Peter K. McKenzie was 15 in the Spring of 1961 when he and his parents, Eve and Howard [‘Mac’] McKenzie, welcomed a 19-year old traveler to sleep on their couch in the family apartment on 28th Street between Fifth Avenue and Broadway, just north of Greenwich Village—the traveler was Bob Dylan who had arrived in New York City on January 24, 1961. Bob stayed with the McKenzies until mid-September, 1961, but was a frequent visitor thereafter. The McKenzie’s library captured Dylan’s attention and the apartment was filled with visitors and lively conversation on politics, the labor movement, history, religion, music, poetry, and art. In Chronicles Volume One, Dylan refers to the McKenzies as the “Gooches” (see below for Peter’s comment on this). The McKenzie library is described by Dylan in Chronicles—that’s the source of the quote of our web homepage!
In 2021, Peter McKenzie published his memories of that time in Bob Dylan, On a Couch & Fifty Cents a Day (the ‘Fifty Cents’ referes to his mother’s habit of leaving fifty cents on the living room desk for Bob each day). 2023 saw the publication of a memoir by Terri Thal, former wife of Dave Van Rock and Dylan’s first manager. Her book, My Greenwich Village, Dave, Bob, and Me, joins Dylan, On a Couch & Fifty Cents a Day and works by Suze Rotolo (A Freewheelin' Time [2008], our first book selection), Dave Van Ronk (The Mayor of MacDoughal Street [2012], a book that Elija Wald completed after Van Ronk's death]), Elija Wald (Dylan Goes Electric: Newport, Seeger, Dylan, and the Night that Split the Sixties [2015)], our third book selection), David Hajdu (Positively 4th Street [2004]), and Mr. Dylan himself (Chronicles Volume One [2004]). Quite a set of commentaries focusing on an important and formative period for Dylan!
For a video interview with Peter K. McKenzie by Alfred Lambremont Webre go HERE.
For a print interview on Acoustic Live go HERE.

Click HERE for a composite image of lyric pages and drawings by Bob Dylan, supplied by Peter McKenzie.

Bob Dylan On a Couch & Fifty Cents a Day begins with a Dylan quote about the McKenzies: “These are very good people. You can talk to these people. They know me well. You can also talk to Peter. He's old now. Peter goes to Harvard. Peter's their son. It's Eve and Mac McKenzie. And they really took me in an' they were beautiful. Ah, they took me in and I lived with them. And they fed me and it was on 28th St. And I stayed out all hours an' came in and went to sleep on the couch. An' Peter was there. I was his idol. At the time he was about 15. Now he's 18, 19. He's in college. He's a very smart kid. Talk to them.” - Bob Dylan in 1965.

Our meeting with Peter McKenzie had many important moments. For instance, Peter said that it was Bob Dylan’s eyes—they just “looked different”—that captured him as a teenager.
During our meeting and afterwords by email, Peter answered a few of my shorter questions:
PW: Why do you think Dylan chose to rename your family the Gooches in Chronicles?
PMcK: Bob is loyal and protective of those he loves, so my interpretation was that he did this protect and keep private his friends.
PW: What is the context for the inscription by Bob Dylan that appears on page 3 of your book?
PMcK: Bob presented my parents with a copy of Writings and Drawings and wrote those words (“For Eve & Mac who were there when it Began, Thanks for Everything, Love, Bob”) on a front endpaper page of the book.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: 
Peter K. McKenzie graduated from Harvard in 1967. He is an accomplished musician, artist and writer based in New York City.

To read praise, reviews, and additional background information (and to order a copy) go to:
kdp.amazon.com/en_US/bookshelf

Also available on APPLE eBOOKS

The name “McKenzie” is also famous among Bob Dylan fans because of a series of home recordings from 1961 and 1962 (and possibly 1963) known as the “McKenzie Tapes”. Peter McKenzie includes information about these recordings in Chapter 34 and 35. Here are some additional links:
Audio
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCkqT7qG8xI [audio of 12 songs, 37 minutes]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xt7pOVFQqyk [audio, no list, 56 minutes]
https://thebobdylanproject.com/Album/id/100/The-McKenzie-Tapes-New-York-1961-1963 [audio of 44 songs]
https://www.needsomefun.net/bob-dylan-the-complete-mckenzie-tapes-1961-1963/ [audio of 55 songs, over 2 hours]
Discussion forums and other text overviews:
https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/bob-dylan-the-villager-early-60s-archive-release-speculation-thread.1099795/page-13
https://www.discogs.com/release/7659444-Bob-Dylan-The-McKenzie-Tapes-Home-Recordings-1961-62 [30 songs listed in four groups labeled A, B, C, D]
https://expectingrain.com/discussions/viewtopic.php?p=1303459&sid=16b1e38cb2adc1e111d8ba05072bbe56

FOR A COMPLETE CHRONOLOGY OF DYLAN RECORDINGS (TO 2022) GO HERE.

Peter White, November 2023