Hitchhiking Highway 61: A Bob Dylan Inspired Podcast

Kevin Fallon
  • 4.2 (5)
  • MUSIC COMMENTARY
  • UPDATED MONTHLY

Hitchhiking Highway 61 is a personal journey through the songs of Bob Dylan—one track at a time. Each episode dives into a Dylan song, exploring its lyrics, themes, and impact while weaving in personal stories and reflections.

  1. FEB 10

    Boots of Spanish Leather

    In this episode of Hitchhiking Highway 61, host Kevin Fallon explores Bob Dylan’s haunting ballad “Boots of Spanish Leather” from The Times They Are A-Changin’, weaving together lyrical analysis, music history, and a deeply personal story about childhood solitude, family distance, and the and the subtle ways we replace genuine feeling with safer stand-ins. Recorded in 1963 and often linked to Dylan’s relationship with Suze Rotolo, “Boots of Spanish Leather” unfolds as a conversation between two lovers growing emotionally—and physically—apart. Kevin dives into Dylan’s emotional delivery, the song’s alternating narrators, and how unspoken truths can say more than words ever could. From the “lonesome ocean” to the symbolic final request for Spanish boots, the song becomes a meditation on exhaustion, denial, and learning to let go and move on.

    14 min

  2. JAN 22

    Only A Pawn In Their Game

    In this episode of Hitchhiking Highway 61, host Kevin Fallon examines Bob Dylan’s 1964 protest song “Only a Pawn in Their Game” from The Times They Are A-Changin’, written in the aftermath of Medgar Evers’s assassination. His murder—and the decades-long fight for justice that followed—would echo through American history and into the music of Dylan. Rather than focusing solely on the man who pulled the trigger, Dylan looks at a broader system of racism, political manipulation, and economic exploitation—arguing that the killer himself was merely a pawn. But does that argument go too far? Through close lyrical analysis, historical context, and personal critique, this episode explores Dylan’s controversial framing of moral responsibility, the use of dehumanizing imagery, and the uneasy tension between systemic forces and individual accountability. From the March on Washington to the eventual conviction of Byron De La Beckwith more than 30 years later, we trace how power, propaganda, and poverty intersect—and where Dylan’s message still resonates, and where it falters.

    16 min

  3. 12/16/2025

    North Country Blues

    In this episode of Hitchhiking Highway 61, we take a deep dive into Bob Dylan’s “North Country Blues,” a haunting narrative about life in a failing mining town and the quiet weight of staying put. From its roots in Woody Guthrie–style folk storytelling to its echoes in later songs by artists like Bruce Springsteen and Pearl Jam, “North Country Blues” explores working-class struggle, economic decline, and the slow passage of time. Along the way, I reflect on small towns, missed chances, fate versus free will, and what it means to watch life from behind a window instead of stepping through the door. Beneath its surface as a protest song, “North Country Blues” becomes something more universal—a meditation on memory, aging, and the choices that shape who we become.

    18 min

  4. 11/24/2025

    One Too Many Mornings

    On this episode of Hitchhiking Highway 61, Kevin Fallon explores Bob Dylan’sOne Too Many Mornings from The Times They Are A-Changin’. Dive into Dylan’s imagery of distance, choices, and reflection as he captures the bittersweet pain of love and missed opportunities. This episode highlights the song’s themes of perspective, crossroads, and the ripple effects of small “what if” moments.

    14 min

  5. 11/11/2025

    With God On Our Side

    Join host Kevin Fallon on Hitchhiking Highway 61 as he dives into Bob Dylan's 1964 classic With God On Our Side. In this episode we explore Dylan's take on history, morality, and the heavy intersection of religion and war. We examine how Dylan questions whether any country, or person, can truly claim God is on their side. Along the way, he shares his own perspective as a history teacher and fan, connecting Dylan's words to both past and present dilemmas.

    21 min

  6. 09/23/2025

    Ballad of Hollis Brown

    What happens when “The Times They Are A-Changin’” meets a world where nothing changes at all? In this episode of Hitchhiking Highway 61, we leave behind Bob Dylan’s anthem of progress and step into the bleak, haunting story of “Ballad of Hollis Brown.” Dylan paints the picture of a desperate farmer on the edge of survival — and forces us to wrestle with timeless questions: poverty, despair, choice, and the cycles of history that never seem to end. Is Hollis a victim? A villain? Both? And what does his story reveal about the struggles we still face today? Join us as host Kevin Fallon explores Dylan’s storytelling, the relentless rhythm of the song, and the uncomfortable empathy it creates. Along the way, we’ll reflect on why Dylan’s music still matters, why “nothing new under the sun” feels truer than ever, and what it means to notice the Hollis Browns around us before it’s too late.

    21 min

  7. 09/01/2025

    The Times They Are A-Changin'

    On November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, marking a cultural turning point that shattered America’s postwar optimism and ushered in the turbulence of the 1960s. In this episode of Hitchhiking Highway 61, host Kevin Fallon explores Bob Dylan’s The Times They Are A-Changin’ — an anthem written before Kennedy’s death but one that eerily captured the nation’s shifting mood. From civil rights to Vietnam to the rise of counterculture, Dylan’s stark folk declaration became the soundtrack to a decade in motion.

    27 min

  8. 08/12/2025

    I Shall Be Free

    In I Shall Be Free, the last song on The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, Dylan embraces the chaos-becoming both the hero and the joker, unmasking himself as he trades his serious folk image for surrealist absurdity, sharp satire, and wild humor. From relationships and race to politics, pop culture, and Cold War paranoia, Dylan takes a scattershot ride through the early '60s, unmasking the absurdity beneath it all. In this episode of Hitchhiking Highway 61, Kevin Fallon dives into Dylan's jester side, exploring how I Shall Be Free blends folk tradition with playful madness- and why sometimes, the only way to face a ridiculous would is to laugh right back at it.

    22 min
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Ratings & Reviews

4.2
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About

Hitchhiking Highway 61 is a personal journey through the songs of Bob Dylan—one track at a time. Each episode dives into a Dylan song, exploring its lyrics, themes, and impact while weaving in personal stories and reflections.

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