Minnesota lawmakers want Dylan, Prince tunes as official state songs
Minnesota lawmakers have put forth a bill that would enshrine tunes from the state's two biggest musical legends as official state songs.
A bill introduced in the state Senate last week would make Prince's "Purple Rain" and Bob Dylan's "Girl from the North Country" Minnesota's official state songs.
"Purple Rain" is, of course, the titular track from Prince's 1984 soundtrack for the film of the same name. It was the centerpiece of the Minneapolis native's 2007 Super Bowl halftime show, which is often cited as one of the finest of all time. "Purple Rain" was also the last song Prince played in concert before his 2016 death, according to Variety. When Rolling Stone released its most recent version of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list, "Purple Rain" was ranked 18th.
"Girl from the North Country" is from Dylan's second album, 1963's "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan." It features the Duluth-born folk singer lamenting a lost love who lives "where the winds hit heavy on the borderline." He later recorded it as a duet with Johnny Cash to open his album "Nashville Skyline." The song was also featured in a trailer for "A Complete Unknown," the 2024 Oscar-nominated Dylan biopic starring Timothée Chalamet.
Minnesota already has a state song — "Hail! Minnesota," written in 1904 by two University of Minnesota students and officially adopted in 1945. The proposed bill would not replace "Hail! Minnesota," just add the Prince and Dylan tracks to the list.
Five senators authored the bill: Democrats Robert Kupec, Bobby Joe Champion (the Senate president) and John Hoffman, and Republicans Julia Coleman and Robert Farnsworth. After its introduction, it was referred to the State and Local Government Committee.
