September 15th Hibbing

Woke up early and walked round Dinkytown looking for breakfast. Didn't feel like a huge American platter so eventually ended up in good old MacDonalds. On the way I saw the Purple Onion, one of the places where Dylan played when he was starting out.

Then I embarked upon the 250-mile drive to Hibbing. I drove up the I-35 for a couple of hours, then turned off onto Highway 33 at Cloquet, before driving up Highway 53 to Virginia and then west on 169 to Hibbing. It being a Sunday, the place was deserted. Hibbing is basically one long main street (Howard Street) with the usual rectangular structure of streets around it. I went to a bar called Zimmy's and found out where Bob Dylan Drive was. I walked down it and found the house where he grew up. It is a cubular two-storey house painted blue on the corner of 7th Avenue and 25th Street. So it was in this small house in a remote and nondescript town that one of the major geniuses in the development of human culture grew up. I can only imagine how liberated he must have felt to come down here to university in Dinkytown.

The drive back was very exciting and comfortable - the sun was out and I could see the scenery better. Hibbing is in the middle of the Iron Range, which used to be a large mining area in the Second World War. The subsequent closure of the mines and the resulting impact on the local economy is the subject of "North Country Blues" on the "Times They Are a Changin'" album. The countryside is full of lakes and was largely flat where I drove. The sheer scale and remoteness of the place is very striking. It's hard to imagine people conducting their daily lives in such places.

Loads of music of course - constant Dylan on the way up, naturally - I played "The Bootleg Series" Vols 7 and 9. Much of this is early acoustic material and what stood out for me was the exceptional urgency and intensity of the performances, as well as the emerging lyrical genius of songs such as "Hard Rain". Dylan has never been easy listening, so he would never have got a hearing in these bland times. It is a tribute to the communal musical ear of the 1960s that such an uncompromising artist was a major pop star.

On the way back I started with Chuck Prophet's "Temple Beautiful", my favourite CD of last year. Then I heard "White-Faced "Lady" by the UK Kaleidoscope, a double album which was never released at the time. I found its English lyricism and pop sensibility to be highly refreshing after all the Americana. I then heard "Parachute", the Pretty Things classic from 1970 which was voted album of the year by Rolling Stone (I'd go for "Workingman's Dead" myself). There are some bonus tracks on here which are very, very good - full of different structures and interesting lyrics. Finally I heard some live Quicksilver Messenger Service tracks as I arrived back in Minneapolis.