.  

(A) Hotel Earle (now Washington Square Park Hotel) -  103 Waverly Place

When a young Bob Dylan (nee Robert Zimmerman) arrived in New York in the winter of 1961, he stayed there for a short while in Room 305.

Back then it was a residential hotel for down-and-outers.

His friend Joan Baez made reference to the Earle in her bittersweet love song about Dylan, Diamonds, and Rust , in the lyric “that crummy hotel over Washington Square.” 

Today the hotel is Washington Square Hotel and, ironically, this former flophouse is one of our picks for an affordable hotel in the Greenwich Village area.

(B) Washington Square Park 

This could be called the epicenter of the bohemian scene and hippie movement of the 1960s. 

Street performers, musicians, and artists frequent the park in all kinds of weather.

Bob Dylan was known to listen to the groups enjoying their daylight hours strumming guitars or banjos and singing — often for tips, or just for the sheer fun of it.  

For a detailed history of the park, check out our post on Washington Square Park .

(C) The Bitter End - 147 Bleecker Street

This small and intimate nightclub, coffeehouse, and folk music venue opened in 1961. 

Every Tuesday night, the club hosted  "hootenannies" where newbie folk artists took the stage, many of whom went on to become legends.

In the mid-1970s, the club was the birthplace of Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue, which featured such musicians as Roger McGuinn, founder of the Byrds, and solo folk music superstar Joni Mitchell. 

Dylan hung out here in 1975 when he was recording his album  Desire .

(D) Village Gate - 158 Bleecker Street

Now renamed the Village Theater, this nightclub was opened in 1958 and hosted some of the most controversial (and talented) names in jazz, theater, comedy, and folk music.

In 1962, Dylan was staying with his friend Chip Monck, who lived in the basement of this building.

It was here that Dylan wrote A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall .

Chip Monck too went on to fame. He started his career as a stage lighter at the Village Gate.

He went on to light both the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 and Woodstock in 1969, where he was the master of ceremonies.

(E) 94 MacDougal Street  

Dylan purchased this townhouse in 1969 when he returned from a long hiatus in Woodstock with his wife and children. 

This was a surprising choice of location now that Dylan was world-famous.

MacDougal Steet was one a magnet for locals and tourists and would not afford Dylan much privacy.

To this day, MacDougal Street is one of the liveliest streets in Greenwich Village.

It is lined with music venues, cafes, shops, and restaurants. 

A neighbor by the name of A.J. Weberman made the Dylans' lives miserable by invading their privacy by picking through their trash garbage and bringing loads of people to the townhouse.

After asking Weberman over and over again to stop, Dylan lost it one day and beat up Weberman on the street.

Dylan shortly thereafter moved to Malibu in California.

(F) The Folklore Center - 110 MacDougal Street

This book and music shop owned by Izzy Young became the center of the folk music scene in Greenwich Village. 

The young Bob Dylan would sit in the back and listen to the records.

In 1961, Dylan played a few songs here and it was recorded.

The video below contains the rare recording of his 3 song performance set to a still photograph. 

  Izzy Young booked Dylan’s first concert in New York City at the Carnegie Chapter Hall in 1961. In tribute, Dylan wrote “Talking Folklore Center.”

The Folklore Center is, according to Dylan, where he met Dave Van Ronk, who introduced him to the Greenwich Village music scene.

(G) Gaslight Cafe  (formerly Kettle of Fish) - 116 MacDougal Street

This music cafe was located in what was the basement of the Kettle of Fish (now on Christopher Street). 

The album Live at The Gaslight 196 2, released in 2005, is a collection of 10 Dylan performances recorded on reel-to-reel tapes in his early days in the Village.

The Gaslight Cafe is known as the birthplace of the tradition of finger-snapping instead of clapping for a performer! Here's how this came about:

The basement cafe was not deep enough for a decent-sized audience, so the owner shoveled it deeper himself. In doing so, he exposed the airshafts in the building.

When the audience especially enjoyed a performer, such as Dylan who performed here often in the early days, they would clap heartily.

Sometimes these boisterous performances went on as late as 4:30 a.m.

The sound of loud clapping echoed through the airshafts and could be heard by the tenants.

They would often call the police to complain about the noise from below.

Patrons began to snap their fingers to quietly show their appreciation of performers. Thus a tradition was born.

(H) Cafe Wha? - 115 MacDougal Street

  Cafe Wha? is a music venue that has been a launchpad known as a launchpad for new musicians' careers.

In January of 1961, a 19-year-old Dylan (still going by the name Robert Zimmerman) arrived in NYC

He Café Wha? on his first night in town. He did a short set of Woodie Guthrie songs.

Check out our post about  Cafe Wha?  for an in-depth history of the other famous musicians and comedians who performed here.

(I) The former site of The Commons - 105 MacDougal Street

This location was once The Commons, a cafe that held poetry readings, and folk music and jazz performances. 

Today it is a mediocre but popular restaurant, Panchito's. 

You would never know by looking at it that this was where Dylan wrote Blowin' in the Wind.

(J) Jones Street - between West 4th and Bleecker Streets

Dylan fans will no doubt immediately recognize this intersection as the spot where the photograph on the cover of The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan  was shot.

Dylan is hunched against the cold weather with then-girlfriend Suze Rotolo hanging on his arm trudging through the snow-covered street.  

At that time Dylan and Rotolo lived at 161 West 4th Street off of Sixth Avenue.

(K) One Sheridan Square

Dylan lived here briefly on the 4th floor, staying with "folk scene den mother" Miki Isaacson whose living room was a permanent crash pad for folk singers. 

Suze Rotolo’s mother lived in the apartment one floor below. Dylan and Suze crossed paths here and began dating.

A year after that album cover was shot, Dylan swiftly rose to fame and he broke up with Suze.

He did write a song inspired by her, however, called Tomorrow Is a Long Time .

(L) Theatre de Lys (now the Lucille Lortel Theater)  -  121 Christopher Street

It was here in 1963 that Dylan saw a performance of Bertolt Brecht's  The Threepenny Opera and heard the song Pirate Jenny.  

Dylan wrote in his book “Chronicles: Volume One,” that he was deeply influenced by Pirate Jenny  which led to his experimenting with his own songwriting.

The results were stunning masterpieces like The Times They Are A-Changin ’, Mr. Tambourine Man,  and A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall .

(M) White Horse Tavern - 567 Hudson Street

Dylan and girlfriend Rotolo would sit in the bar and listen to Irish Rebel songs performed by the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem.

This now well-known tavern was also frequented by writers including the poet British poet Dylan Thomas, from whom Bob Zimmerman took his stage name.

This bar is one of the oldest in New York City and is included in our Self-Guided Historic New York City Bar Tour .

GUIDED TOURS OF GREENWICH VILLAGE

There's so much more to see in Greenwich Village than just the places connected to Bob Dylan.

The Village was THE place where major artistic, musical, literary, and political movements of the 20th Century were born.

Our  pay-what-you-wish Greenwich Village Walking Tour  takes you to places that played a role in these movements as your guide discusses their historical context.

The tour visits  Washington Square Park  which drew hippies and counterculture activists throughout the 1960s and 70s.

Our tour takes you on MacDougal Street  where Beatniks like Allen Ginsburg and Jack Kerouac hung out at cafes that lined the street.

We stop at  Cafe Wha? a venue where so many rock musicians, including Bob Dylan,  got their start.

You'll also see small theaters like the Cherry Lane  that helped the innovative playwrights like Eugene O'Neill and Edna St. Vincent Millay flourish.

We stop at the  Stonewall Inn , where the Gay Liberation Movement took off in 1969.

And no trip to Greenwich Village is complete without seeing the Friends  apartment building!

These are just some of the many places you'll see and things you'll learn about on our  pay-what-you-wish Greenwich Village Walking Tour .

If you prefer to explore the Village at your own pace check out our  GPS-enabled audio tour , narrated by one of our tour guides. 

With or without a tour, be sure to visit this dynamic neighborhood where history was made and still is today!

ROCK JUNKET ROCK AND ROLL TOUR

If your musical taste goes beyond Bob Dylan, you might be interested in taking  Rock Junket's Rock and Roll Tour .

This 2-hour tour takes you on a journey to the past as you stroll the streets and go to locations where punk rock originated.

Learn about the East Village, home to the Ramones, Blondie, and Television. See where The Doors, The Who, and Led Zeppelin played to small but packed houses.

This tour is more than just looking at buildings. Your energetic and knowledgeable guide will bring these sites to life.

The Guardian UK has called this tour the 3rd best tour in the world! The tour has been featured in Rolling Stine, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and more.

Guests give rave reviews of this tour saying it's "absolutely brilliant" and "awesome". The guide is described as "enthusiastic", "very knowledgeable" and "fun".  Read more reviews here .

Tour details:

• Runs Monday - Friday at 2 pm and Saturday at 11 am. 
• $44 per person.
• Purchase tickets here .

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10 Places in New York to Visit if You Love Bob Dylan

1. jones street, 2. 94 macdougal street, 3. cafe wha, 115 macdougal street, 4. the bitter end, 147 bleecker street, 5. fat black pussycat, 105 macdougal street, 6. village gate, 158 bleecker street, 7. the folklore center, 110 macdougal street, 8. 161 west fourth street, 9. room 305 in washington square hotel (formerly the hotel earle), 10. big pink, 11. one more for good luck: the capitol theatre, port chester, new york.

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Bob Dylan’s Greenwich Village: A Self-Guided Walking Tour

New York is not a sentimental town. It takes pride in its ever-evolving skyline. It doesn’t have a museum commemorating the Harlem Renaissance. The only jazz memorials are Woodhull Cemetery and the Louis Armstrong House. There is nothing celebrating the folk revival. It’s up to you and your two feet to seek out its history. A good starting point is Bob Dylan and Greenwich Village, a historical neighborhood that maintains much of its original architecture. On a cold Winter day in January of 1961, Dylan arrived in New York City. In the next three years, he left an indelible mark. Forever after, the two would be forever connected.

Start at 1 West 4 th Street.

It’s a big brown building. Peek in a window and you are likely to see an art exhibit. It’s not much now — another bland NYU building — but it was formerly Gerde’s Folk City, a hotbed of folk talent in the 1960s. It was a bit off the beaten path, but it still attracted large touring acts. Dylan’s first professional show was at Gerde’s Folk City. He opened for the great John Lee Hooker. “A bright new face in folk music is appearing at Gerde’s Folk City. Although only 20 years old, Bob Dylan is one of the most distinctive stylists to play a Manhattan cabaret in months,” wrote  New York Times critic Robert Shelton. “But if not for every taste, his music-making has the mark of originality and inspiration, all the more noteworthy for his youth. Mr. Dylan is vague about his antecedents and birthplace, but it matters less where he has been than where he is going, and that would seem to be straight up.”

On this same block is the former site of the Bottom Line. Dylan never performed at the Bottom Line, though he did live nearby in the 1970s, during the club’s hey day. It opened on February 12, 1974 and played a prominent part in preserving Greenwich Village's legacy as a cultural hotspot. Bruce Springsteen played some legendary showcases. Lou Reed recorded the album Live: Take No Prisoners here. A middle-aged Dylan spent some lonely nights here.

Continue two blocks on West 4 th to Washington Square. Go to the fountain and look at the arches … there might even be some folk singers performing.

Folk musicians began performing at Washington Square in 1945. It was rough and tumble music. Then, in 1958, the Kingston Trio had their first hit — a pop-folk version of the traditional song “Tom Dooley.” Folk music boomed and, suddenly, Washington Square Park was flooded with musicians. By 1960, Sundays in Washington Square were the big day when the folkies would descend on the park. It was so popular with both tourists and players that the police put up barricades. When Dylan arrived in January 1961, he quickly began playing at the Square.

Three months after his arrival — in April of 1961 — the police cracked down on public performances in the park, insisting that all performers have a permit. When the folk musicians applied, they were denied. The following Sunday, Izzy Young from the Folklore Center and 500 musicians gathered and sang songs in the park. They then marched down 5 th Avenue to the Judson Memorial Church where the riot squad was waiting. They attacked the singers with billy clubs, arresting 10 people in what is now known as the Beatnik Riot, much to the folkies' disdain.

Continue West on West 4 th toward 6 th Avenue. Cross 6 th Avenue and continue on West 4 th . Dylan’s first apartment is at 161 West 4 th Street.

Bob Dylan was homeless for his first year in New York. When he fell in love with Suze Rotolo, they rented this apartment. She is on the cover of  The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan , which was photographed right down the street.

Continue on West 4 th Street to 1 Sheridan Square, home of the infamous Café Society.

Now turn around and head back toward Dylan’s first apartment. Stop and buy a record at Bleecker Street Records . Maybe something by Bob Dylan?

Turn left at the end of block and cross 6 th Avenue. Take a slight left up Minetta Street. Panchito’s is at 13-11 Minetta Street.

Take a right on Minetta Lane. On the corner of Minetta Lane and MacDougal Street is Café Wha?

Take a right down MacDougal Street. Caffe Reggio is at 119 MacDougal Street.

Keep heading down MacDougal Street, away from the park. At 116 MacDougal Street is the former Gaslight Café.

Immediately to the right is 114 MacDougal Street.

Two doors down, at 110 MacDougal, is where the Folklore Center used to reside.

At the end of the block, turn left on Bleecker Street.

Bleecker Street was a mecca of basket houses. In the '50s and '60s, this street was crawling with amateur musicians toting guitars and hoping to be next big star. Café Figaro was located at 184 Bleecker Street. Today it is a Bank of America.

The Village Gate was at 158 Bleecker Street. Dylan wrote "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" in September of 1962 in the basement apartment. The Village Gate was a notable folk hangout for 36 years. It’s now Les Poisson Rouge and still hosts some of the best events and concerts in Manhattan. If you look at the corner, the original Village Gate sign is still posted.

Across the street at 147 Bleecker is the Bitter End.

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Bob Dylan Returns to New York City: Review, Set List

Bob Dylan ’s Never Ending Tour never really ended, only paused. Last month, he and his band launched his Rough and Rowdy Ways Tour , marking his first live appearances since the onset of the pandemic. This evening he returned to one of his usual haunts, New York City's Beacon Theatre, for the first time in nearly two years.

Dylan, who turned 80 earlier this spring, appeared on a brightly lit but modestly arranged stage, dressed in what appeared to be a velvet suit while his bandmates donned all black attire. Standing with a slight stoop, he took his position behind a piano, his main choice of instrument in recent years, and the band swiftly kickstarted the concert with a rendition of Dylan's 1971 single, "Watching the River Flow."

As the rock icon once noted  of New York at an early 2000s show, “No one has to ask how I feel about this town.” The burgeoning – albeit somewhat pompous — songwriter moved to the city at the very beginning of the '60s, just as the folk scene of Greenwich Village was starting to evolve. It was in these coffee houses and underground venues that the young musician honed his craft and debuted some of what are now his most celebrated songs. These days, he typically returns to the Upper West Side's Beacon Theatre, an ornately decorated neo-Grecian setting, each time his tour rolls through town.

"It's awful nice to be back in the Big Apple," Dylan said from the stage this particular evening. "...Broadway, Statue of Liberty, Wall Street, Times Square — all of it – Empire State Building, Fifth Avenue. Glad to see it's coming back alive."

Eight of the set list's 17 songs came from Dylan's most recent album, the critically acclaimed  Rough and Rowdy Ways ,  his 39th album and first collection of original material since 2012's  Tempest .  (The only two songs left out of the mix were “Crossing the Rubicon” and the 17-minute “ Murder Most Foul .”)

Backed by an impressive array of both new and old faces, Dylan's band gives off the impression of a more casual jazz collective than rockstar tour. Longtime bassist Tony Garnier switches between electric and upright bass, while pedal steel player Donnie Herron also doubles on fiddle and accordion. The group is rounded out with two guitarists, Bob Britt and Doug Lancio, plus drummer Charley Drayton.

When arriving for the show, I ran into Drayton on the street outside the venue. "How's it going?" I ask. "We'll find out!" he humbly replies. Drayton needn't have been so modest — Dylan's voice sounded to be in some of the best condition of his latter day career. His enunciation is still mysterious, but when he sings a recognizable line, the audience cheers him on.

Dylan, perhaps more so than any singer-songwriter of his generation, has continuously asked his listeners to, in essence, think again. Newly arranged versions of old songs were peppered throughout the evening, including completely reimagined versions of  Tempest 's "Early Roman Kings,"  Slow Train Coming 's "Gotta Serve Somebody," "To Be Alone With You" a track from 1969's Nashville Skyline which Dylan has not performed live since 2005 and the also recently reintroduced " Every Grain of Sand " from  Shot of Love . A Frank Sinatra cover, "Melancholy Mood," which Dylan performed on his 2016 album,  Fallen Angels , also appeared.

Dylan did not come back for an encore, perhaps choosing to save his energy for the next two nights of shows at the Beacon, plus the string of East Coast dates he has planned for the rest of this month and the beginning of next. But at 80, the legendary musician seems energized by simply being back on a stage, surrounded by a supportive band, performing new compositions that most Dylan fans have spent months listening to in the confines of quarantine and now get to hear in their full live glory.

As his Rough and Rowdy Ways Tour moves on, ticket holders can expect a wonderfully rested and still remarkably enigmatic Dylan to greet them, even if it is with only a few words in between songs. As he sang in 1961, " Y ou can step on my name, you can try and get me beat, when I leave New York, I’ll be standing on my feet ."

Bob Dylan, Nov. 19, 2021, New York City

1. “Watching the River Flow” 2. “Most Likely You’ll Go Your Way (and I’ll Go Mine)” 3. “I Contain Multitudes" 4. "False Prophet" 5. "When I Paint My Masterpiece" 6. "Black Rider" 7. "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight" 8. "My Own Version of You" 9. "Early Roman Kings" 10. "To Be Alone With You" 11. "Key West (Philosopher Pirate)" 12. "Gotta Serve Somebody" 13. "I've Made Up My Mind to Give Myself to You" 14. "Melancholy Mood" (Frank Sinatra cover) 15. "Mother of Muses" 16. "Goodbye Jimmy Reed" 17. "Every Grain of Sand"

Bob Dylan Albums Ranked

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From Macdougal Street to ‘The Bitter End,’ Exploring Bob Dylan’s New York

By Justin Sablich

• Oct. 18, 2016

Mike Porco owned the restaurant-turned-music-venue Gerde’s Folk City in New York’s Greenwich Village, and one October night, a few friends showed up to celebrate Mr. Porco’s birthday.

Allen Ginsberg was there, as were the familiar folkies Phil Ochs and Bob Neuwirth. None were better known than Bob Dylan and Joan Baez, who first met at the original Gerde’s and performed that night as well.

But this wasn’t the early 1960s folk scene. The year was 1975, and Mr. Dylan, not yet a Nobel Prize winner but long since a songwriting legend, was in the middle of his third stint living in the Village.

That night, he and his artist friends weren’t just celebrating Mr. Porco’s birthday, a man who Mr. Dylan said “became like father to me.” They were also rehearsing for his coming Rolling Thunder Revue tour.

Mr. Dylan would soon move on from the Village scene for good, as the neighborhood was far from what it had been during those first years of artistic discovery.

“America was changing. I had a feeling of destiny and I was riding the changes,” he wrote of his early days in New York in his memoir “ Chronicles. ” “New York was as good a place to be as any.”

Greenwich Village is drastically different now from the place Mr. Dylan left behind, but there are still remnants from his days of leading a generation-defining music scene, and landmarks worth exploring for aspiring Dylanologists.

Macdougal Street

“I was there to find singers, the ones I’d heard on record,” Mr. Dylan wrote in “Chronicles,” but “mostly to find Woody Guthrie,” the folk hero he would model himself after in his early performing days.

Robert Zimmerman arrived in January 1961, and would soon find Mr. Guthrie at the Greystone Hospital near Morristown, N.J. (where he was being treated for Huntington’s disease), but not before persuading Fred Neil, who ran the daytime show at Manny Roth’s Cafe Wha?, to let him perform at the Village coffeehouse on his first day in the city.

He described the cafe as “a subterranean cavern, liquorless, ill lit, low ceiling, like a wide dining hall with chairs and tables,” but “that’s where I started playing regular in New York.”

Cafe Wha? is still a fixture of Macdougal Street, and one of the few Dylan haunts still operating under the same name in the same location. But not much else is like it was in the early 1960s.

The club closed in 1968, had a long run as a Middle Eastern restaurant, and opened again as Cafe Wha?, under new management, in 1987. Music is still the main draw, with the talented Cafe Wha? Band headlining most nights. They’ll play at your wedding, too.

Mr. Dylan was fired by Mr. Roth after being late for three gigs, and would soon make his way to the nearby Caffe Reggio, the Commons, Caffe Dante and several other coffeehouses in the Village.

“They were small and ranged in shape, loud and noisy and catered to the confection of tourists who swarmed through the streets at night,” he wrote in “Chronicles.”

Caffe Reggio, which claims to have served the first cappuccino in the United States, remains open and is much as it was, minus the music, on Macdougal Street, as is Caffe Dante (now Dante NYC), where small plates have replaced protest songs.

The Commons, also on Macdougal, near Minetta Lane, was where Mr. Dylan wrote “Blowin’ in the Wind,” and was later renamed Fat Black Pussycat. It has since become Panchito’s Mexican Restaurant and Cantina, which in 2011 erased the last tie to its musical past when it painted over the faded lettering reading “Fat Black Pussycat Theatre” above its entrance.

In Mr. Dylan’s mind, none of these smaller coffeehouses compared with the Gaslight Cafe (116 Macdougal), a “cryptic club” that “an unknown couldn’t break into,” he wrote, though he managed to eventually.

The Gaslight “had a dominant presence on the street, more prestige than anyplace else,” he wrote.

While the Gaslight closed in 1971, the Kettle of Fish bar, which Mr. Dylan and his contemporaries would frequent next door, is still in business, though it is now at its third location, at 59 Christopher Street, and attracts far more Packers fans than folkies these days.

As for the Fat Black Pussycat, it’s now a night spot featuring a lounge, pub and downstairs dance club at 130 West Third Street. Its front room was once Kettle of Fish’s second home, and photographs and paintings still pay tribute to that bar’s history.

Listen to Bob Dylan’s Many Influences

As Bob Dylan has said, his songs “didn’t get here by themselves.” Here’s a sampler of his influences, from Woody Guthrie to the Kinks, alongside the tracks he made famous.

‘Positively 4th Street’

When Mr. Dylan found time to sleep, he crashed on a lot of couches before finding his first apartment at 161 West Fourth Street, which he and his girlfriend, Suze Rotolo, moved into in December 1961, nearly one year after his arrival. They paid $60 a month rent. The structure, built in 1910, sold for $6 million in 2015.

Next door at 169 West Fourth Street remains the Music Inn, where he would sometimes borrow instruments to play. Ms. Rotolo described it in her memoir as “an impossibly cluttered store that sold every kind of instrument ever made in the entire world.” It’s still cluttered, and still sells all kinds of instruments and has an open-mike night on Thursdays.

A short walk from the West Fourth Street apartment is the site of what Anthony DeCurtis in The Times called “one of the most evocative images of Greenwich Village in the 1960s.”

The cover of “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan” captures the couple strolling down a snow-covered Jones Street in February 1963.

“It was freezing out,” Ms. Rotolo told Mr. DeCurtis. “He wore a very thin jacket, because image was all.”

The album, which featured some of Mr. Dylan’s best-known songs, including “Blowin’ in the Wind,” “A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall” and “Girl From the North Country,” propelled him to larger New York venues like Town Hall, Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center’s Philharmonic Hall, now called David Geffen Hall.

But the immense fame that followed would chase Mr. Dylan and his eventual wife, Sara, from the Village to upstate New York.

The Bitter End

The house they purchased in the Byrdcliffe artist colony, near Woodstock, N.Y., didn’t provide the kind of privacy Mr. Dylan craved for his family.

They returned to the Village in 1969. Despite Mr. Dylan’s notoriety, he remembered, he was relatively unbothered by those in the neighborhood, and purchased a 19th-century townhouse at 94 Macdougal Street.

But there was no respite from the obsessive fans who tracked him down and “paraded up and down in front of it chanting and shouting, demanding for me to come out and lead them somewhere,” he wrote in “Chronicles.” His family was forced to seek peace elsewhere when they could.

In addition, “the stimulation had vanished. Everybody was in a pretty down mood. It was over,” he told Playboy in 1978. He would later call his return to the Village “a stupid thing to do.”

Still, years later, after his first major tour since the mid-’60s and enduring a bitter divorce from Sara, he found himself back in the Village, this time living alone.

He started hanging out at some of his old favorite spots, like Gerde’s, which had moved from its original location at 11 West Fourth Street to 130 West Third Street, and the Kettle of Fish, and found some peace at the Bitter End (147 Bleecker Street), where he played pool, watched bands and sometimes went onstage to perform.

“I made sure no one bothered him,” the owner Paul Colby said in “ The Greenwich Village Reader. ”

Kris Kristofferson told The Times that the Bitter End was the place “people like me and Bob Dylan didn’t just perform, we came to hang out.”

The Bitter End, which opened in 1961, considers itself to be New York’s oldest rock club and built a legendary reputation after showcasing young performers like Joni Mitchell and James Taylor and comedians like Woody Allen and Billy Crystal.

While the original location of Gerde’s is now the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion and the Gaslight is now an apartment building, the Bitter End, of all the surviving Dylan hangouts, may retain the look and feel more than any other.

But while the distinctive brick walls and intimate setting are intact, bar bands now dominate the bill, and you’re no longer likely to find famed musicians hanging around (or at least they’re not famous yet).

An earlier version of this article misstated the building at the site of the original Gerde’s Folk City. It is now the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, not a New York University building.

How we handle corrections

Follow Justin Sablich on Twitter: @JustinSablich

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Bob Dylan’s Greenwich Village

On January 24, 1961, four days after the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy, Bob Dylan arrived in New York City at the age of 19. This tour celebrates the 60th anniversary of that occasion, and Dylan’s entry into the dynamic culture of Greenwich Village. Historically, the Village was a magnet for writers, activists, musicians, artists, and outcasts. Its allure attracted creative souls from all sections of the country. Bob Dylan “landed up on the downtown side” on the heels of the Beats and the revival of the folkies. This tour with popular Jane’s Walk leader and MAS Grand Central Docent Robert Depczenski will trace Dylan’s footsteps, visiting places he gathered, lived, and performed. Traversing the Village streets, we’ll relive the forces that influenced his formative years. The ghosts of Village past including Poe, Whitman, and Kerouac, and the presence of Guthrie, Van Ronk, and Ginsburg nourished Dylan and fueled his work. This synergy between place and genius will be the focus of our journey.

All tours are Eastern Time and run about 60 to 90 minutes.

Registration is now closed.

Sunday, January 24 11:00 AM

Virtual Tour

Tickets: Member: $15 Non-member: $25

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• Saturday June 29, 2024 Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, and Celisse Outlaw Music Festival 2024, Wantagh
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• Thursday July 04, 2024 Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, and Maren Morris Freedom Mortgage Pavilion, Camden

Thursday 16 November 2023

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Even at 82 years young, Bob Dylan is still freewheeling.

The folk icon just announced 15 additional tour dates as part of his ongoing ‘Rough and Rowdy Ways Tour’ celebrating his 2020 album of the same name.

That includes a few stops in both New York and New Jersey.

First, the “Like A Rolling Stone” singer will roll into Rochester, NY’s West Herr Auditorium Theatre on Oct. 24.

After that, he’s set to swing into Schenectady, NY’s Proctors Theatre on Oct. 30, Port Chester, NY’s Capitol Theatre on Nov. 7 and Nov. 8 and Brooklyn, NY’s Kings Theatre on Nov. 14 and Nov. 15 .

The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer will close this leg of the tour with a pair of gigs at Newark, NJ’s New Jersey Performing Arts Center on Nov. 20 and Nov. 21 .

And if you need tickets for the newly added dates, “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright” to grab them today.

Although inventory isn’t available on Ticketmaster until Friday, Sept. 15, fans who want to ensure they have tickets ahead of time can purchase on sites like Vivid Seats before tickets are officially on sale.

Vivid Seats is a secondary market ticketing platform, and prices may be higher or lower than face value, depending on demand.

They have a 100% buyer guarantee that states your transaction will be safe and secure and will be delivered before the event.

Bob Dylan 2023 tour schedule

A complete calendar including all tour dates, venues and links to buy tickets can be found below.

Bob Dylan new music

Although he’s still on the road paying homage to his 39th studio album, the 2020 “Rough and Rowdy Ways,” the Bard released his 40th record “Shadow Kingdom.”

Rolling Stone raved in a four-star review that Dylan’s latest offering “brilliantly reinvents some of his most iconic songs, while also feeling like a definitive recording itself.”

What makes this record unique is that it originally started as a COVID-era concert film featuring Dylan and collaborators Don Was and T Bone Burnett along with masked actors pantomiming his hits.

You can hear the recorded album version here .

Folk icons on tour in 2023

Many of your favorite troubadours are hiking across the country this year.

Here are just five of our favorites you won’t want to miss live these next few months.

•  My Morning Jacket

•  The Avett Brothers

•  The Lumineers

•  Bonnie Raitt

•  Band of Horses

Who else is on the road? Check out our list of the  52 biggest concert tours in 2023 here  to find out.

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Inspiration and links to plan your trip.

Visit Bob Dylan’s NYC Haunts

Bob Dylan in New York: The Sites and Landmarks of Bob Dylan’s Life in the City

By Rachel Siden

The new book Bob Dylan: New York is part of the MusicPlace series by Roaring Forties Press. This series is dedicated to exploring the close relationships between music artists and the cities in which they lived in order to provide a new perspective on popular music.

The author of this book in the series, June Skinner Sawyers, has researched and written on many topics related to music.

Her works include Celtic Music; Tougher Than the Rest, 100 Best Bruce Springsteen Songs, Read the Beatles, and has even taught a class entitled “The Country I Come From Is Called the Midwest: Bob Dylan and the American Song Tradition.”

Sawyers’ knowledge of Dylan creates a vivid account of his life in Bob Dylan: New York. Sawyers takes the reader on a journey through Bob Dylan’s life in New York City beginning with his arrival in Greenwich Village and ending with his return visits to New York throughout the 2000s.

While her book describes the history of how Bob Dylan’s career grew in New York– the city where Robert Zimmerman was “reborn as Bob Dylan,” her book is by no means merely history.

The reader is taken on a journey through New York city with Sawyers as their tour guide: while reading about major moments in Bob Dylan’s life, she points out the city locations in which these events transpired.

Sawyers’ book features over fifty sites where Bob Dylan “lived, worked, and played.” Her listed locations include sites such as the Cafe Wha?, the place where Bob Dylan first played the day he arrived in New York, 161 W. Fourth St.,

Dylan’s first apartment in New York, and even the Supreme Court building where Bob Dylan officially changed his name.

The guidebook-like feel of Bob Dylan: New York is made complete by the maps of Manhattan and Greenwich Village that are included inside. Every location discussed in her book is carefully plotted and labeled with the full address. Using only her book, a self-guided tour of Bob Dylan’s New York is made easy.

Travel Itinerary: Some Notable Sites From Bob Dylan’s Early Years in New York

As described by Sawyers, Bob Dylan has always had an extremely close relationship with New York City. Not only was the name ‘Bob Dylan’ born in New York, but Dylan lived in New York, worked in New York, and became famous from his years playing in New York. As Bob Dylan himself said, “I would not be doing what I’m doing today if I hadn’t come to New York… I was made to keep going on by New York.”

One region in particular that had a significant amount of influence on Bob Dylan’s career was Greenwich Village. It was where Dylan played most of his early shows, and where he lived for the majority of his life.

In Sawyers’ book, many of the locations and landmarks associated with Bob Dylan are located in Greenwich Village, so in this itinerary of some notable Dylan-related sights, Greenwich Village is where this journey begins.

Stop 1: MacDougal Street MacDougal Street is located in Greenwich Village and was a place that Bob Dylan visited often. On the street are cafes that Bob Dylan frequented, cafes that Bob Dylan performed in, and even one of his houses at 94 MacDougal St.

Cafe Wha? 115 MacDougal St. New York, NY This stop is first on the itinerary because for Bob Dylan, this cafe was also his first stop. According to Sawyers, “When Dylan first arrived in New York, he took the subway to Greenwich Village and went straight to the Cafe Wha?.”

In Dylan’s time, the Cafe Wha? was a popular folk club in Greenwich Village that housed various music acts as well as comedians such as Joan Rivers and Woody Allen. Dylan played at the Cafe Wha? on his very first day in New York City, and it was here that he was offered a chance to play harmonica with singer Fred Neil during Neil’s sets (which is the “harmonica job” Bob Dylan refers to in his song “Talkin’ New York”).

Today, the Cafe Wha? is still in operation and continues to host musical acts on different nights of the week. While the cafe may not host the same folk music that it did in Bob Dylan’s time, the New York Times states that the cafe’s musical acts still makes it “a stop you have to make whether you are living or just visiting New York City.”

Caffe Reggio 119 Macdougal St. New York, NY Visitors can also visit another venue of Dylan’s on Macdougal street. The Caffe Reggio was another cafe that Dylan played at and still stands today. But while the Cafe Wha? still houses musical acts, the Cafe Reggio is no longer a folk music venue. However, instead of music, visitors can enjoy the cafe’s “Original Cappuccino” (the first cappuccino introduced to America).

Panchito’s (Fat Black Pussycat) 105 MacDougal St. New York, NY 105 MacDougal St. was the location of another cafe known as the Fat Black Pussycat. It was one of the many cafes that Bob Dylan visited when he lived in Greenwich, and is also the location where he wrote his song “Blowin’ in the Wind”– one of Dylan’s most famous. Today, the cafe is a Mexican restaurant called Panchito’s, but the faded black cat sign from the cafe is still visible on the brick wall above.

Greenwich Artists Mural 125 MacDougal St. New York, NY While New York has no official monuments dedicated to Bob Dylan, there is one sight in Greenwich Village that stands as a testament to his significance in New York. Located just across the street from the Caffe Reggio is a mural that stands next to a music club called the Groove. According to Sawyers, “The mural celebrates the many musicians associated with the Village, including Dylan.”

The mural is painted in bright, fluorescent colors and features artists such as The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, and Joan Baez. At the top of the mural can be seen the words: “Keep the spirit of the sixties alive.”

Stop 2: Jones Street Beyond 6th Avenue lies Jones Street. As a Bob Dylan landmark, Jones street is more significant than simply being a street that Dylan has walked. It is included in the itinerary because this street is featured in the album artwork for the record “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan.”

The cover features a picture of Bob Dylan walking down Jones Street with Suze Rotolo (his girlfriend at the time). Any cars parked on Jones Street today will likely look different from those on the album cover, but the street is the very same.

Bob Dylan’s Apartment 161 W. Fourth Street. New York, NY On the block at the end of Jones Street lies the first apartment that Bob Dylan had in New York City. It was a small apartment with a bedroom that Dylan said was “much more like a large closet.” He moved in with Rotolo in December of 1961 shortly after he recorded his debut album. Today, the apartment is still standing, but it is attached to an adult shop.

Stop 3: Carnegie Hall 881 Seventh Avenue New York, NY Carnegie Hall is a landmark in itself as a world-famous venue that has housed many famous artists and musicians over the years. As for Bob Dylan, Carnegie Hall was a significant place in his own life as it was the location for several performances in his own career.

On Saturday, November 4, 1961, Bob Dylan played his first professional concert at Carnegie Chapter Hall. The two-hundred-seat venue he played in is now a rehearsal hall called Kaplan Space but is still located in the same building as Carnegie Hall.

The show that Dylan played that November night was not much of a success, as only fifty-three people attended, but according to Sawyers, “it provided Dylan with some exposure north of Fourteenth St.” It was a show that would bring him one step closer to growing in fame.

Throughout Dylan’s career, he would return several times to play at Carnegie Hall– and the shows would prove far more successful in his return trips.

His first successful Carnegie Hall performance, which was also his first time playing in the actual Carnegie Hall, occurred on September 22, 1962. He played “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” for the very first time in public, and though it was the one song he was able to play in the ten minute slot he was given, Sawyers states that “the crowd roared in approval”– portending the future success Dylan would enjoy on his return visits to the famous music hall.

Even More Stops!

This itinerary only covers a small fraction of the fifty-plus locations listed in Sawyers’ book. There are other residences of Bob Dylan’s that can be seen (such as the famous Hotel Chelsea), other venues that Dylan played at, and many places Bob Dylan visited ranging from cafes to newspaper kiosks.

For the more passionate Bob Dylan fans or pop culture enthusiasts who would want to see more, Bob Dylan: New York has everything you could need to plan your own trip to New York City. Check it out!

Rachel Siden is a former editorial assistant for GoNomad.com. She is a graduate of UMass Amherst with a B.A. in Philosophy and in Religious Studies, and is a freelance travel writer from central Massachusetts.

Bob Dylan New York …buy this book on Amazon

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Bob Dylan Plots Fall 2023 North American Tour

By Andy Greene

Andy Greene

Bob Dylan ‘s Rough and Rowdy Ways tour is coming back to North America in the fall. The leg kicks off Oct. 1 at the Midland Theatre in Kansas City, Missouri. An Oct. 30 show at Proctors Theatre in Schenectady, New York is the final confirmed date, but Dylan’s website notes that “more Fall 2023 dates will be announced soon!”

The Rough and Rowdy Ways tour kicked off November 2, 2021 in Milwaukee. Dylan had been off the road for nearly two years at that point due to the pandemic. Prior to that, he hadn’t missed a single year of touring since the Never Ending Tour kicked off in 1988. He made up for lost time by taking the show all over the world, but he hasn’t played the East Coast of the U.S. since the fall of 2021.

The show did take a surprise left turn earlier in the year when he started playing songs from the Grateful Dead catalog, including “Truckin,” “Brokedown Palace,” “Stella Blue,” and “West L.A. Fadeaway.” He even trotted out Bob Weir’s 2016 solo song “Only a River,” Merle Haggard’s 2010 obscurity “Bad Actor,” and Van Morrison’s 1970 classic “Into the Mystic.” Dylan fans were thrilled by the additions since it added a degree of uncertainty to every show.

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Bob Dylan’s Fall 2023 North American Tour Dates

Oct. 1 – Kansas City, MO @The Midland Theatre Oct. 2 – Kansas City, MO @ The Midland Theatre Oct. 4 – St. Louis, MO @ Stifel Theatre Oct. 6 – Chicago, IL @ Cadillac Palace Theatre Oct. 7 – Chicago, IL @ Cadillac Palace Theatre Oct. 8 – Chicago, IL @ Cadillac Palace Theatre Oct. 11 – Milwaukee, WI @ The Riverside Theater Oct. 12 – Milwaukee, WI @ The Riverside Theater Oct. 16 – Indianapolis, IN @ Murat Theatre Oct. 20 – Cincinnati, OH @ The Andrew J. Brady Music Center Oct. 21 – Akron, OH @ Akron Civic Theatre Oct. 23 – Erie, PA @ Warner Theatre Oct. 24 – Rochester, NY @ Auditorium Theatre Oct. 26 – Toronto, ON @ Massey Hall Oct. 27 – Toronto, ON @ Massey Hall Oct. 29 – Montreal, QB @ Place des Arts – Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier Oct. 30 – Schenectady, NY @ Proctors Theatre

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Travel | May 24, 2023

Follow Bob Dylan’s Footsteps Through Minnesota and New York

To mark the musician’s 82nd birthday, consider a romp through these 11 sites that hold meaning to him

Freelance writer

Hibbing, Minnesota, rises from the Mesabi Iron Range, a mining town built on—and from—rich iron ore. Some 75 miles northwest of Duluth, only 90 miles from the Canadian border, Hibbing is home to the world’s largest open-pit iron mine, known as the Hull-Rust-Mahoning , and, in the early 1960s, its ore informed the folk songs of a young Jewish musician named Robert Zimmerman.

Born in Duluth on May 24, 1941, and raised in Hibbing, Zimmerman became obsessed with folk music: vernacular sounds, mother tongues, the music of the people. In September 1959, he left Hibbing for Minneapolis, and upon arriving, quickly changed his name to Bob Dylan. Less than two years later, in January 1961, at age 19, Dylan left Minnesota altogether and hitchhiked to New York City searching for Woody Guthrie —the Dust Bowl songwriter who inspired him to play folk music.

Dylan found Guthrie, only not in New York but at Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital in Morris Plains, New Jersey, where he was being treated for Huntington’s disease. The young musician visited Guthrie’s bedside and played him songs. But Dylan wasn’t solely seeking his idol’s company. He was also chasing fame. So he pitched camp in Greenwich Village, the heart of bohemia, where Guthrie himself once lived , and began playing local coffeehouses. It was the dead of winter, a biting world; worse still, the city’s promoters and talent scouts and record labels kept freezing him out. But Dylan struggled on—he believed, so he says, that fate had called him to New York City. “I’d come from a long ways off and had started a long ways down,” he wrote in his 2004 memoir, Chronicles: Volume One . “But now destiny was about to manifest itself. I felt like it was looking right at me and nobody else.”

Only ten months later, on October 26, 1961, John Hammond, the A&R man who discovered Billie Holiday, Benny Goodman and Count Basie, signed Bob Dylan, then 20, to Columbia Records. “I could hardly believe myself awake when sitting in his office, him signing me to Columbia Records was so unbelievable,” wrote Dylan. “It would have sounded like a made-up thing. … It felt like my heart leaped up to the sky, to some intergalactic star. … I couldn’t believe it. It seemed too good to be true.”

But it was well deserved, as his 60-plus-year career has shown. Dylan has won numerous awards, including 10 Grammys , a 2012 Presidential Medal of Freedom and the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature for “having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.” Many milieus shaped the songwriter, but none more than Minnesota or New York. In celebration of his 82nd birthday this May 24, here are 11 landmark Bob Dylan sites you can visit.

Boy from the North Country

Duluth, minnesota.

On May 24, 1941, Beatty Zimmerman (née Stone) gave birth to Robert Allen Zimmerman (Shabtai Zisel ben Avraham in Hebrew) at St. Mary’s Hospital in Duluth, Minnesota, a hilly port city on the western edge of Lake Superior.

When Dylan was 6, his father, Abe Zimmerman, contracted polio and lost his job, and the Zimmermans moved from their top-floor duplex at 519 North Third Avenue East to Hibbing, Minnesota, to be near Beatty’s family. But Dylan often returned to Duluth.

Duluth National Guard Armory (1301-1305 London Road)

On Saturday, January 31, 1959, a 17-year-old Bob Dylan watched Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper play the Duluth Armory on their Winter Dance Party , a string of 11 northern tour dates booked during deep winter. Three days later, on Tuesday, February 3, 1959, Holly, Valens and The Bopper boarded a plane that crashed into an Iowa cornfield, killing all three musicians.

“One time when I was 16 or 17 years old I went to see Buddy Holly play at the Duluth National Guard Armory,” Dylan said at the 40th Grammy Awards after his 1997 album Time Out of Mind won Album of the Year. “I was three feet away from him, and he looked at me. And I just have some kind of feeling that he was, I don’t know how or why, but I know he was with us all the time when we were making this record in some kind of way.”

In his Nobel Lecture , Dylan spoke once more of Buddy Holly and the 1959 Duluth show: “Then, out of the blue, the most uncanny thing happened. He looked me right straight dead in the eye, and he transmitted something. Something I didn’t know what. And it gave me the chills.”

U.S. Route 61 winds from New Orleans through Duluth. The road inspired Dylan’s 1965 album Highway 61 Revisited , featuring his greatest hit, “ Like a Rolling Stone .”

Hibbing, Minnesota

Founded in 1893, Hibbing and the 600-foot-deep Hull-Rust-Mahoning Open Pit Iron Mine, “the Grand Canyon of the North,” produced upwards of one-quarter of the country’s iron during World War II. Bob Dylan was raised among hard-working miners, the working class, and they found their way into his songs and political ideology.

In Hibbing, Dylan had a typical upper Midwest childhood—fishing, sledding, racing bikes and playing ice hockey. “You could also easily hop an iron ore train,” he wrote in Chronicles: Volume One , “by grabbing and then hanging on to one of the iron ladders on either side and ride out to any number of lakes.”

Early in his career, Dylan, who has historically messed with the press, would lie about his upbringing, which didn’t sit well with some Hibbing residents. In 1969, at the height of his fame, he attended his tenth high school reunion, and, apparently, was met with disdain by some of his classmates. He never returned to Hibbing, at least not publicly, and the city does little to honor its most famous son, though his memory still lingers.

Hibbing High School (800 East 21st Street)

“I am a part of all that I have met.” — The Hibbing High School Class of 1959 motto

Bob Dylan grew up at 2425 Seventh Avenue East, less than half a mile from Hibbing High School, in a two-story Mediterranean Modern home. Built in the early 1920s, Hibbing High looks much as it did when Dylan attended. A member of the Class of 1959, Dylan, who teachers remembered as quiet and reserved, shocked the school when he played Little Richard during a talent show in the auditorium. But not everyone was impressed. According to Dylan’s high school English teacher Boniface “B.J.” Rolfzen , who was interviewed in Martin Scorsese’s 2005 Dylan documentary, No Direction Home , Hibbing High’s principal pulled the curtains on his performance, claiming the music wasn’t “suitable for the audience.”

Androy Hotel (502 East Howard Street)

In May 1954, Bob Dylan celebrated his bar mitzvah at Agudath Achim Synagogue , 2320 West Second Street. After the ceremony, around 400 people celebrated the initiate at the Androy Hotel; listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986, the old hotel was retrofitted into an apartment complex a decade later.

Hibbing Bowling Center (1929 Fifth Avenue East)

In 1953, the Hibbing Bowling Center was built with 12 lanes. (A pinsetter had to manually reset the pins.) Soon enough, the Gutter Boys, a six-boy bowling team featuring Bob Dylan, became the 1955-56 Teenage Bowling League Champs.

The Twin Cities

In the autumn of 1959, Bob Dylan boarded a Greyhound bus to Minneapolis-St. Paul and enrolled at the University of Minnesota, only to drop out months later. While the songwriter only lived in the Twin Cities for one year, his days there were decisive.

“The first time I was asked my name in the Twin Cities,” he wrote, “I instinctively and automatically without thinking simply said, ‘Bob Dylan.’”

The Twin Cities is also where Dylan became obsessed with Woody Guthrie. After hearing a collection of Guthrie’s records at a friend’s brother’s house, Dylan became entranced.

“For me it was an epiphany, like some heavy anchor had just plunged into the waters of the harbor,” he wrote. “Woody Guthrie had never seen nor heard of me, but it felt like he was saying, ‘I’ll be going away, but I’m leaving this job in your hands. I know I can count on you.’”

Gray’s Campus Drug (327 14th Avenue SE)

After dropping out of college, Dylan bummed around the Twin Cities, playing at the Ten O’Clock Scholar coffeehouse and the Purple Onion pizza parlor, and earning enough money to pay the $30-a-month rent for his apartment above Gray’s drugstore.

“Above Gray’s, the crash pad was no more than an empty storage room with a sink and a window looking into an alley,” he wrote. “No closet or anything. Toilet down the hall. I put a mattress on the floor, bought a used dresser, plugged in a hot plate on top of that—used the outside window ledge as a refrigerator when it got cold.”

The Bard in New York town

Rambling out of the Wild West Leaving the towns I love the best Thought I’d seen some ups and downs Til I come into New York town — “Talkin’ New York” from Bob Dylan

In January 1961, Bob Dylan, then 19, moved to New York City and quickly became a fixture in the Greenwich Village folk scene. Later that year, Dylan performed at Gerde’s Folk City , America’s premier folk club, and on September 29, 1961, Robert Shelton, a New York Times music critic, wrote a monumental review of the show:

“A bright new face in folk music is appearing at Gerde’s Folk City. Although only 20 years old, Bob Dylan is one of the most distinctive stylists to play a Manhattan cabaret in months. … Mr. Dylan is vague about his antecedents and birthplace, but it matters less where he has been than where he is going, and that would seem to be straight up.”

Upon reading Shelton’s rave review, John Hammond, the A&R man, who had only briefly heard Dylan play, signed him to Columbia Records. Dylan couldn’t believe it. Hammond’s Columbia colleagues couldn’t believe it, either, and when Dylan’s 1962 debut, Bob Dylan , a hodgepodge of mostly cover songs, failed to perform, they dubbed him “Hammond’s Folly.” But then something happened. Fate, fortune, whatever you call it, Dylan tapped into something. Starting with his 1963 sophomore album, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan , he began writing original compositions—haunting songs with premonitory lyrics and ineffable power. And it all started in Greenwich Village.

MacDougal Street

In the 1960s, MacDougal Street, a small artery running near Washington Square Park, was the center of America’s folk music revival. Dylan played in and at numerous MacDougal Street institutions, including Izzy Young ’s Folklore Center , 110 MacDougal, a hangout selling books and records and instruments; The Gaslight , 116 MacDougal, where folk maverick Dave Van Ronk reigned, and which, as Dylan wrote, had “more prestige than anyplace else”; and The Commons, 105 MacDougal, where the then-21-year-old songwriter wrote “Blowin’ in the Wind” in only ten minutes . Today, a few MacDougal Street haunts still survive, at least in one form or another.

Cafe Wha? (115 MacDougal Street)

On his first day in New York City, Dylan played the daytime show at Cafe Wha?, a low-lit club that, as he wrote, “featured anybody and anything—a comedian, a ventriloquist, a steel drum group, a poet, a female impersonator, a duo who sang Broadway stuff, a rabbit-in-the-hat magician, a guy wearing a turban who hypnotized people in the audience, somebody whose entire act was facial acrobatics.” Opened in 1959, Cafe Wha? closed in 1968, became a Middle Eastern restaurant, then reopened in 1987 under new management. Today, music is still heard at the venue (which also once hosted Jimi Hendrix and Bruce Springsteen), with the Cafe Wha? House Band playing six nights a week.

Caffe Reggio (119 MacDougal Street)

Manny Roth , the founder of Cafe Wha?, fired Dylan for showing up late to three straight performances, so the young songwriter headed three doors down to Caffe Reggio. Founded in 1927, Greenwich Village’s oldest cafe no longer offers music, but it does claim the nation’s first cappuccino. Replete with antique fixtures and an original 1902 espresso machine, Caffe Reggio feels like a museum—a scene trapped in time.

West Fourth Street

In December 1961, after crashing on couches across Greenwich Village, Dylan moved to his first New York apartment , a third-floor walk-up at 161 West Fourth Street that he rented for $60 a month. Two key sites from Dylan’s “ Positively 4th Street ” days remain.

The Intersection of Jones and West Fourth Streets

Only a few feet from Dylan’s first New York apartment is the intersection of Jones and West Fourth Street. In February 1963, Dylan, wearing a light jacket in the freezing cold, and his then-girlfriend, Suze Rotolo , posed for photographer Don Hunstein. Hunstein’s image landed on the cover of Freewheelin’ ; when the album catapulted Dylan’s career, the photo was cemented in the annals of music history. Aside from the addition of a few trees, the scene around Jones and West Fourth Streets looks much the same.

The Music Inn (169 West Fourth Street)

Founded in 1958, the Music Inn, a music store next door to Dylan’s old apartment, feels more like some strange folk-art installation. Ouds , guitars and setars hang from the ceiling. In the early ‘60s, when Dylan needed to borrow a guitar, he’d pop in the Music Inn; today, the store—both inside and out—is a relic from that era.

Mermaid Avenue

While Bob Dylan was visiting a convalescing Woody Guthrie at Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital—“a gloomy and threatening granite building,” he wrote, “an asylum with no spiritual hope of any kind”—Guthrie spoke of a box of his unheard lyrics that needed melodies. The box, Guthrie said, was archived in the basement of his Coney Island home at 3520 Mermaid Avenue. Dylan was welcome to them, he just needed to let Guthrie’s wife, Marjorie Guthrie, know why he was there. Dylan hopped on the subway at West Fourth Street and rode it to Coney Island, but when he arrived, Marjorie wasn’t there, so he headed home, never to return.

Some 40 years later, the late singer’s daughter Nora Guthrie approached Billy Bragg and Wilco about setting these same lyrics to music. In 1998, their album, Mermaid Avenue , received a Grammy nomination, proving the power of the folk-music lineage. Woody Guthrie’s home was razed, but Mermaid Avenue still cuts through Coney Island.

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Leo DeLuca | READ MORE

Leo DeLuca's work appears in  The New York Times, Scientific American, Rolling Stone, Popular Science  and  Pitchfork , among other media outlets. DeLuca, an award-winning writer, holds a Master of Arts in Science Journalism from Columbia Journalism School.

[WATCH] Bob Dylan's New York City: A Historic Walk Through Greenwich Village

Local pro photographers James and Karla Murray have a YouTube series in which they explore neighborhoods around New York City from their unique perspective. Obviously, their normal video tours have been suspended due to the Coronavirus pandemic, but in this recent video, watch as they give you a tour of 15 Greenwich Village spots that are part of Bob Dylan's local history.

In our BOB DYLAN'S NEW YORK: WALK THROUGH GREENWICH VILLAGE we walk with our dog and show 15 MUST VISIT PLACES including folk music venues, cafes, shops and homes associated with Bob Dylan early in his #music career. #bobdylan Must visit Bob Dylan destinations in Greenwich Village, #NYC include: - White Horse Tavern 567 Hudson Street New York, NY - Lucille Lortel Theatre 121 Christopher Street New York, NY - Cafe Wha? 115 MacDougal Street New York, NY - The Bitter End 147 Bleecker Street New York, NY

via James and Karla Murray

• celebrities
• neighborhoods

Matt Coneybeare

Editor in Chief

Matt enjoys exploring the City's with his partner and son. He is an avid marathon runner, and spends most of his time eating, running, and working on cool stuff.

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The original rock n' roll walking tour of new york city©, home of new york city rock.

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Rock the East Village with the Ramones, Iggy, Led Zeppelin, Stones, CBGB’s, album covers, Fillmore East, and many more hidden gems.

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Greenwich Village Rock Music Tour

Enjoy a 2 hour walk through the Bohemian capital of the world and the East Coast birthplace of the Beat Generation and 60s counterculture movement.

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Union Square Rock n’ Punk Music Tour

In the mid-1960s, American pop culture changed forever and the center of it was Max’s Kansas City. Learn why on this tour of Union Square.

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Great 2 hour music-focused walking tour around the quiet town of Woodstock and the Bearsville Center both featuring a loud rock history!

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Rolling Stones announce 2024 tour openers: Tyler Childers, KALEO, more

The Rolling Stones have decided who will “Start Them Up” on tour this year.

However, unlike most tours, the Rock and Roll Hall of Famers are mixing things up and bringing different opening acts to each city they’re hitting on the spring and summer ‘The Stones Tour ’24 Hackney Diamonds.’

Just a few of the big names joining them include Gary Clark Jr. (April 28 in Houston), Joe Bonamassa (May 15 in Seattle), Tyler Childers (June 3 in Orlando), KALEO (June 11 in Philadelphia) and Lainey Wilson (June 30 in Chicago).

As for their MetLife Stadium gigs, pop-soul outfit Lawrence is slated to kick things off at their Sunday, May 26 concert ; no opener has been announced for the Thursday, May 23 show .

And if you’ve been on the fence about catching Mick, Keith and Ronnie live because you fear exorbitant ticket prices, we’re happy to report that some shows have cheaper seats available than one might imagine.

At the time of publication, the lowest price we found on tickets was just $21 before fees on Vivid Seats.

Yes, you read that right. Just $21. We couldn’t believe it either.

Other nights have seats starting anywhere from $44 to $109 before fees (excluding festival dates).

Curious how much tickets cost and who will be opening for the Stones at the show nearest you this year?

While we can’t guarantee we’ll give you what you want, we promise you’ll get what you need.

Our team has all the details you’re looking for and more about the Rolling Stones’ 2024 ‘Hackney Diamonds Tour’ below.

All prices listed above are subject to fluctuation.

A complete calendar including all tour dates, venues, opening acts and links to the cheapest tickets available can be found below.

(Note: The New York Post confirmed all above prices at the publication time. All prices are in US dollars, subject to fluctuation and include additional fees at checkout .)

Vivid Seats is a verified secondary market ticketing platform, and prices may be higher or lower than face value, depending on demand. 

They offer a 100% buyer guarantee that states your transaction will be safe and secure and your tickets will be delivered prior to the event.

The musically diverse New Orleans Jazz Festival — they don’t do just jazz, contrary to popular belief — returns to the Big Easy on April 25-28 and May 2-5 next year.

At the two-weekend fest, Mick and co. will be joined by fellow Rock Hall of Famers Neil Young , Earth Wind and Fire , Heart , The Beach Boys and Foo Fighters .

Want to go?

Click here to check out single and multi-day general admission options.

Many of the big names joining the Stones on the road have quite a few more shows lined up this year.

For a clearer picture, here are all the Rolling Stones opening acts who are on tour these next few months.

Gary Clark Jr.

Joe Bonamassa

The Red Clay Strays

Tyler Childers

Widespread Panic

Lainey Wilson

The War and Treaty

The Beaches

This 16-concert run will be the group’s first official North American trek since 2019’s ‘No Filter Tour,’ which concluded two years later due to COVID-related postponements.

Here’s what the band played at their last run, courtesy of  Set List FM .

01.) “Street Fighting Man”

02.) “Let’s Spend the Night Together”

03.) “19th Nervous Breakdown”

04.) “Tumbling Dice”

05.) “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”

06.) “Living in a Ghost Town”

07.) “Start Me Up”

08.) “Honky Tonk Women”

09.) “Connection”

10.) “Slipping Away”

11.) “Miss You”

12.) “Midnight Rambler”

13.) “Paint It Black”

14.) “Sympathy for the Devil”

15.) “Jumpin’ Jack Flash”

16.) “Gimme Shelter”

17.) “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction”

Most recently, the band surprised New Yorkers when they performed a set at  Racket  in the Meatpacking District with Lady Gaga.

You can find their seven-song set list from the October 2023 one-off show  here .

On Oct. 20, the Stones released their 26th American studio album,  “Hackney Diamonds,”  featuring special guests Paul McCartney, Elton John, Lady Gaga and Stevie Wonder.

Comprised of 12 hard-rocking tracks that wouldn’t be out of place alongside their singalong stadium anthems of yore, “Diamonds” shows that Mick, Keith and Ronnie still have their sticky fingers on rock and roll’s pulse.

“We wouldn’t have put this album out if we didn’t really like it,” Jagger, 80, told Jimmy Fallon. “We must say that we are quite pleased with it. We’re not big-headed but we hope you like it.”

If you’re looking to sample the record, we suggest starting with the fierce lead track “Angry” and the wistful ballad “Dreamy Skies.”

Prefer to listen in full? You can find “Hackney Diamonds”  here .

No joke — the upcoming tour is sponsored by AARP.

Rather than shy away from their age, the legendary rockers are embracing their elder statesman status.

To give you a peek at who’s in the group these days, take a look below.

Mick Jagger   (80-years-old)   lead and backing vocals, harmonica, rhythm guitar, percussion, keyboards, bass guitar  (1962–present)

Keith Richards   (80-years-old)   rhythm and lead guitars, bass guitar, keyboards, percussion, backing and lead vocals  (1962–present)

Ronnie Wood   (76-years-old)   lead and rhythm guitars, bass guitar, backing vocals, pedal steel guitar  (1975–present)

Backing musicians include Chuck Leavell, Bernard Fowler, Matt Clifford, Darryl Jones, Tim Ries, Karl Denson, Chanelle Haynes and Steve Jordan.

Their longtime drummer Charlie Watts passed away in August 2021.

Many AARP card-carrying icons will take the stage this year and next.

Here are just five of our favorite acts you won’t want to miss live in the near future.

•  Neil Young

•  Bob Dylan with Robert Plant and Willie Nelson

•  Electric Light Orchestra

•  Ringo Starr

•  Justin Hayward of The Moody Blues

Need more ’60s and ’70s hitmakers in your life? Check out our list of the 52 biggest classic rockers on tour in 2024 to find the show for you.

This article was written by Matt Levy , New York Post live events reporter. Levy stays up-to-date on all the latest tour announcements for your favorite musical artists and comedians, as well as Broadway openings, sporting events and more live shows – and finds great ticket prices online. Since he started his tenure at the Post in 2022, Levy has reviewed Bruce Springsteen and interviewed Melissa Villaseñor of SNL fame, to name a few. Please note that deals can expire, and all prices are subject to change.

Vivid Seats is the New York Post's official ticketing partner. We may receive revenue from this partnership for sharing this content and/or when you make a purchase.

StarTribune

How my family aced our first-time trip to new york city.

As we were preparing to land at LaGuardia, I gasped as my smile grew. The monumental Manhattan skyline I'd seen thousands of times on TV, in movies and photos was genuinely awe-inspiring. Filled with anticipation and a bit of panic, I could hardly wait to set foot in New York City for the first time.

"What? Really?" Without fail, that was the response when I told people I'd never been to NYC. Confession: I had long been obsessed with America's largest city, but also had found it incredibly intimidating. Would I be able to walk fast enough? (Yes.) Would my family get lost? (Just a couple of times.) Would I look like an unstylish, overwhelmed tourist? (Totally.) Did any of that matter during our nine-day trip in March? (Nope.)

But when my 12-year-old son, Charlie, suggested NYC for spring break, my first reaction was a definitive "no." Striking the right balance of experiences for my husband and me, as well as activities and sights to keep the kid interested, felt overwhelming.

On the other hand, I realized that family travel experiences are more important than my hangups. So I took the plunge, booked a flight, found a hotel in Manhattan (the stylish Kimpton Hotel Eventi in Chelsea, via Costco Travel), and cobbled together a semi-flexible itinerary, with a little something for everyone.

Little did I know, I'd even have a Bob Dylan-related celebrity spotting.

First impressions

• I was pleasantly surprised by how friendly New Yorkers are. When I mentioned that to an off-duty firefighter who struck up a conversation with us at a bar in the Meatpacking District, he joked, "Don't tell anyone."
• The breathtaking view from the 102nd floor of the Empire State Building was worth the cost.
• While Charlie was on the edge of his seat for a New York Knicks vs. Brooklyn Nets game at Madison Square Garden, for me the best part was watching Knicks superfan Spike Lee's animated reactions from his courtside seat.
• The 9/11 Memorial & Museum was a somber yet rich experience. We appreciated the outdoor tour , where guide Emmeline Prior did an impressive job balancing history and stories with details surrounding the tragedy.
• Broadway did not disappoint, either. We saw two musicals: a preview of "The Outsiders," a compelling adaptation of S.E. Hinton's classic coming-of-age novel and the 1983 film featuring a cast of talented newcomers; and the hilarious "Little Shop of Horrors" off-Broadway, starring Evan Rachel Wood and Darren Criss.

By foot, car, subway, ferry or tram

It turns out that we'd been training 30 years for New York thanks to the Minnesota State Fair, where our family honed our expert crowd navigation skills that would come in handy on the bustling NYC streets — especially the crowded Brooklyn Bridge.

We walked tens of thousands of steps in NYC. Unfortunately, the first couple of days, it rained hard, prompting us to use ridesharing apps. But once we purchased our $34 MetroCards and tested our subway skills on our third day in town, it became second nature as we ventured all over Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn.

We relied on the free Staten Island Ferry for a close look at the Statue of Liberty. For the best views, snag a seat on the right side when you board the boat and switch to the left for the return ride.

We rode the fun but crowded Roosevelt Island Tramway over the East River to explore the serene Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms State Park and the ruins of the historic Smallpox Hospital. I had to bribe the kid with a treat from Anita La Mamma del Gelato for this stop. However, he became engaged when we discovered a bunch of cats lounging around at the nearby outdoor cat sanctuary run by the Wildlife Freedom Foundation.

Captivating tours

At the suggestion of my nephew's wife, we sought out a food tour in Jackson Heights, Queens. The minute we stepped out of the subway into the vibrant, densely packed neighborhood, the aromas and sights were a party for the senses. We joined Laura Siciliano-Rosen from Eat Your World , who guided us through a feast of savory and sweet cuisine from Bangladesh, Tibet, Nepal and Colombia. Standouts included a variety of momos (steamed dumplings), samay baji with goat suki (a bento box of snacks with dried goat meat) and chola bhuna (a Bangladeshi black chickpeas-potato dish commonly served during Ramadan). My son didn't love everything, but tried most of it and enjoyed the goat suki.

We also ventured to Harlem for a tour of the legendary Apollo Theater . Mr. Apollo himself, Billy Mitchell, featured in the HBO documentary "The Apollo," dazzled us with stories about seeing everyone from James Brown to H.E.R. for the first time at the theater. Mitchell's charisma and historical knowledge made for an engaging tour with a mock "Amateur Night," where our tourmates impressed us with their talents. Bonus: "The Harlem Renaissance and Transatlantic Modernism" exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (running through July 28) was a fine complement to the tour.

My husband and I had our hearts set on the "Birth of Punk" tour led by historian, author and musician Jesse Rifkin, of Walk on the Wild Side Tours NYC . The kid? He was happy to chill at the hotel while we splurged on a private tour. Beginning in Greenwich Village, the fascinating journey had surprises around every corner, whether it was Rifkin pointing out the loft where Kiss played their first Manhattan show opening for transgender punk icon Jayne County, standing in the spot where the Ramones posed for the "Rocket to Russia" album cover or studying the building where the Velvet Underground first met Andy Warhol and Nico.

Another night, I had a different kind of musical encounter. While my son and husband ventured off for barbecue in Koreatown, I met my NYC friend Brad at the kitschy Trailer Park Lounge . Leaving the dive bar, we noticed several vintage cars and a production crew set up by the Hotel Chelsea.

Turns out they were filming "A Complete Unknown," the new Bob Dylan biopic. I caught a brief glimpse of Timothée Chalamet, who plays Dylan, then watched them shoot a scene where Joan Baez, played by Monica Barbaro, attempts to hail a taxi. I even got scolded by a crew member for standing in the wrong place.

That quintessential New York moment was a great reminder to be open to the unexpected. In NYC, the next great experience could be right around the corner.

Amy Carlson Gustafson is a Twin Cities-based journalist.

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