North Country Blues

1964 song by Bob Dylan

"North Country Blues"

Song by Bob Dylan
from the album  The Times They Are a-Changin'
Released| January 13, 1964
Recorded| August 6, 1963
Genre| Folk
Length| 4:35
Label| Columbia
Songwriter(s)| Bob Dylan
Producer(s)| Tom Wilson

"North Country Blues" is a song by Bob Dylan, released on his third studio album The Times They Are a-Changin' in 1964. He also performed it at the 1963 Newport Folk Festival.

Its apparently simple format (ten verses of ABCB rhyme scheme), accompanied by only two chords (Cm & Bb) and subject matter (the perils of life in a mining community and its ultimate demise) appears to have been influenced by Woody Guthrie.[1]

## Background

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The Hull–Rust–Mahoning Open Pit Iron Mine in Dylan's hometown of Hibbing, Minnesota may have influenced "North Country Blues".

The specific location of the town is never stated. Daniel Epstein[2] recalled hearing Dylan introduce the song, in a performance in Washington D.C. in 1963, with the note that it was about the mining towns of Virginia. However, the title and references to "iron ore", "red iron", and "red iron pits" strongly suggests the location is on the Mesabi Range, a portion of the Iron Range where open-pit mining has predominated,[3] and where Dylan's childhood residence in Hibbing, Minnesota is situated.[4] Virginia, Minnesota is a town near Hibbing, that, along with Hibbing is also part of the Mesabi Iron Range, has shared boom and bust cycles due to changes in the mining industry, and may be the town that Dylan was talking about in the Washington concert.

## Lyrics

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The song opens with a deliberately conventional opening (Come gather round friends and I'll tell you a tale...). However, the darkness of the tale soon becomes apparent. Each verse contains at least one tragic situation or event:

1. Speaking of the current day, "the whole town is empty."
2. When the narrator was young, her mother "took sick" and obviously died, as she was "brought up by my brother."
3. One day her brother "failed to come home, the same as my father before him." (The implication is that they failed to come home from the mine, suggesting repeated mining tragedies.)
4. Her schooling was cut short "to marry John Thomas, a miner." (Dylan hides the fact that the narrator is a woman to the end of verse four.)
5. With three children, her husband's work was cut to a half-day shift "with no reason."
6. "The man" came to town and announced that mine #11 was closing.
7. The price of the mined ore is too high and not worth digging, because it's cheaper from South America where miners work "almost for nothing."
8. Total desolation, her husband is drinking heavily and the hours last "twice as long . . . as I waited for the sun to go sinking."
9. Her husband has started talking to himself, then one morning she wakes up to find him gone, leaving her "alone with three children."
10. The stores have all closed and her children "will go, as soon as they grow," because "there ain't nothing here now to hold them."[5]

Dylan hides the fact that the narrator is a woman to the end of verse four. The song ends bleakly, as by this time the woman has lost her husband, mother, father and brother; the mine is closed and the town is virtually abandoned; and soon her children will leave her in complete isolation and desolation.

According to writer M. Marqusee, this apparently restricting and morose format, referred to as a "formally conservative exercise in first-person narrative", Dylan manages to achieve significant tonal and expressive variation.[6]

## Cover versions

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In 1968, Joan Baez included a performance of "North Country Blues" on her Dylan tribute album Any Day Now.[7] The song also appears on the self-titled 2023 album of Bluegrass group Mighty Poplar.

## See also

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* Iron Range

## Notes

[edit]

1. ^ "North Country Blues: there is no solution. The meaning of the lyrics and the music | Untold DylanUntold Dylan". 2015-03-08. Retrieved 2021-01-03.
2. ^ Epstein, Daniel Mark (2011) The Ballad of Bob Dylan: A Portrait. Harper
3. ^ Mesabi Range#Mining operations
4. ^ Bob Dylan's Hibbing. Hibbing, Minnesota: EDLIS Café Press. 2019. ISBN 9781091782891.
5. ^ "North Country Blues | The Official Bob Dylan Site". www.bobdylan.com. Retrieved 2021-01-03.
6. ^ Marqusee, M (2003). Chimes of Freedom: The Politics of Bob Dylan's Art. The New Press.
7. ^ Any Day Now - Joan Baez | Songs, Reviews, Credits | AllMusic, retrieved 2021-01-03

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Bob Dylan songs by album (1960s)

Bob Dylan|

* "You're No Good"
* "Talkin' New York"
* "In My Time of Dyin'"
* "Man of Constant Sorrow"
* "Fixin' to Die"
* "Pretty Peggy-O"
* "Gospel Plow"
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* "House of the Risin' Sun"
* "Freight Train Blues"
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* "Highway 51"

The Freewheelin'
Bob Dylan|

* "Blowin' in the Wind"
* "Girl from the North Country"
* "Masters of War"
* "Down the Highway"
* "Bob Dylan's Blues"
* "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall"
* "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right"
* "Bob Dylan's Dream"
* "Oxford Town"
* "Talkin' World War III Blues"
* "Corrina, Corrina"
* "Honey, Just Allow Me One More Chance"
* "I Shall Be Free"

The Times They
Are a-Changin'|

* "The Times They Are a-Changin'"
* "Ballad of Hollis Brown"
* "With God on Our Side"
* "One Too Many Mornings"
* "North Country Blues"
* "Only a Pawn in Their Game"
* "Boots of Spanish Leather"
* "When the Ship Comes In"
* "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll"
* "Restless Farewell"

Another Side of
Bob Dylan|

* "All I Really Want to Do"
* "Black Crow Blues"
* "Spanish Harlem Incident"
* "Chimes of Freedom"
* "I Shall Be Free No. 10"
* "To Ramona"
* "Motorpsycho Nitemare"
* "My Back Pages"
* "I Don't Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met)"
* "Ballad in Plain D"
* "It Ain't Me Babe"

Bringing It All
Back Home|

* "Subterranean Homesick Blues"
* "She Belongs to Me"
* "Maggie's Farm"
* "Love Minus Zero/No Limit"
* "Outlaw Blues"
* "On the Road Again"
* "Bob Dylan's 115th Dream"
* "Mr. Tambourine Man"
* "Gates of Eden"
* "It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)"
* "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue"

Highway 61
Revisited|

* "Like a Rolling Stone"
* "Tombstone Blues"
* "It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry"
* "From a Buick 6"
* "Ballad of a Thin Man"
* "Queen Jane Approximately"
* "Highway 61 Revisited"
* "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues"
* "Desolation Row"

Blonde on
Blonde|

* "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35"
* "Pledging My Time"
* "Visions of Johanna"
* "One of Us Must Know (Sooner or Later)"
* "I Want You"
* "Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again"
* "Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat"
* "Just Like a Woman"
* "Most Likely You Go Your Way and I'll Go Mine"
* "Temporary Like Achilles"
* "Absolutely Sweet Marie"
* "4th Time Around"
* "Obviously 5 Believers"
* "Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands"

John Wesley
Harding|

* "John Wesley Harding"
* "As I Went Out One Morning"
* "I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine"
* "All Along the Watchtower"
* "The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest"
* "Drifter's Escape"
* "Dear Landlord"
* "I Am a Lonesome Hobo"
* "I Pity the Poor Immigrant"
* "The Wicked Messenger"
* "Down Along the Cove"
* "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight"

Nashville
Skyline|

* "Girl from the North Country"
* "To Be Alone with You"
* "I Threw It All Away"
* "Lay Lady Lay"
* "Tonight I'll Be Staying Here with You"

Other|

* "Talkin' Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre Blues"
* "Mixed-Up Confusion"
* "Positively 4th Street"
* "Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?"
* "If You Gotta Go, Go Now"

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