3 Dinkytown

Chapter 3 Dinkytown The University of Minnesota in Minneapolis was Bob's ticket out of Hibbing. He was not much interested in college. But Abe and Beatty expected him to earn a degree and then return home. Perhaps he'd go into business with his father. That's what they hoped, at least. Bob had scouted out the university long before he enrolled. During his senior year in high school, he had talked his dad into buying him a used Ford. He would make the three-hour drive to

Minneapolis and spend long weekends hanging out in a neighborhood near the university called Dinkytown.

During his first year of college, he spent more time at a coffeehouse called The 10 O'Clock Scholar than in classrooms. Playing and singing folk songs was not a popular pastime in 1959. Most college kids liked smooth, bland singers like Pat Boone or groups like the Lettermen. The cooler students liked jazz. But there were only a few people in Dinkytown who were interested in folk music. One was "Spider" John Koerner. He and Bob became friends. They both played

guitar and were trying to write songs. Koerner thought that Bob had "a pretty voice," much different from the way he sounded later on. FOLK SONGS FOLK SONGS ARE THE AGE-OLD SONGS THAT PEOPLE FROM A CERTAIN AREA LEARN AS CHILDREN. THE SONGS

ARE PASSED DOWN IN FAMILIES. THE LYRICS MAY CHANGE OVER TIME. EVERY COUNTRY HAS ITS OWN FOLK MUSIC. MEXICAN FOLK SONGS ARE VERY DIFFERENT FROM RUSSIAN FOLK SONGS. A LOT OF AMERICAN FOLK SONGS COME FROM WEST VIRGINIA AND THE APPALACHIAN MOUNTAINS. PEOPLE FROM IRELAND AND ENGLAND SETTLED THIS PART OF AMERICA IN THE EIGHTEENTH AND NINETEENTH CENTURIES. THAT'S WHY MANY FOLK SONGS WERE ORIGINALLY ENGLISH OR IRISH SONGS. THEY OFTEN TELL A SAD STORY, MAYBE ABOUT HAVING YOUR HEART BROKEN OR BEING WRONGLY ACCUSED OF A CRIME. DURING THE LATE 1950S AND EARLY 1960S, FOLK MUSIC BECAME VERY POPULAR IN THE UNITED STATES. YOUNG MUSICIANS LIKE BOB DYLAN STARTED WRITING NEW FOLK SONGS. THEY OFTEN HAD STRONG MESSAGES ABOUT CIVIL RIGHTS AND JUSTICE.

Bob was always reinventing his life story, telling his new friends wild tales. Often, one story contradicted another. After a while, folks in Dinkytown didn't take any of them seriously. Soon Bob completely stopped going to class. He spent all of his time on his music. Bob was not a great guitar player yet. "Plenty of other kids were as good," a friend recalled. But "if you didn't see him for two weeks it would seem as if he'd made three years progress."