Thursday, August 20, 2015

Walls of Redwing

Life in reform school
Isn't so pleasant if the
School is Red Wing.

The Red Wing, Minnesota juvie hall that Dylan describes here sounds like it would have been a paradise playground for Jean Genet, all full of boys aged 12-17, every one of them treated miserably, like bandits and criminals. But apparently this is fiction. Still, Dylan writes a portrait of a teenage lockdown as if it were designed by the team that brought you ADX Florence.

- Dirty mess hall, march to brick wall. Weary/tired. No sing no talk.
- Iron gates, barbed-wire fence, electric fence.
- Keep your head down.
- Guards with clubs looking for a reason to beat you up. 
- Lonely nights, etc. Rain.
- "Oh, some of us’ll end up in St. Cloud Prison. And some of us’ll wind up to be lawyers and things. And some of us’ll stand up yo meet you on your crossroads, from inside the walls, the walls of Red Wing."



1 comment:

  1. Hello Robert, yes an unusual subject from inside Bob Dylan's Music Box http://thebobdylanproject.com/Song/id/716/Walls-of-Red-Wing Come and join us inside and listen to every version of every song composed or performed by Bob Dylan.

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