Bob Dylan In Minnesota Offers New Insights On the North Star State’s Favorite Son

BOB DYLAN IN MINNESOTA: TROUBADOUR TALES FROM DULUTH, HIBBING & DINKYTOWN. K G Miles. With contributors: Paul Metsa; Ed Newman; Marc Percansky and Matt Steichen. McNidder & Grace. 

On September 4, 1984, just a few months after his European Tour ended, Bob brought over an early mix of a concert recording for me to listen to with him.

The cassette was simply titled ‘Dylan At Wembley.’ It was an old TDK SA90 with 8 songs on Side A and 2 songs on Side B.

He handed it to me and said, ‘Put this on.’ I asked him, ‘Is it really live, Bob?’ We had talked about live albums and how they are usually all touched up with studio tricks that means they’re never the exact versions that were played. He answered that the versions on it were better than the ones on the Infidels album and then quickly said: ‘It is all really live, it is Real Live.’

The album would come out a few months later with that title and from that day forward, I like to think I had a hand in the naming of it.

Marc Percansky (pages 115-116)

“Thought I’d shaken the wonder/And the phantoms of my youth
Rainy days on the great lakes/Walkin’ the hills of old Duluth”

Bob Dylan, “Something There Is About You”

The town I was born in holds no memories
but for the honkin’ foghorns
the rainy mist
the rocky cliffs
I have carried no feelings
up past the Lake Superior hills
the town I grew up in is the one
that has left me with my legacy visions
it was not a rich town
my parents were not rich
it was not a poor town
an’ my parents were not poor
it was a dyin’ town
(it was a dyin’ town)
a train line cuts the ground
showin’ where the fathers an’ mothers
of me an’ my friends had picked
up an’ moved from
north Hibbing
t’ south Hibbing.
old north Hibbing . . .
deserted
already dead
with its old stone courthouse
decayin’ in the wind… 

Bob Dylan, from “11 Outlined Epitaphs,” published as Liner Notes to “The Times They Are a-Changin'”

There have been so many books written about Bob Dylan over the years that it’s hard to find a new release on the legendary song-poet worth reading – simply, what has needed to be said has already been said. What remains is old news.  But Bob Dylan In Minnesota, the new book by writer K. G. Miles (with contributions by fellow Gopher State denizens Paul Metsa, Ed Newman, Marc Percansky and Matt Steichen) set for United States publication on June 26^th, bucks that trend and offers readers a sweet surprise. Dylan In Minnesota is a unique undertaking in that it focuses on the town where Dylan came from, offering us a glimpse of what that place looked like during the years before he was a star. The Minnesota these authors recreate is the same one the singer himself references in two early masterworks, “North Country Blues” and “Restless Farewell.”  In turn, the book – presented as a compendium of essays by different writers – serves to help us understand the poet’s early sensibilities by looking at his work from the vantage point of the state that gave birth to him. In turn, this book provides a real time picture of the Dylan that went to New York City in 1961 – entertaining us as it enlightens. Like Robert Shelton’s immaculate biography, Michael Gray’s incisive song-study and Louie Kemp’s poignant memoir, Dylan In Minnesota deserves a place on the bookcase of every serious student of the bard’s work.

Must-read passages include: Percansky’s chapter on the acoustic recording of  Blood On the Tracks; “Bob’s Tour Bus” and “Hibbing High School.” 

by John Aiello