Desolation Row (Minneapolis, Duluth, Hibbing: house, high school, university)

[glendog]

I heard the Bob Dylan song "Desolation Row" the other day and remembered that the first verse is about Duluth, and sadly, not in a good way.

[Ghengis]

Originally Posted by glendog

I heard the Bob Dylan song "Desolation Row" the other day and remembered that the first verse is about Duluth, and sadly, not in a good way.

nobody has to think too much about desolation road

[glendog]

Anybody else been to Desolation Sound?

[snofarmer]

Baby boy Dylan doesn't like Duluth.
Every time he sayes Duluth he flubs it. .....Dooolute....

the verse goes
"They’re selling postcards of the hanging
They’re painting the passports brown
The beauty parlor is filled with sailors
The circus is in town.

Yet, we court him and name streets after him just because he was born in town, lived on the "range" and sang in town one time long, long ago.

It's time for Duluth to move on and rename the street after someone who matters.

[glendog]

I like the way Bobby says Duluth. He played there not that long ago. I saw a clip on youtube where he cracked a pretty funny joke and talked about being born up there on the hill and everyone cheered. You know everybody pronounces things differently. Some people even make fun of how Minnesotans speak!
The French pronunciation is like "Doo Loot", for the the man himself Monsieur Daniel Greysolon, Le Sieur du Luth.

[snofarmer]

Ok my bad,
I remember him saying it differentially for some reason.

When he does spit it out after stammering he does say it the same way the rest of us do

he says Duluth at 8sec in
.Bob Dylan 1998 Grammy Speech - YouTube
.

519 N. 3rd Avenue East, Duluth

2425 Seventh Avenue East, Hibbing



Bob Dylan was born Robert Zimmerman on May 24, 1941 in Duluth, and spent his first six years in that port city at the end of Lake Superior. The Zimmermans lived on the top floor of the house pictured above, which was auctioned off on eBay in the Summer of 2001 for $94,600. When Dylan was in Kindergarten, his family moved to his mother's hometown of Hibbing, a mining town about 75 miles north of Duluth in the Mesabi iron ore range. After living briefly with relatives, they settled into a home on the corner of Seventh Avenue and 25th Street, where Dylan spent the remainder of his youth and high school years.



his last concert since was in, oct 22, 1998 and it ws only the 2nd time he played in Duluth.
I couldn't find them but I know he has said a few snide comments about Duluth before.

Originally Posted by glendog

I like the way Bobby says Duluth. He played there not that long ago. I saw a clip on youtube where he cracked a pretty funny joke and talked about being born up there on the hill and everyone cheered. You know everybody pronounces things differently. Some people even make fun of how Minnesotans speak!
The French pronunciation is like "Doo Loot", for the the man himself Monsieur Daniel Greysolon, Le Sieur du Luth.

[glendog]

Yeah okay. I couldn't find the clip where he was in Canal Park telling a joke on stage. It wasn't directed at Duluth it was just a silly cornball joke/play on words, people laughed. I've also heard Bob say really nice things about Duluth and Minnesota in general. The man like life itself is a walking contradiction. He still owns a house here, on the Crow River in Hennepin County so he must still like it in some ways. He comes back for holidays and Christmas it is said. Home is home I guess. Nothing anything any of us can do about it.

[snofarmer]

I found few comments on Bob from some other locals.

"Why do we worship this guy, Hes alright but he hates it here. He does not even like the fact the we have a route through this town named after him."
Jim

It seams like some others remember "Bob" differentially.
Why did they Boo him off the stage in Hibbing?
Something he said?


"The Iron Range has changed since the days when Dylan was “booed” off stage and literally unplugged. The times have changed and so have the people of the Iron Range. In fact, Dylan fans can upload their own videos and photos to help convince Bob why he should come home."
5Q :: Iron Rangers want Bob Dylan to

Everyone knows he lives across the river,” said Mark Goss, a mechanic who hangs out at the watering hole near the 100-acre farm Dylan and his family own on the Crow River in northwestern Hennepin County. “People don’t gush or [go] 'Oh! Ah!’ It’s just one of those things. Being from Minnesota, he can’t be famous if he’s from here.” But how truly Minnesotan is he? It’s long been a debate, with many claiming the Duluth-born, Hibbing-bred Dylan as their own. Others say he kissed off the state 45 years ago after dropping out of the University of Minnesota.
Dylan: Still one of us? | StarTribune.com


"In fact, the playful mythmaker who told early interviewers he was an orphan from New Mexico"


a bit aloof, I guess some Minnesotan did get in there.
"My mother-in-law saw him at a game once, years ago,” said one of his neighbors, Belinda Mahler. “He just kept to himself. That’s how he’s always been around here, very reclusive.”"


"When he was young, however, Dylan eschewed his Gopher background. “If anything, obscuring his past because he thought Minnesota wasn’t cool enough —"


"In his hometown, a few folks thought Dylan got too big for his boots. When he attended his 10th high school reunion in 1969, he was supposedly insulted by some classmates after they had a few drinks. Thereafter, the hero pretty much didn’t go home again."


DYLAN: I was born in, grew up in a place so foreign that you had to be there to picture it.
interviewer : Are you talking about Hibbing, Minnesota?
DYLAN: It was all in upper Minnesota.

DYLAN: Well, in the winter, everything was still, nothing moved. Eight months of that. You can put it together. You can have some amazing hallucinogenic experiences doing nothing but looking out your window.


I just don't see all the gushing over him, as others have done a lot more for the state. but I can see why he snubbed us too.

[glendog]

Yeah I've read some of those myself. I don't see all the gushing over him or anybody really. Something I think Bob himself would agree with. Get your own life I think he's actually said when asked about people gushing over him. That said the man has the Holy Spirit all around him anybody can see that. (gush gush) I wouldn't judge him (or anyone) exclusively by what he did or said as a kid at age 21. In later interviews such as the one he did with Playboy in the 70's he spoke quite openly and fondly of Minnesota. There are others as well. No one can deny there wasn't much for him in Duluth or the Iron Range as an artist/creative person at that time. Save for staring out the window at all that snow and stillness and hallucinating. Things have changed a lot since then but in some ways are the same. Being from the west coast I can tell you, Midwesterners in general are absolutely known for being legendarily self-conscious of where they are from. I never quite understood this but it is true, especially among a lot of young people. They are embarrassed of their small midwestern towns and upbringing. They always think it's cooler somewhere else and that has totally changed in my opinion. Minneapolis is just as cool or cooler than say Portland or Seattle in terms of hipness, flourishing small businesses, cosmopolitan nature, opportunities, arts, music etc.. Eventually most of these kids grow up (like my wife) and realize that's wrong and that being born here in a small town is actually really cool and a huge part of what made them who they are, even if they don't want it anymore or don't move back. I mean think of all the awesome creative people from the midwest?! From Frank Lloyd Wright, to Bob Dylan, whether people like them or not they are iconoclasts and legends.

[Beenhere4ever]

Who is the SECOND most famous person from Duluth? I know people like Jessica Biel and Jessica Lange come from the region, but actually FROM Duluth?