Powerful early Dylan, that is not heard as often as many others.
Dylan grew up on Northern Minnesota’s Iron Range, in Hibbing, which is just a few miles down the highway from Chisholm, where my Mom grew up, during the depression.
Her Dad emigrated from Slovenia, and became an iron miner. He was an early organizer of what eventually became the United Steelworkers.
During the darkest times, however, it was a dangerous business. Their home, where workers held surreptitious meetings, was firebombed, and Grandpa Joe was blackballed during the depths of the economic crisis, and could not work.
What saved the family was a sympathetic store keeper in the town, who told Joe, “As long as my family is eating, yours will eat, too.”
The stories I’ve heard from my Uncle Daryl and others about hard times on the Range rival pretty much anything you might have heard from Appalachia, just a lot colder – and Dylan’s song reflects that.
I haven’t been up there in a while. There might be a reunion next summer, I’ve heard. Chisholm was a setting for part of the movie “Field of Dreams”.
I understand The Range has become quite a hotbed for MAGA.