Walls of Red Wing is a folk and protest song

Protest song

A protest song is a song which is associated with a movement for social change and hence part of the broader category of topical songs . It may be folk, classical, or commercial in genre...

, written by American singer-songwriter

Singer-songwriter

Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...

 Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...

. Originally recorded for Dylan's second album, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan

The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan

The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan is the second studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released in May 1963 by Columbia Records. Whereas his debut album Bob Dylan had contained only two original songs, Freewheelin initiated the process of writing contemporary words to traditional melodies....

, it was never used, and eventually attempted for his next work, The Times They Are a-Changin'

The Times They Are a-Changin'

The Times They Are a-Changin opens with the title track, one of Dylan's most famous songs. Dylan's friend, Tony Glover, recalls visiting Dylan's apartment in September 1963, where he saw a number of song manuscripts and poems lying on a table. "The Times They Are a-Changin'" had yet to be recorded,...

, but, again, this version was never released. The version recorded for Freewheelin eventually appeared on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961-1991

The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961-1991

The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 is a compilation box set by Bob Dylan, issued on Columbia Records, catalogue C3K 86572. It is the first installment in the Dylan bootleg series, comprising material spanning the first three decades of his career, from 1961 to 1989...

. The song describes a boys' reform school

Minnesota Correctional Facility – Red Wing

The Minnesota Correctional Facility – Red Wing is a state juvenile correctional facility located in Red Wing, Minnesota. As of July, 2010, it housed 111 juvenile males, operating at about half of its licensed capacity...

 located in Red Wing, Minnesota

Red Wing, Minnesota

Red Wing is a city in Goodhue County, Minnesota, United States, on the Mississippi River. The population was 16,459 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Goodhue County....

.

Composition

Dylan based "Walls of Red Wing" off of the traditional Scottish

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 folk ballad "The Road and the Miles to Dundee", which he may have learned during his trip to London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 in early 1963, from other aspiring folk singers, such as Martin Carthy

Martin Carthy

Martin Carthy MBE is an English folk singer and guitarist who has remained one of the most influential figures in British traditional music, inspiring contemporaries such as Bob Dylan and Paul Simon and later artists such as Richard Thompson since he emerged as a young musician in the early days...

. In his narration, Dylan goes to describe a juvenile detention center in Red Wing, Minnesota. However, the description is hyperbolical

Hyperbole

Hyperbole is the use of exaggeration as a rhetorical device or figure of speech. It may be used to evoke strong feelings or to create a strong impression, but is not meant to be taken literally....

, and goes to describe the students there as "thrown in like bandits and cast off like criminals", the walls of "barbed wire" and the fence with "electricity's sting", the guards holding their clubs like they were "kings", and the supposed "dungeon" of the building. Despite these harrowing descriptions, Red Wing was not the impenetrable "Gothic fortress" (as John Bauldie

John Bauldie

John Bauldie was a British journalist, noted as one of the foremost experts on the work of Bob Dylan. He was the editor of the Dylan fanzine The Telegraph, and was also on the launch staff of Q magazine. He died in a helicopter crash with the businessman Matthew Harding.- External links :* *...

 calls it) portrayed in this song.

Cover versions

Joan Baez

Joan Baez

Joan Chandos Baez is an American folk singer, songwriter, musician and a prominent activist in the fields of human rights, peace and environmental justice....

 covered this song on her 1968 album Any Day Now; Ramblin' Jack Elliot covered it in 1997 on his album Friends of Mine

Friends of Mine (Ramblin' Jack Elliott album)

Friends of Mine is an album by American folk musician Ramblin' Jack Elliott, released in 1998.Guests include Nanci Griffith, Emmylou Harris, Arlo Guthrie, Jerry Jeff Walker, John Prine, and Tom Waits.-Reception:...

.

External links

• Lyrics at the official Bob Dylan website