Duluth Doesn't Do Dylan

Mozart's birthplace in Salzburg.
Photos by Tim Winker.

Bob Dylan's early home in Duluth.

There is more celebration than usual this year in Salzburg, Austria. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, one of the most influential and prolific musicians of all time, was born in Salzburg 250 years ago. Though Mozart's memories of Salzburg are said to be less than friendly, the city has long had a strong tourism trade centering on its favorite son. Salzburg, a city of about 150,000 population, has named several streets in honor of Mozart and erected a statue in the old town. There are pictures or other references to the maestro at every turn.

Mozart's Geburtshaus, the house where Mozart was born on January 27. 1756, is constantly busy and there are little shops and street vendors catering to the throngs who come to visit. A few blocks away is the house where Mozart was raised. It has been converted to a museum to his art, and contains pianos and harpsichords and other music related exhibits from the 18th century.

Mozart died in 1791 at the age of 35, but nearly everyone in the modern world knows who he was and what he did.

The birthplace of Elvis Aaron Presley is preserved in Tupelo, Mississippi. The small house built by his father, Vernon Presley, was where Elvis was born on January 8, 1935. Though the Presleys lived there only a few years, it has become a mecca for Elvis fans. The house, along with a museum, gift shop and chapel, are located on Elvis Presley Drive.

Presley's influence is so strong that he is called "The King of Rock and Roll." Unlike most artists who are known by their last name, the word Elvis is all it takes to conjure up the image of the sneering, hip-shaking, singer who helped change the world of music in the 1950s.

Robert Allen Zimmerman - known to the world as Bob Dylan -- was born in Duluth, Minnesota, sixty-five years ago, on May 24, 1941. You would hardly know it by visiting the town of his birth. The Duluth City Council only recently got around to naming a street for him, and the house on 3rd Avenue East where he spent the first seven years of his life is just another rundown, low-rent property on the hillside.

Dylan was one of, if not the, most influential folk musicians of the 1960s. His songs "Blowin' In The Wind", "The Times They Are A-Changin'" and "A Hard Rain's A Gonna Fall" pushed for change in the status quo, and were quite successful to that end. Dylan's music was often sung at Civil Rights rallies and at protests against the Vietnam War. They opened the eyes of a generation to many of the wrongs of society and that generation was able to make changes for the better.

I'll admit I am not a rabid fan of Bob Dylan. I bought a couple of his early albums, but his voice and singing style always put me off. His lyrics, however, are pure poetry, and should live on for centuries, much like the music that Mozart wrote over 200 years ago.

Will Bob Dylan ever get the recognition he deserves in his hometown? Will the duplex at 519 North 3rd Avenue East ever become a museum to the man and the movement he inspired? Will there ever be a statue of Bob Dylan erected in the city of his birth?

It will happen someday, but probably not in the near future. The Duluth City Council doesn't seem to have foresight beyond a few years. There are opportunities for some enterprising souls to capitalize on the Dylan connection. I'm surprised it hasn't been going on for years.