Bob Dylan

Fargo Music Icons Murals

Celebrating the intersection the Fargo-Moorhead community has had with four American music and cultural icons.

Duke Ellington
Recorded a Grammy Award winning album in Fargo

Peggy Lee
Started her decades long career in Fargo

Bobby Vee
Fargo teen took the stage in Moorhead the “Day the Music Died”

Bob Dylan
Nobel Laureate spent a summer washing dishes and playing music in Fargo

Bob Dylan (born May 24, 1941) 

420 Broadway, Bison Building side alley.

The music legend and Nobel laurate spent the summer of 1959 in Fargo as a busboy at the Red Apple Café (now Babb’s Coffee) and hung around downtown Fargo in what at the time was a hub of activity for regional musicians. After introducing himself as Elston Gunnn (with three ‘n’s) to Bobby Vee’s brother at Sam’s Record Land in Fargo (located on NP Ave near the current Ground Transportation Center) and fibbing he had recently been on tour with Conway Twitty, Vee auditioned him to play keyboards. He played with Vee’s The Shadows for a few area gigs before they parted ways. Dylan’s Fargo connection was short, but can be seen as a significant stop before heading to the University of Minnesota in the fall and then to New York in spring of 1960, as well as his notable in his connection to Vee. 

In the summer of 2022, Los Angeles based artist Jules Muck created a two-and-a-half-story mural of Dylan peeking out onto Broadway on the side of the historic former Bison Hotel. Dylan spent time hanging out in the hotel lounge, a gathering place for Fargo musicians in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

The Dylan mural recognizes his Fargo connection and pays tribute to Fargo’s long music history. Originally slated as a subject for the Fargo Music Icons project, Muck’s Dylan mural was not planned in connection with the project. Following it’s completion, Muck graciously has given permission to have her iconic graffiti art recognized in the series and this site.