Acquired Taste Music Friday
- Thread starter noharleyyet
- Start date
Interesting you post Dylan. It has taken most of 40 years for me to acquire a taste for his music style. I started with some heavy bias against his style, thanks to my Dad.
My Dad was raised 20 miles from Dylan's home town of Hibbing. They were the same age and my Dad talked about him often, mostly in derogatory words, for reasons I didn't quite understand. Maybe it was resentment for the guy who followed his dream as my Dad so often wished he had done.
Yet, my Dad would always refer to this Dylan song (North Country Blues) when complaining of the plight his mining family was facing on the Iron Range, which in Dad's mind is why he was forced to move 100 miles west and take up logging as his life vocation. My grandfather was a railroader who hauled taconite from the mines. Most of my Dad's family had taken work in the mines, but by 1959 when my Dad graduated high school, the mines were already showing to be a tenuous future for a young man with big plans.
Here is Dylan performing that song publicly at one of the folk music fests. Most claim it was his performance of this song at Norfolk that got Dylan his big chance.
Link here (not YouTube) - http://www.wimp.com/silencedcrowd/
"North Country Blues" is still applicable today for the folks trying to scratch out a living in the iron mines of "Da Range" country of northeast Minnesota. My grandparents are both buried in the small cemetery overlooking the St. Louis River, their small homestead, sited next to the railroad tracks as were all homesteads of the railroad guys, ended up in the hands of a cousin who has since sold it.
My grandfather is on the far left of this pic, the date written on the back says it was taken in 1955. The others in the pic were told to me as being family and neighbors who lived along the railroad line; the manner in which workers would catch their ride to the mines on the train as it was coming back from Duluth after dumping a load of taconite on the loading docks.
If you live(d) on Da Range, everything in life is/was tied to the mines. And Dylan's lyrics are still cited today as the iron mine economy is in worse shape than when Dylan sang this song in 1963.
My Dad was raised 20 miles from Dylan's home town of Hibbing. They were the same age and my Dad talked about him often, mostly in derogatory words, for reasons I didn't quite understand. Maybe it was resentment for the guy who followed his dream as my Dad so often wished he had done.
Yet, my Dad would always refer to this Dylan song (North Country Blues) when complaining of the plight his mining family was facing on the Iron Range, which in Dad's mind is why he was forced to move 100 miles west and take up logging as his life vocation. My grandfather was a railroader who hauled taconite from the mines. Most of my Dad's family had taken work in the mines, but by 1959 when my Dad graduated high school, the mines were already showing to be a tenuous future for a young man with big plans.
Here is Dylan performing that song publicly at one of the folk music fests. Most claim it was his performance of this song at Norfolk that got Dylan his big chance.
Link here (not YouTube) - http://www.wimp.com/silencedcrowd/
"North Country Blues" is still applicable today for the folks trying to scratch out a living in the iron mines of "Da Range" country of northeast Minnesota. My grandparents are both buried in the small cemetery overlooking the St. Louis River, their small homestead, sited next to the railroad tracks as were all homesteads of the railroad guys, ended up in the hands of a cousin who has since sold it.
My grandfather is on the far left of this pic, the date written on the back says it was taken in 1955. The others in the pic were told to me as being family and neighbors who lived along the railroad line; the manner in which workers would catch their ride to the mines on the train as it was coming back from Duluth after dumping a load of taconite on the loading docks.
If you live(d) on Da Range, everything in life is/was tied to the mines. And Dylan's lyrics are still cited today as the iron mine economy is in worse shape than when Dylan sang this song in 1963.
BuzzH
Well-known member
Dylan's singing ability is questionable...his music and words are not.
One of, if not the best, song writer ever, IMO.
One of, if not the best, song writer ever, IMO.
RobG
Well-known member
Guess she was in Helena last night.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9-pDSYPrio
This guy too
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=An2a1_Do_fc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9-pDSYPrio
This guy too
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=An2a1_Do_fc
noharleyyet
Well-known member
Thanks for sharing Fin...agree Buzz.
BuzzH
Well-known member
RobG
Well-known member
"North Country Blues"
Come gather 'round friends
And I'll tell you a tale
Of when the red iron pits ran empty
But the cardboard filled windows
And old men on the benches
Tell you now that the whole town is empty.
In the north end of town
My own children are grown
But I was raised on the other
In the wee hours of youth
May mother took sick
And I was brought up by my brother.
The iron ore poured
As the years passed the door
The drag lines an' the shovels they was a-humming
'Til one day my brother
Failed to come home
The same as my father before him.
Well a long winter's wait
From the window I watched
My friends they couldn't have been kinder
And my schooling was cut
As I quit in the spring
To marry John Thomas, a miner.
Oh the years passed again
And the givin' was good
With the lunch bucket filled every season
What with three babies born
The work was cut down
To a half a day's shift with no reason.
Then the shaft was soon shut
And more work was cut
And the fire in the air, it felt frozen
'Til a man come to speak
And he said in one week
That number eleven was closin'.
They complained in the East
They are playing too high
They say that your ore ain't worth digging
That it's much cheaper down
In the South American towns
Where the miners work almost for nothing.
So the mining gates locked
And the red iron rotted
And the room smelted heavy from drinking
Where the sad silent song
Made the hour twice as long
As I waited for the sun to go sinking.
I lived by the window
As he talked to himself
This silence of tongues it was building
Then one morning's wake
The bed it was bare
And I's left alone with three children.
The summer is gone
The ground's turning cold
The stores one by one they're a-foldin'
My children will go
As soon they grow
Well there ain't nothing here now to hold them.
Come gather 'round friends
And I'll tell you a tale
Of when the red iron pits ran empty
But the cardboard filled windows
And old men on the benches
Tell you now that the whole town is empty.
In the north end of town
My own children are grown
But I was raised on the other
In the wee hours of youth
May mother took sick
And I was brought up by my brother.
The iron ore poured
As the years passed the door
The drag lines an' the shovels they was a-humming
'Til one day my brother
Failed to come home
The same as my father before him.
Well a long winter's wait
From the window I watched
My friends they couldn't have been kinder
And my schooling was cut
As I quit in the spring
To marry John Thomas, a miner.
Oh the years passed again
And the givin' was good
With the lunch bucket filled every season
What with three babies born
The work was cut down
To a half a day's shift with no reason.
Then the shaft was soon shut
And more work was cut
And the fire in the air, it felt frozen
'Til a man come to speak
And he said in one week
That number eleven was closin'.
They complained in the East
They are playing too high
They say that your ore ain't worth digging
That it's much cheaper down
In the South American towns
Where the miners work almost for nothing.
So the mining gates locked
And the red iron rotted
And the room smelted heavy from drinking
Where the sad silent song
Made the hour twice as long
As I waited for the sun to go sinking.
I lived by the window
As he talked to himself
This silence of tongues it was building
Then one morning's wake
The bed it was bare
And I's left alone with three children.
The summer is gone
The ground's turning cold
The stores one by one they're a-foldin'
My children will go
As soon they grow
Well there ain't nothing here now to hold them.
Brittany Chukarman
Well-known member
One of the greatest storytellers ever
https://youtu.be/8x-0aECsy98?list=PLvHXfAK0Y6gCV00KbF-9Tx0HYtisnRvdV
https://youtu.be/8x-0aECsy98?list=PLvHXfAK0Y6gCV00KbF-9Tx0HYtisnRvdV
dustinf
Active member
He's no Bieber, but I'll give him a try.
tarheel
Well-known member
My favorite line by Dylan; "They asked me for some collateral so I pulled down my pants."
In '66/'67 I was in Thailand in the USAF and my cube mate Ron who hailed from Batavia, NY and I were big time Dylan fans. Ron had a big Teac 5010 reel to reel recorder and stereo amp in his locker, nearly everything Dylan ever recorded on tape, and we spent many nights soaking up "PJ" from a yellow plastic trash can which was used for that purpose so much that it had a permanent purple stain most of the way up the side. We sat there getting blitzed on PJ, donning headsets so as to not miss a word or disturb our barracks mates, and tried to analyze most of his music. Maybe it would have helped if we had been back in the states where we would have been more aware of current events instead of being stuck in central Thailand trying to keep fighter bombers flying so they could haul their iron payload to NV.
Needles to say, I'm still a Dylan fan and no doubt will be until my string runs out.
In '66/'67 I was in Thailand in the USAF and my cube mate Ron who hailed from Batavia, NY and I were big time Dylan fans. Ron had a big Teac 5010 reel to reel recorder and stereo amp in his locker, nearly everything Dylan ever recorded on tape, and we spent many nights soaking up "PJ" from a yellow plastic trash can which was used for that purpose so much that it had a permanent purple stain most of the way up the side. We sat there getting blitzed on PJ, donning headsets so as to not miss a word or disturb our barracks mates, and tried to analyze most of his music. Maybe it would have helped if we had been back in the states where we would have been more aware of current events instead of being stuck in central Thailand trying to keep fighter bombers flying so they could haul their iron payload to NV.
Needles to say, I'm still a Dylan fan and no doubt will be until my string runs out.
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