Bob Dylan had an eye that would notice ordinary people. He framed their lives with songs, and hung them where others could see them too. In the gallery of his career he hung them where the curious eyes of the world could look upon ordinary people too - and see them as if for the first time ever.
Yes Ken Running - who but Dylan would ever think of writing a song about a reform school? Possibly the first one in history. He's the people's bard, this good singer.
this one gives me goosebumps, it's just so entirely... perfect... melody, timing... a tired march through terror no child could express but somehow it's expressed here... perfectly, a testimony to the resilience of the human heart, to finally have the freedom to walk past the barbed wire and into whatever life you saved for yourself, for that very day of freedom.
Yes,,this song does give you goosebumps. I drove a city bus in central British Columbia for 34 years,,Our town,( city now) has a university . Met a student on my bus from Red Wing, he did'nt know that Bob had written a song about the place. Over the years i would make cd's for him with Bob songs on them. He still lives here, married a local girl and plays drums in a band !
I was a senior in HS in 1961 when I first heard Joan singing “Silver Dagger” before Dylan has burst on the scene. My future sister-in-law played guitar and sang Joan’s songs from the album that I think was just called “Joan Baez”. As a old geezer now, I still have that vinyl record.
WE WERE BORN IN 1953. WE GREW UP WITH KING BOB DYLAN. KING BOB IS OUR ELDER BROTHER. WE HAVE SEEN BOB SING LIVE OFTEN , BUT NOT OFTEN ENOUGH , AND NEVER OFTEN ENOUGH. MOST OF KING BOB'S SONGS ARE GREAT , AND EVEN MANY ARE EVEN VERY GREAT. THE MORE TIMES THAT YOU HEAR A KING BOB DYLAN SONG , AND THE MORE DEEPLY AND CLOSELY THAT YOU LISTEN TO IT , THE BETTER AND THE GREATER THAT THAT SONG BECOMES , IS , AND WILL BE FOREVERMORE. FOR US , IT IS A GREAT PRIVILEGE TO BE LIVING WITH KING BOB DYLAN DURING THE SAME TIME EPOCH. LONG LIVE FOREVER OUR GREAT KING BOB DYLAN FOREVER. STAY STRONG. -SENIOR EMERITUS PROFESSOR BJNG (BRIAN).
Just a magnificent young man ,full of wit and very impressionable .... Like a diamond in the rough ...turning heads everywhere he 'd go ,working his way up the ranks...
I lived just down the street from the training school in Red Wing most of my life & never knew he went there. First time I heard this song. Thanks for having it here.
Pretty sure he never set foot in the place. He has an ear for a resonant place name, caught on to that songwriting trick early and has used it endlessly, little to do with real life geography.
@@MarcelProust63 He stayed in Red Wing while on tour early in his career. His tour manager Victor Maymudes kept a pretty extensive journal during that time which his daughter published. He was inspired driving by the correctional facility to write the song. It is fictional, probably imagining what life was like inside. At this same time he wrote “Blind Willie McTell”, which he never used until about 20 years later.
When I was a young deckhand on a Great Lakes ore carrier out of Duluth-Superior, c. 1971, my equally young bunkmate from Minnesota told me that his cousin had been incarcerated in Red Wing, many years back -WITH (an obviously very young) Bob Dylan. I had no reason to doubt him. (Joan Baez did a nice recording of the song, way, way back.)
My dad attended that university for truancy. He never talked about it. He went on to a higher education at St Cloud prison but he did distinguish himself in WWII. Never knew Bob Dylan was an alumni.
us kids from the iron range in minnesota grew up with the lore and the threat of being "sent up" to Redwing. You always knew of someone's cousin or the new kid at school who had been there... I've been there many a time.
Hi Regina, do you mind me asking what country you are in ? I wouldn't have heard of Redwing if not for this song. Peace 🍃 PS: It first opened in the mid 1800s in Minnesota.
Red Wing is a city of about 15,000 in SE Minnesota. It's known for being the home of the Red Wing Shoe Company, there is an Indian casino nearby, and it has a charming old time river town feel to it. The state juvenile correction facility is still there, on the east part of town.
I was released from MCF-Red Wing on december 22 2007. And have never returned to those dark roads that leave you left in the dark. The feelings rung true in this song. Inmate OID 217952
Bob Dylan IS Elston Gunnn, Blind Boy Grunt, Zimmerman, etc. Finally settled on Bob Dylan after the poet Dylan Thomas, whom he admired. Singers, poets, writers often do that - just like actors and actresses change names or writers use pen names.
Yep, well done, many thanks. Like others it means 'The Road and the Miles to Dundee' to me, but it's great how he creates an anthem from a lovely but somewhat wistful old tune.
Danee Diorio In Minnesota at that time, that was very true. No actual crime necessary. Parents would go to a juvie judge and if there was a vacancy down there, the boy was cooked.
Well maybe but as I'm Scottish I recognised the melody of the "roads to Dundee" I'm happy he used it, he also he owns a house here, As his hearts in the Highlands where the Aberdeen River flows 😎
allan connochie yes Allan the tune is taken from 'The Road to Dundee' but did Dylan hear that song? I think that he heard the Irish song 'Carron Lough Bay' which is exactly the same tune. Question is: which came first? I would guess the Irish song, because as another great 'export' is would have crossed to Scotland & then subsequently taken to the USA by the Clancy Brothers & sung by them at the time when Bob was in the coffee house of Greenwich Village. Bob heard many if their Irish songs & being the 'sponge' he was (Martin Carthy 's words) he added the tunes to his words. Take for example the Clancy's 'Brennan on the Moor' = 'Ramblin' Gamblin' Willie; ' The Patriot Game' = 'With God on Our Side' ; 'The Parting Glass' = 'Restless Farewell'. Behan came down heavy on Dylan saying that he had stolen his tune for 'With God on Our Side' . Not so: many Irish tunes were written in the mists of the past & are just termed 'traditional' . Even Patrick Cavanagh's masterpiece Raglan Road was based on a beautiful old Irish melody. Oh, & I almost forget: as an ancient Dylan fan I'm often asked which concert I would most liked to have attended & the answer would always be the same: NY Town Hall 12.4.1963, because along with this masterpiece it includes the amazing one-off performance of 'Dusty Old Fairgrounds' (see reviews of that song elsewhere on here). Sad I missed that show, but check it out in full on the CD 'Stolen Moments' .
@@colingroves2246 a bit late here but the road and the miles to dundee was written before the road to carlough. the parting glass is scottish also.there are other scots sangs that also influenced dylan. look up dylan sangs of scots origins.irish music only started in the late 50s early 60s when bands like the clancies adopted the scottish style and many scottish sangs and also english sangs .scots music is a lot older. you will find many irish sangs are actually scottish,old and new. also 100s of scottish fiddle tunes.
My mother flipped a house and earned some thousands of dollars and I earned half my tuition from being good at mathematics to enable me to escape military school. Poor Bobby Dylan had a lot to do with his life. My high school did have cheerleaders and more than just a football team, --hockey, tennis, a chess team, track and basketball etc. Great school I went to for high school.
Yes, and it was played in a concert in the early seventies by The Buskers. They introduced it like "This is an old irish song. Wrote by scottish people". ;-))
I recently found an old photograph of a "boardwalk." Wooden slats upon which the inmates were walking in a group. There doesn't seem any use for having a boardwalk there, but there it is. It's hard to find photos from exactly that time. Red Wing changes and then restores old elements. It's hard to keep up. There is now an electric fence, installed in 2009. We can only wonder if an earlier version was there in the late 1950s. We do know that his parents followed up this time period almost immediately by sending him to a private facility in Pennsylvania. He did get caught stealing stuff frequently, and the slightest offense could get a boy sent to Red Wing if there was room. But at 18, they had to leave. At 18, he was in the Pennsylvania facility. Most importantly, a document found in the effects of his late girlfriend Suze Rotolo has offered unexpected new corroboration. She never revealed anything about this while she was alive. He also was very angry at a friend named Al Aronowitz, in whom he confided information about Red Wing in the 1980s. Aronowitz broke confidence and told the public and Bob never spoke to him again. Dylan has always been so fast and loose with his history that nobody believes him about this! Perhaps that's exactly how he wants it. But the details can be found with research.
I once knew a "night counselor" at this facility, who worked nights for years. Fed a lot of family members from the food he stole from the refrigeration/freezers.
Bob Dylan had an eye that would notice ordinary people. He framed their lives with songs, and hung them where others could see them too. In the gallery of his career he hung them where the curious eyes of the world could look upon ordinary people too - and see them as if for the first time ever.
Herman, That's his genius. Ken Running
Yes Ken Running - who but Dylan would ever think of writing a song about a reform school? Possibly the first one in history. He's the people's bard, this good singer.
You are a true poet Herman.
Not at all like the first time does he frame them. That would be interesting. His telling is ordinary and non original. I gave it 3 mins.
@@socrates1818show how you do better, mr smart
this one gives me goosebumps, it's just so entirely... perfect... melody, timing... a tired march through terror no child could express but somehow it's expressed here... perfectly, a testimony to the resilience of the human heart, to finally have the freedom to walk past the barbed wire and into whatever life you saved for yourself, for that very day of freedom.
or something like that
His ❤ is resiliant enough for the whole of humanity
To he who is given much, much is expected
❤️💝 👑
Haven't seen an Elston Gunn video in a while.
I work night shift in a mining camp and this song runs through my head constantly.
im working night shift as a lab tech. workers of the world unite!
Yes,,this song does give you goosebumps. I drove a city bus in central British Columbia for 34 years,,Our town,( city now) has a university . Met a student on my bus from Red Wing, he did'nt know that Bob had written a song about the place. Over the years i would make cd's for him with Bob songs on them. He still lives here, married a local girl and plays drums in a band !
Was in da womb on this one 😮
I'm greatfull that my parents introduced me to such amazing music. I'd hate to have never known.
I was a senior in HS in 1961 when I first heard Joan singing “Silver Dagger” before Dylan has burst on the scene. My future sister-in-law played guitar and sang Joan’s songs from the album that I think was just called “Joan Baez”. As a old geezer now, I still have that vinyl record.
wow i wish i lived during this time period i would give everything i ownd to see him live eternal music!
WE WERE BORN IN 1953.
WE GREW UP WITH KING BOB DYLAN.
KING BOB IS OUR ELDER BROTHER.
WE HAVE SEEN BOB SING LIVE OFTEN , BUT NOT OFTEN ENOUGH , AND NEVER OFTEN ENOUGH.
MOST OF KING BOB'S SONGS ARE GREAT , AND EVEN MANY ARE EVEN VERY GREAT.
THE MORE TIMES THAT YOU HEAR A KING BOB DYLAN SONG , AND THE MORE DEEPLY AND CLOSELY THAT YOU LISTEN TO IT , THE BETTER AND THE GREATER THAT THAT SONG BECOMES , IS , AND WILL BE FOREVERMORE.
FOR US , IT IS A GREAT PRIVILEGE TO BE LIVING WITH KING BOB DYLAN DURING THE SAME TIME EPOCH.
LONG LIVE FOREVER OUR GREAT KING BOB DYLAN FOREVER.
STAY STRONG.
-SENIOR EMERITUS
PROFESSOR BJNG
(BRIAN).
Just a magnificent young man ,full of wit and very impressionable .... Like a diamond in the rough ...turning heads everywhere he 'd go ,working his way up the ranks...
I lived just down the street from the training school in Red Wing most of my life & never knew he went there. First time I heard this song. Thanks for having it here.
Pretty sure he never set foot in the place. He has an ear for a resonant place name, caught on to that songwriting trick early and has used it endlessly, little to do with real life geography.
@@MarcelProust63 He stayed in Red Wing while on tour early in his career. His tour manager Victor Maymudes kept a pretty extensive journal during that time which his daughter published. He was inspired driving by the correctional facility to write the song. It is fictional, probably imagining what life was like inside. At this same time he wrote “Blind Willie McTell”, which he never used until about 20 years later.
Where was it? What state/county
When I was a young deckhand on a Great Lakes ore carrier out of Duluth-Superior, c. 1971, my equally young bunkmate from Minnesota told me that his cousin had been incarcerated in Red Wing, many years back -WITH (an obviously very young) Bob Dylan. I had no reason to doubt him. (Joan Baez did a nice recording of the song, way, way back.)
Thank God for bad harmonicas and Bob Dylan.
yes sir!
An early Dylan mini-masterpiece, very overlooked because this song was not commercially released until decades after it was conceived...
Wow ! Amazing sound quality. Thanks for posting this rare song.
Yeah, I was there that night. outstanding
Were you, really?
@@CraigStCyrPlus let him live it
My dad attended that university for truancy. He never talked about it. He went on to a higher education at St Cloud prison but he did distinguish himself in WWII. Never knew Bob Dylan was an alumni.
He wasn't really.
I live in a gated community named Redwing -- my friend sent this to me as a joke-- but i like the song as many of Dylans songs
Freedom
Everytime i hear this song it makes me remember everyday at redwing just waiting for oblivion.
This listener, a Minn. native, wonders how Bob at that early stage acquired enough knowledge to write such a compelling narrative.
us kids from the iron range in minnesota grew up with the lore and the threat of being "sent up" to Redwing. You always knew of someone's cousin or the new kid at school who had been there... I've been there many a time.
Amazing sound omg
Redwing.
Never heard of it.Maybe 'cause I'm in another country. But as he sings I remember the feeling of the prisons .
Hi Regina, do you mind me asking what country you are in ? I wouldn't have heard of Redwing if not for this song.
Peace 🍃
PS: It first opened in the mid 1800s in Minnesota.
@@michele-33 I live in south America. I Guess reformatories and prisons are all pretty much ali ke inasmuch as how you feel. Inside.
Although in my country ( argentina) there are prisons that are designd to exterminate inmates. Such as Rawson, Chaco ,Sierra Chica. And more.
Red Wing is a city of about 15,000 in SE Minnesota. It's known for being the home of the Red Wing Shoe Company, there is an Indian casino nearby, and it has a charming old time river town feel to it. The state juvenile correction facility is still there, on the east part of town.
poet extrordinaire,keep going Bobby.
I was released from MCF-Red Wing on december 22 2007. And have never returned to those dark roads that leave you left in the dark. The feelings rung true in this song. Inmate OID 217952
Please tell me more.About you.
Sounds the same as what being in prison does to a person. You only know how it feels if you've been there. On the inside.
So they still torturing kids there.. this goes way back
@@noneyabuiznezz hi Mark
How far back exactly do you mean? I thought that that kind of thing did not happen in the american dream.
Priceless!
This is about my hometown!
Bob Dylan IS Elston Gunnn, Blind Boy Grunt, Zimmerman, etc. Finally settled on Bob Dylan after the poet Dylan Thomas, whom he admired. Singers, poets, writers often do that - just like actors and actresses change names or writers use pen names.
Folk tradition is to use two first names
I believe the first version of the Dylan name was Dillon, the TV sheriff from Gunsmoke, a name he used back in Dinkytown MN, pre-nyc.
@@MarcelProust63 Yes, there's a documentary with a school friend of Bob's that agrees !
PS: I'll post the link if I can find it.
Great song .When BD was a happy young man. "Now he is a happy (I hope) old man.
I had no clue bob dylan made a song about my hometown! This is fucking awesome!
Yep, well done, many thanks. Like others it means 'The Road and the Miles to Dundee' to me, but it's great how he creates an anthem from a lovely but somewhat wistful old tune.
powerful last verse
been bleating on about this for this for years .. I'm from Paisley, Roads and miles was my ' very ' late grandads party song... bless you sir .
I just love him.......:-)
Stay out of trouble or you'll end up in Red Wing!!
Danee Diorio In Minnesota at that time, that was very true. No actual crime necessary. Parents would go to a juvie judge and if there was a vacancy down there, the boy was cooked.
There were no walls or gates in 1963 when he was in Red Wing... I know this because I have been there...
My dad was put there for truancy back in the 30s.
Thank you! Sure enjoying giving a listen tonight
The average casual Dylan fan knows nothing of these random masterpieces.
Give me 'Santa Fe', 'Let me die in my footsteps' and 'Johnny Todd'.
Poet Scholar and an hero of the highest order.His Royal Bobness.
Time is old Scottish song called The Road and the miles to Dundee
The tune is (not important) the words are Dylans.
Well maybe but as I'm Scottish I recognised the melody of the "roads to Dundee" I'm happy he used it, he also he owns a house here, As his hearts in the Highlands where the Aberdeen River flows 😎
@@nigelcroft6175 wouldnt the tune be important? It was important enough to lift..no reason to malign the origin of this
@@elig2714 It's folk music, the tunes almost always existed in a previous time. . . . That's why I believe the words are what matter.
Bob Dylan At His Very Best!!!
That's a good one!
BEAUTIFUL HEAVENLY
SUPER...
Elston Gunn was great. Legend say he died in 1963. Bob Dylan was only an impersonator.
Good song but like many of his early songs he only wrote the words. The tune is a Scottish song called "The Road And The Miles To Dundee"
allan connochie yes Allan the tune is taken from 'The Road to Dundee' but did Dylan hear that song? I think that he heard the Irish song 'Carron Lough Bay' which is exactly the same tune. Question is: which came first? I would guess the Irish song, because as another great 'export' is would have crossed to Scotland & then subsequently taken to the USA by the Clancy Brothers & sung by them at the time when Bob was in the coffee house of Greenwich Village. Bob heard many if their Irish songs & being the 'sponge' he was (Martin Carthy 's words) he added the tunes to his words. Take for example the Clancy's 'Brennan on the Moor' = 'Ramblin' Gamblin' Willie; ' The Patriot Game' = 'With God on Our Side' ; 'The Parting Glass' = 'Restless Farewell'. Behan came down heavy on Dylan saying that he had stolen his tune for 'With God on Our Side' . Not so: many Irish tunes were written in the mists of the past & are just termed 'traditional' . Even Patrick Cavanagh's masterpiece Raglan Road was based on a beautiful old Irish melody. Oh, & I almost forget: as an ancient Dylan fan I'm often asked which concert I would most liked to have attended & the answer would always be the same: NY Town Hall 12.4.1963, because along with this masterpiece it includes the amazing one-off performance of 'Dusty Old Fairgrounds' (see reviews of that song elsewhere on here). Sad I missed that show, but check it out in full on the CD 'Stolen Moments' .
@@colingroves2246 a bit late here but the road and the miles to dundee was written before the road to carlough. the parting glass is scottish also.there are other scots sangs that also influenced dylan. look up dylan sangs of scots origins.irish music only started in the late 50s early 60s when bands like the clancies adopted the scottish style and many scottish sangs and also english sangs .scots music is a lot older. you will find many irish sangs are actually scottish,old and new. also 100s of scottish fiddle tunes.
yeah bob i can fly in my minds
My mother flipped a house and earned some thousands of dollars and I earned half my tuition from being good at mathematics to enable me to escape military school. Poor Bobby Dylan had a lot to do with his life. My high school did have cheerleaders and more than just a football team, --hockey, tennis, a chess team, track and basketball etc. Great school I went to for high school.
Best man all ober
I think I love that Elston Gunn. Maybe more than Bobby Zimmerman
Woody & Your Boyo Amen
Thought the harmonica sounded alright!
Bob's parents were at this show.
i was in the first girls group what a f@#K awaking for someone who had been an the run for 1yr and 17yrs old they threw me in and called me a rebel
bob dylan was highly influenced by rabbie burns and scottish music. i believe he bought a house in strathspey the road and the miles to dundee 1908
what is the significance of Elston Gunn's name listed above?
It's the man singing.
one of his stage names Bob used before Dylan
..or even, Bob McDylan
Well I'm going to jail now today after being beaten and charged with peaceful resistance by the St. Pete florida police
Still better than St. Cloud in the 50s/60s.
sorry about the womans name on the name's i'm using my fiances computer
All my songs are protest songs - Bob Dylan
Yes, and it was played in a concert in the early seventies by The Buskers. They introduced it like "This is an old irish song. Wrote by scottish people". ;-))
Non credo sappiate il significato delle canzoni di Bob dylan o chi dice che é una pessima armonica... Bob è un poeta e non un imitatore
Wish I could make a career on pontificating about delinquents, as well as a bad harmonica... As if that's what his career came about too
He was 21 when he wrote this?
No he wrote this at 17 but only started performing it at 21 when he got into gigs
funny.....
Facts: MN DOC guards do not have clubs, there is no electric fence, it is not a reform school, but a prison. Wish this song was more factual.
Douchebag, he was writing about conditions in the late 1950s and early 1960s...
I recently found an old photograph of a "boardwalk." Wooden slats upon which the inmates were walking in a group. There doesn't seem any use for having a boardwalk there, but there it is.
It's hard to find photos from exactly that time. Red Wing changes and then restores old elements. It's hard to keep up. There is now an electric fence, installed in 2009. We can only wonder if an earlier version was there in the late 1950s.
We do know that his parents followed up this time period almost immediately by sending him to a private facility in Pennsylvania. He did get caught stealing stuff frequently, and the slightest offense could get a boy sent to Red Wing if there was room. But at 18, they had to leave. At 18, he was in the Pennsylvania facility.
Most importantly, a document found in the effects of his late girlfriend Suze Rotolo has offered unexpected new corroboration. She never revealed anything about this while she was alive. He also was very angry at a friend named Al Aronowitz, in whom he confided information about Red Wing in the 1980s. Aronowitz broke confidence and told the public and Bob never spoke to him again.
Dylan has always been so fast and loose with his history that nobody believes him about this! Perhaps that's exactly how he wants it. But the details can be found with research.
I once knew a "night counselor" at this facility, who worked nights for years. Fed a lot of family members from the food he stole from the refrigeration/freezers.