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CATHY WURZER: Good morning. I'm Cathy Wurzer. This is Morning Edition on Minnesota Public Radio.

30 years ago, at a time when his marriage was falling apart, Bob Dylan recorded Blood on the Tracks, considered by many critics as one of the great breakup albums of all time, Rolling Stone magazine ranks it as one of the top 20 albums of the rock era. A new book explores the creation of that record, including the story of a group of unknown Minneapolis musicians who helped shape its sound.

Dylan originally recorded the album's tracks at a studio in New York City in September of 1974. But when he came back to his farm in Minnesota a few months later and listened to the tapes, he didn't like how some of the songs turned out. One of the New York recordings he didn't like was "Idiot Wind."

BOBY DYLAN: Someone's got it in for me They're planting stories in the press Whoever it is, I wish they'd cut it out But when they will, I can only guess

CATHY WURZER: So Dylan asked his brother to assemble a group of musicians to help him rerecord some of the tracks. In December of 1974, they got together at Studio 80 in South Minneapolis and recorded five new tracks for the album, including a re-energized version of "Idiot Wind."

BOB DYLAN: Someone's got it in for me They're planting stories in the press Whoever it is, I wish they'd cut it out quick But when they will, I can only guess

They say I shot a man named Gray and took his wife to Italy She inherited a million bucks And when she died, it came to me I can't help it if I'm lucky

CATHY WURZER: Kevin Odegard played guitar on the Minneapolis sessions, and he's the co-author of a new book entitled, A Simple Twist of Fate, Bob Dylan and the Making of Blood on the Tracks. And he joins us this morning in studio. How are you, Kevin? Thanks for joining us.

KEVIN ODEGARD: Thank you for having us.

CATHY WURZER: How were you picked to work with Dylan on these Minneapolis sessions?

KEVIN ODEGARD: It was serendipity. My manager was David Zimmerman, Bob Dylan's brother, and he had managed me for about seven years prior to that.

CATHY WURZER: So he knew of your expertise?

KEVIN ODEGARD: Such as it was.

[LAUGHS]

He knew of my availability.

CATHY WURZER: He wanted to do something different here in Minneapolis, and clearly he did. What was that like? Did he talk to you? Did he tell you what he wanted?

KEVIN ODEGARD: He was everything you would not associate with Bob Dylan. He was warm. He was kind. He was generous.

He was outgoing. He was descriptive. He told you what he wanted.

CATHY WURZER: How can you tell in terms of the differences between Minneapolis and New York? What do you hear?

KEVIN ODEGARD: A softer New York. Muted. A muted treatment on all the material. Phil Ramon--

CATHY WURZER: And Phil's the recording engineer.

KEVIN ODEGARD: Yes. And Paul Martinson is also the recording engineer except he's in Minneapolis. And Phil Ramon was in New York. Phil had no time to set up and just went right into the sessions.

And before he was done recording one song, Bob was showing the chords to the next song to the band. No playback, nothing. That's how filled with anxiety Bob was to get this thing done.

BOB DYLAN: Early one morning, the sun was shining He was lying in bed wondering if she'd changed it all if her hair was still red Her folks, they said, our lives together sure was going to be rough They never did like mama's homemade dress Papa's bankbook wasn't big enough

And he was standing on the side of the road, rain falling on his shoes Heading out for the old East Coast Lord knows he's paid some dues getting through Tangled up in blue.

CATHY WURZER: You guys took a crack at "Tangled up in Blue."

KEVIN ODEGARD: We did.

CATHY WURZER: That, of course, was the hit song from the album. How different is that Minneapolis version from the New York version?

KEVIN ODEGARD: We were sitting on the ledge playing with "Tangled up in Blue" in the key of G, and it was just kind of laying there. It wasn't doing much. It was OK.

And Bob turned to me and in an unguarded moment, I said-- he said, well, what do you think? And I said, well, it's passable. And immediately, I started sweating right through my clothes.

CATHY WURZER: Yeah, you got some guts.

[LAUGHTER]

KEVIN ODEGARD: He stood up and paced around a little bit, looked around, and wondered if we might have an idea to move it up a key. My suggestion was to move it from G to A to give it a little more energy, to give a little more punch, to give a little more bite.

CATHY WURZER: Did he like that?

KEVIN ODEGARD: He wouldn't try it at first. And then he looked around the room and my mates gave me a vote of confidence. He started seeing head shaking. So he turned and looked at me and he said, OK, let's give it a try. And we did and it worked.

And about a third of the way through the first verse, he cut the tape. And he just looked in at Paul Martinson and he said, well, let's roll this. This is happening. And we rolled it.

And that's what you hear on the record. There's no mix. There's nothing. That was it.

BOB DYLAN: Early one morning, the sun was shining I was laying in bed wondering if she'd changed it all if her hair was still read Her folks, they said, our lives together sure was going to be rough They never did like mama's homemade dress Papa's bankbook wasn't big enough

And I was standing on the side of the road, rain falling on my shoes Heading out for the East Coast Lord knows I've paid some dues getting through Tangled up in blue

CATHY WURZER: And not to put salt in a wound here, Kevin, but when I picked up Blood on the Tracks and I thought, hey, I'm going to talk to Kevin Odegard, I didn't realize you're not on the credits to this. But none of the Minneapolis musicians are on the credits on the CD or the album.

KEVIN ODEGARD: No.

CATHY WURZER: How does that make you feel?

KEVIN ODEGARD: We know we're on the album.

[LAUGHS]

CATHY WURZER: Yeah, but still, what happened there?

KEVIN ODEGARD: What happened was it was explained to us that after the first pressing sold out, if it was a popular recording and they pressed more, they would change the names on the cover. And as a remedy or an alternative to that, what they did was they wiped everything off the back cover, all the musicians' names and Pete Hamill's liner notes, which I thought were wonderful. And then a strange thing happened. The liner notes were nominated for a Grammy.

CATHY WURZER: Imagine.

KEVIN ODEGARD: [LAUGHS]

And so back in they went with the original-- with the original musicians' names.

CATHY WURZER: That's Kevin Odegard, author of A Simple Twist of Fate, Bob Dylan and the Making of Blood on the Tracks. Kevin and the other Minneapolis musicians who played on Blood on the Tracks will be performing all the songs from the album Wednesday, March 3 at the Pantages Theatre in Minneapolis. Dylan has been invited to join them, but they say they don't expect him to show up.

BOB DYLAN: If you see her, say hello She might be in Tangier She left here last early spring, is living there, I hear Say for me that I'm all right Those things get kind of slow She might think that I've forgotten her, though tell her it isn't so