Should Minnesota have a new official state song? Or maybe two of them?
A group of five bipartisan state senators have introduced a bill that would make both Prince's "Purple Rain" and Bob Dylan's "Girl from the North Country" the state's official songs.
"This comes from a desire of one of my constituents who lives over by Detroit Lakes who is a huge Bob Dylan fan," explained Sen. Rob Kupec (DFL- Moorhead). "And so he would like to see 'The Girl From the North Country' as listed as an official state song for Minnesota and then he also realizes that right up there with Dylan is Prince, and that Prince should probably also be included on a list of state songs."
If you're wondering, the state has had an official state song since 1945. The current bill would not replace "Hail Minnesota", but would simply add the two more recent songs to the list.
The state's original state song, "Hail Minnesota," was first composed by Truman Rickard, a student at the University of Minnesota, in 1904. The song gained in popularity and was sung at football games. A variation of the song is used by the University of Minnesota Marching Band.
As for "Purple Rain" and "Girl From the North Country," their stories are a little more well-known but both songs are clearly iconic works from iconic Minnesota artists.
The title track off the Prince soundtrack album, "Purple Rain" was recorded during a benefit concert for the Minnesota Dance Theatre at the First Avenue nightclub in Minneapolis on August 3, 1983. Prince, who's from Minneapolis, originally penned the song for singer Stevie Nicks, but ended up using it for the album and movie. Since that time, "Purple Rain" has been ranked number 18 on Rolling Stone's 2021 list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and is included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.
Prince died in 2016 at his Chanhassen, Minnesota home and studio of an accidental fentanyl overdose.
Hibbing, Minnesota native Bob Dylan wrote "Girl from the North Country" and recorded it in New York City in April 1963. It released the following month as the second track on Dylan's second studio album, 'The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan'. There's no clear answer as to 'who' this girl from the north country might be, but there are endless rumors about it. It could be Dylan's former New York City girlfriend Suze Rotolo. It's actually Rotolo on the cover of Dylan's 1963 album where the song first appeared. However, some Dylan scholars say it is attached to girlfriends he had before leaving for New York, such as Echo Helstrom who Dylan dated in high school, or perhaps Bonnie Beecher.
The song itself has been covered by other artists over two dozen times, and Dylan brought it back on a duet with Johnny Cash for his 1969 album "Nashville Skyline."
If this seems like a strange priorty for the State Senate, especially in a budget year, President of the Senate Bobby Joe Champion (DFL- Minneapolis) says both things can happen at the same time without distraction from the main priorties.
"I think it's possible for us to walk and chew gum at the same time," explains Champion. "It is not like we're spending a whole lot of time on this alone, but we can do both things, and I think it's all a part of the fabric of who we are."