"North Country Blues" | |
---|---|
Song by Bob Dylan | |
from the album The Times They Are a-Changin' | |
Released | January 13, 1964 |
Recorded | August 6, 1963 |
Genre | Folk |
Length | 4:35 |
Label | Columbia |
Songwriter(s) | Bob Dylan |
Producer(s) | Tom Wilson |
"North Country Blues" is a song by Bob Dylan, released on his third studio album The Times They Are a-Changin' in 1964. He also performed it at the 1963 Newport Folk Festival.
Its apparently simple format (ten verses of ABCB rhyme scheme), accompanied by only two chords (Cm & Bb) and subject matter (the perils of life in a mining community and its ultimate demise) appears to have been influenced by Woody Guthrie. [1]
The specific location of the town is never stated. Daniel Epstein [2] recalled hearing Dylan introduce the song, in a performance in Washington D.C. in 1963, with the note that it was about the mining towns of Virginia. However, the title and references to "iron ore", "red iron", and "red iron pits" strongly suggests the location is on the Mesabi Range, a portion of the Iron Range where open-pit mining has predominated, [3] and where Dylan's childhood residence in Hibbing, Minnesota is situated. [4] Virginia, Minnesota is a town near Hibbing, that, along with Hibbing is also part of the Mesabi Iron Range, has shared boom and bust cycles due to changes in the mining industry, and may be the town that Dylan was talking about in the Washington concert.
The song opens with a deliberately conventional opening (Come gather round friends and I'll tell you a tale...). However, the darkness of the tale soon becomes apparent. Each verse contains at least one tragic situation or event:
Dylan hides the fact that the narrator is a woman to the end of verse four. The song ends bleakly, as by this time the woman has lost her husband, mother, father and brother; the mine is closed and the town is virtually abandoned; and soon her children will leave her in complete isolation and desolation.
According to writer M. Marqusee, this apparently restricting and morose format, referred to as a "formally conservative exercise in first-person narrative", Dylan manages to achieve significant tonal and expressive variation. [6]
In 1968, Joan Baez included a performance of "North Country Blues" on her Dylan tribute album Any Day Now. [7] The song also appears on the self-titled 2023 album of Bluegrass group Mighty Poplar.
Ely is a city in Saint Louis County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 3,268 at the 2020 census.
Hibbing is a city in Saint Louis County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 16,214 at the 2020 census. The city was built on mining the rich iron ore of the Mesabi Iron Range and still relies on that industrial activity today. At the edge of town is the world's largest open-pit iron mine, the Hull–Rust–Mahoning Open Pit Iron Mine. It is the hometown of singer-songwriter Bob Dylan and former Governor of Minnesota Rudy Perpich.
Virginia is a city in St. Louis County, Minnesota, United States, on the Mesabi Iron Range. With an economy heavily reliant on large-scale iron ore mining, Virginia is considered the Mesabi Range's commercial center. The population was 8,423 people at the 2020 census. Virginia is a part of the Duluth metropolitan area, and U.S. Highway 53 runs through town.
Highway 61 Revisited is the sixth studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on August 30, 1965, by Columbia Records. Dylan continued the musical approach of his previous album Bringing It All Back Home (1965), using rock musicians as his backing band on every track of the album in a further departure from his primarily acoustic folk sound, except for the closing track, the 11-minute ballad "Desolation Row". Critics have focused on the innovative way Dylan combined driving, blues-based music with the subtlety of poetry to create songs that captured the political and cultural chaos of contemporary America. Author Michael Gray has argued that, in an important sense, the 1960s "started" with this album.
The Mesabi Iron Range is a mining district in northeastern Minnesota following an elongate trend containing large deposits of iron ore. It is the largest of four major iron ranges in the region collectively known as the Iron Range of Minnesota. First described in 1866, it is the chief iron ore mining district in the United States. The district is located largely in Itasca and Saint Louis counties. It has been extensively worked since 1892, and has seen a transition from high-grade direct shipping ores through gravity concentrates to the current industry exclusively producing iron ore (taconite) pellets. Production has been dominantly controlled by vertically integrated steelmakers since 1901, and therefore is dictated largely by US ironmaking capacity and demand.
The Iron Range is collectively or individually a number of elongated iron-ore mining districts around Lake Superior in the United States and Canada. Much of the ore-bearing region lies alongside the range of granite hills formed by the Giants Range batholith. These cherty iron ore deposits are Precambrian in the Vermilion Range and middle Precambrian in the Mesabi and Cuyuna ranges, all in Minnesota. The Gogebic Range in Wisconsin and the Marquette Iron Range and Menominee Range in Michigan have similar characteristics and are of similar age. Natural ores and concentrates were produced from 1848 until the mid-1950s, when taconites and jaspers were concentrated and pelletized, and started to become the major source of iron production.
The Times They Are a-Changin' is the third studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. It was released on February 10, 1964 through Columbia Records. Whereas his previous albums, Bob Dylan and The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, combined original material and cover songs, this was the first to feature only original compositions. The album consists mostly of stark, sparsely arranged ballads concerning issues such as racism, poverty, and social change. The title track is one of Dylan's most famous; many feel that it captures the spirit of social and political upheaval that characterized the 1960s.
The Arrowhead Region is located in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of Minnesota, so called because of its pointed shape. The predominantly rural region encompasses 10,635.26 square miles (27,545.2 km2) of land area and includes Carlton, Cook, Lake and Saint Louis counties. Its population at the 2000 census was 248,425 residents. The region is loosely defined, and Aitkin, Itasca, and Koochiching counties are sometimes considered as part of the region, increasing the land area to 18,221.97 square miles (47,194.7 km2) and the population to 322,073 residents. Primary industries in the region include tourism and iron mining.
"Talkin' World War III Blues" is a song written and performed by the American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan that was first released as the tenth track of his 1963 album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan. Like nearly every song on the album, it is performed by Dylan solo, accompanying himself on acoustic guitar and harmonica played in a rack.
"Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" is a song written and performed by Bob Dylan. It was originally recorded on August 2, 1965, and released on the album Highway 61 Revisited. The song was later released on the compilation album Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Vol. II and as two separate live versions recorded at concerts in 1966: the first of which appeared on the B-side of Dylan's "I Want You" single, with the second being released on The Bootleg Series Vol. 4: Bob Dylan Live 1966, The "Royal Albert Hall" Concert. The song has been covered by many artists, including Gordon Lightfoot, Cat Power, Nina Simone, Barry McGuire, Judy Collins, Frankie Miller, Linda Ronstadt, the Grateful Dead, Neil Young, The Black Crowes, Townes Van Zandt, and Bryan Ferry. Lightfoot's version was recorded only weeks after Dylan's original had been released and reached #3 on the Canadian RPM singles chart.
"With God on Our Side" is a song by Bob Dylan, released as the third track on his 1964 album The Times They Are A-Changin'. Dylan first performed the song during his debut at The Town Hall in New York City on April 12, 1963.
The Hull–Rust–Mahoning Open Pit Iron Mine in Hibbing, Minnesota, United States, is the largest operating open-pit iron mine in Minnesota. The pit stretches more than three miles (5 km) long, two miles (3 km) wide, and 535 feet (163 m) deep. It was established in 1895 and was one of the world's first mechanized open-pit mines.
"Most Likely You Go Your Way and I'll Go Mine", or "Most Likely You Go Your Way (and I'll Go Mine)", is a song by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. It was released as the first track on side three of his seventh studio album Blonde on Blonde (1966). The song was written by Dylan and produced by Bob Johnston. Dylan recounted that he had probably written the song after the end of a relationship. The song's narrator criticizes the lies and weakness of a woman, and says that he finds it hard to care. The final verse establishes that the woman has been unfaithful to the narrator by having a relationship with another man, as he suspected all along.
Manganese is a ghost town and former mining community in the U.S. state of Minnesota that was inhabited between 1912 and 1960. It was built in Crow Wing County on the Cuyuna Iron Range in sections 23 and 28 of Wolford Township, about 2 miles (3 km) north of Trommald, Minnesota. After its formal dissolution, Manganese was absorbed by Wolford Township; the former town site is located between Coles Lake and Flynn Lake. First appearing in the U.S. Census of 1920 with an already dwindling population of 183, the village was abandoned by 1960.
The Iron Range Historical Society is a historical society that operates a research library in McKinley, Minnesota. The Society is a non-profit organization that exists through donations and volunteers. Its mission is "to collect, preserve, and share the history of Minnesota’s Iron Ranges for the benefit of future generations."
Hibbing High School is a public school, grades 7–12, in Hibbing, Minnesota, United States. It was built from 1920 to 1922 as the entire city relocated two miles (3 km) south to make way for the expanding Hull–Rust–Mahoning Mine. The lavish Tudor Revival building was constructed at a cost of about $3.9 million, becoming known as the "castle in the woods" and—thanks to its polished brass fixtures—the "school with the golden doorknobs". The project was bankrolled by the mining industry, which wanted to make the move more palatable for those being displaced. It also satisfied immigrants' desire for their children's education.
Elcor is a ghost town, or more properly, an extinct town, in the U.S. state of Minnesota that was inhabited between 1897 and 1956. It was built on the Mesabi Iron Range near the city of Gilbert in St. Louis County. Elcor was its own unincorporated community before it was abandoned and was never a neighborhood proper of the city of Gilbert. Not rating a figure in the national census, the people of Elcor were only generally considered to be citizens of Gilbert. The area where Elcor was located was annexed by Gilbert when its existing city boundaries were expanded after 1969.
Julie Sandstede is an American politician and former member of the Minnesota House of Representatives. A member of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL), she formerly represented District 6A in northeastern Minnesota.
The East Howard Street Commercial Historic District is a historic business district in Hibbing, Minnesota, United States. It comprises both sides of East Howard Street along the four blocks between 1st and 5th Avenues. It was the new business district designed and built for Hibbing by the Oliver Iron Mining Company from 1920 to 1921, when the company arranged to move the city a mile south to expand the Hull–Rust–Mahoning Open Pit Iron Mine. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1993 for its local significance in the theme of community planning and development. It was nominated as a key portion of Hibbing that represents the efforts of the Oliver Iron Mining Company to relocate the entire town, and the economic importance of iron mining on the Mesabi Range.
The Emmett Butler House is a historic house in Hibbing, Minnesota, United States. It was built in a simplified Colonial Revival mode in 1916 for Emmett Butler, a local leader and an executive in Minnesota's influential Butler Brothers Construction Company. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980 for its local significance in the themes of architecture and industry. It was nominated as an example of the Colonial Revival houses built in Minnesota in the early 20th century and for its associations with Butler.