Steve Burmeister for The New York Times
Zimmy’s restaurant is one of the
rare places saluting Bob Dylan in
Hibbing, Minn., where he grew up.
Posted on 08/13/2004 8:57:56 PM PDT by Pharmboy
Steve Burmeister for The New York Times
Zimmy’s restaurant is one of the
rare places saluting Bob Dylan in
Hibbing, Minn., where he grew up.
HIBBING, Minn. - Nearly half a century ago, a scrawny youth whose artistic temperament and creative spirit had made him a misfit here left town to seek his fortune. Some people hope he never comes back.
"If Bob Dylan came here to sing tonight, I wouldn't go," said Dennis Berklich, a fellow graduate of Hibbing High School. "Bob Dylan doesn't care about Hibbing, Minn., so why should we care about him? Besides that, I don't like his music."
Mr. Berklich is not alone. As Mr. Dylan was rocketing to fame in the 1960's, he sometimes told fanciful tales about growing up in places far from Hibbing. That angered many residents, although by the 1970's he was embracing the years he had spent here on the Iron Range of northern Minnesota.
"I'm from someplace called the Iron Range," he told an interviewer in 1972. "My brains and feelings have come from there."
Whatever the case, many of Hibbing's 17,000 people still have no use for the man who, having outgrown his boyhood awkwardness of the 1950's and changed his name from Bobby Zimmerman, became one of the most influential songwriters of the 20th century.
Yet a growing number of others think Hibbing should begin to honor him, and even capitalize on his legacy. As it is, though his fans come here from far away to commune with the town that helped shape him, there is not much for them to see.
Hibbing promotes its iron-mining heritage and also has a museum on the edge of town that honors the American bus industry, said to have originated here. But those who arrive on the Dylan trail find not even a brochure and, without help from some sympathetic local, cannot locate Bobby's house, the site of the gas station where he tanked up his first motorcycle or the hotel where he celebrated his bar mitzvah.
Patrick Ethridge, who arrived last November to become editor of Hibbing's newspaper, The Daily Tribune, said, "When I first got here, I asked myself: 'Where's the museum? Where are the streets and parks named after him?' "
Like other towns on the Iron Range, Hibbing has lived from mining for more than a century. But with mining jobs growing scarce, many young people have left for Minneapolis, some 200 miles to the south, or points more distant.
"He doesn't need us,'' Mr. Ethridge said, "but I think you could make an argument that we need him. This area is begging for something, and you've got this huge gift in your lap begging to be opened."
Fans who make it here inevitably find their way to a restaurant called Zimmy's, decorated with Dylan posters. There they can buy Dylan mugs and T-shirts, listen to Dylan music and, maybe, chat with people connected to their idol. Among those who have stopped by in recent weeks are Echo Helstrom, a former girlfriend of Mr. Dylan who is said to have inspired his 1963 song "Girl of the North Country," and B. J. Rolfzen, one of his English teachers.
Prize exhibits at Zimmy's include the windowpanes that were in Mr. Dylan's boyhood bedroom, and a clock that hung in the appliance store run by his father, Abe Zimmerman. One of the restaurant's co-owners, Bob Hocking, recently bought the Zimmerman family's bathroom sink and plans to add it to the display.
For the last three years, Mr. Hocking and a handful of other fans here have organized a festival called Dylan Days around the time of the singer's birthday, May 24. It offers fans a bus tour of Dylan-related sites, along with an art show, poetry readings and a competition in which bands perform Dylan songs.
Mr. Hocking grew up in Hibbing. "When I got to college,'' he recalled, "I found people decorating their rooms with Dylan stuff. At that time I was asking, 'What's the big deal?' Now I understand the big deal. I wish this town would catch on to how marketable Bob Dylan is."
Robert Allen Zimmerman was born in 1941 in Duluth, and his family moved here when he was 6. At Hibbing High School he caused something of a sensation when he belted out Little Richard tunes during a talent show. But in a town where it was hockey players who were considered the height of cool, he was never popular. Many of his schoolmates still speak of him without affection.
"He was a little weird," said Jerry Starck, a barber who was two years behind him at Hibbing High. "He still is.''
If the people of Hibbing appear split in their view of Mr. Dylan, his view of them is uncertain. He could not be reached for comment, and there was no response to messages left for his public relations representative, Claire Mercuri, vice president for media operations at Columbia Records.
What is known is that Mr. Dylan returned to Hibbing in 1969 for the 10th reunion of his high school class, and by some accounts was insulted by inebriated classmates. There is no record of his ever having returned, although some suspect he may have quietly slipped through once or twice.
The house where Mr. Dylan grew up is still privately owned, but a few of his admirers dream that it may one day become a museum. At present, the only collection of Dylan memorabilia outside of Zimmy's is in the basement of the Hibbing Public Library, where Roberta Maki, the exhibition director, has displayed items like Mr. Dylan's album covers and copies of his birth certificate and high school graduation picture.
Ms. Maki said she and others hoped that Hibbing and Mr. Dylan would someday end the estrangement.
"We don't want to rush things," she said. "We want to show appreciation and respect. When Bob wants these things to happen, they will."
I never much liked his music (except for the album that had John Wesley Harding), hated his voice and his causes. However, the good people of Hibbing should be able to make a buck on his name. Capitalism's great...
"He looked dazed and near death."
They should wait until he IS dead. Then they'd see some green...
I always thought the Byrds did his songs better than he ever did, anyway.
You obviously know nothing of Dylan.
Dylan's a giant. An astounding talent and one of our greatest songwriters.
His relation to leftie causes is a complete misunderstanding of the man and his music. By the time the lefties were all crooning their anti-war diatribes, Dylan had moved on.
How's that? What influence did Dylan have?
An easier question to answer would be "what influence did Dylan not have".
Interesting. The residents of Flint, Michigan, say the same thing about Michael Moore.
Bob Dylan is the greatest American poet of the 20th century in my humble estimation. Blood on the Tracks still gives me chills.
from Bob Dylans's Freeper phase
Slow Train
Sometimes I feel so low-down and disgusted
Can't help but wonder what's happenin' to my companions,
Are they lost or are they found, have they counted the cost it'll take to bring
down
All their earthly principles they're gonna have to abandon?
There's a slow, slow train comin' up around the bend.
I had a woman down in Alabama,
She was a backwoods girl, but she sure was realistic,
She said, "Boy, without a doubt, have to quit your mess and straighten out,
You could die down here, be just another accident statistic."
There's a slow, slow train comin' up around the bend.
All that foreign oil controlling American soil,
Look around you, it's just bound to make you embarrassed.
Sheiks walkin' around like kings, wearing fancy jewels and nose rings,
Deciding America's future from Amsterdam and to Paris
And there's a slow, slow train comin' up around the bend.
Man's ego is inflated, his laws are outdated, they don't apply no more,
You can't rely no more to be standin' around waitin'
In the home of the brave, Jefferson turnin' over in his grave,
Fools glorifying themselves, trying to manipulate Satan
And there's a slow, slow train comin' up around the bend.
Big-time negotiators, false healers and woman haters,
Masters of the bluff and masters of the proposition
But the enemy I see wears a cloak of decency,
All non-believers and men stealers talkin' in the name of religion
And there's a slow, slow train comin' up around the bend.
People starving and thirsting, grain elevators are bursting
Oh, you know it costs more to store the food than it do to give it.
They say lose your inhibitions, follow your own ambitions,
They talk about a life of brotherly love, show me someone who knows how to
live it. There's a slow, slow train comin' up around the bend.
Well, my baby went to Illinois with some bad-talkin' boy she could destroy
A real suicide case, but there was nothin' I could do to stop it,
I don't care about economy, I don't care about astronomy
But it sure do bother me to see my loved ones turning into puppets,
There's a slow, slow train comin' up around the bend.
When You Going to Wake Up
God don't make no promises that He don't keep.
You got some big dreams, baby, but in order to dream you gotta still be asleep.
When you gonna wake up, when you gonna wake up
When you gonna wake up and strengthen the things that remain?
Counterfeit philosophies have polluted all of your thoughts.
Karl Marx has got ya by the throat, Henry Kissinger's got you tied up in knots.
When you gonna wake up, when you gonna wake up
When you gonna wake up and strengthen the things that remain?
You got innocent men in jail, your insane asylums are filled,
You got unrighteous doctors dealing drugs that'll never cure your ills.
When you gonna wake up, when you gonna wake up
When you gonna wake up and strengthen the things that remain?
You got men who can't hold their peace and women who can't control their tongues,
The rich seduce the poor and the old are seduced by the young.
When you gonna wake up, when you gonna wake up
When you gonna wake up and strengthen the things that remain?
Adulterers in churches and pornography in the schools,
You got gangsters in power and lawbreakers making rules.
When you gonna wake up, when you gonna wake up
When you gonna wake up and strengthen the things that remain?
Spiritual advisors and gurus to guide your every move,
Instant inner peace and every step you take has got to be approved.
When you gonna wake up, when you gonna wake up
When you gonna wake up and strengthen the things that remain?
Do you ever wonder just what God requires?
You think He's just an errand boy to satisfy your wandering desires.
When you gonna wake up, when you gonna wake up
When you gonna wake up and strengthen the things that remain?
You can't take it with you and you know that it's too worthless to be sold,
They tell you, "Time is money" as if your life was worth its weight in gold.
When you gonna wake up, when you gonna wake up
When you gonna wake up and strengthen the things that remain?
There's a Man up on a cross and He's been crucified.
Do you have any idea why or for who He died?
When you gonna wake up, when you gonna wake up
When you gonna wake up and strengthen the things that remain?
"The only thing I knew how to do, was to keep on keepin' on, like a bird that flew, tangled up in blue." A brillant musical artist. And AFAIK an honest man. My other favorite song of his ends: "And I'll stand over your grave 'til I'm sure that you're dead." Not an anti-war song, a song about the human filth that try to make as much monetary profit as possible from wars.
My ex-girlfriend was an Iron Ranger and her dad went to high school with Bob Dylan. Her dad is your typical hard-working blue-collar guy.
One night, him and I headed up to the local watering hole in a small town near Hibbing. We were consuming many beers (he's an Iron Ranger - he knows how to drink) and I asked him if he knew Bob Dylan.
He says "Bobby Zimmerman? Yeah, I knew him. The guy was a real smart-ass. Me and a couple of other guys grabbed him and threw him in a garbage can back in high school".
The beer almost shot out my nose when he dropped that line on me.
Yes, this is a true story.
And the New York Times, of all people, should know better.
Fabulous! It takes your breath away.
Dylan refused to join in the anti-Vietnam war movement and took a lot of heat for it.
A mensch - a man of honor. FReegards
Wow! That's a great vignette, and so like him. He put his heart, which is substantial, into MOW. I remember the first time I heard it. Easily one of the best songs ever written. Thanks and FReegards.
Glad you liked the story. It was a really special day for me. The day of the show was my eighteenth birthday. I was spending the summer bumming around Europe on a Eurail Pass. I still have the ticket stub from the concert and a fantastic advertising poster for the show that I tore off a wall in some German town. Also on the bill was Eric Clapton who performed a fantastic set of his own. Later Clapton came back out during Dylan's encores and they did "Knocking on Heaven's Door" together.
Definitely under the influence...
Geez, you may not like my favorites (e.g., Bach, Beethoven, Nirvana, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Neil Young, George Jones, Frank Sinatra, Patsy Cline, Elvis Costello) and I would think none the less of you.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.