Wabasha Street is in St. Paul.Meet me in the morning, 56th and Wabasha, Meet me in the morning, 56th and Wabasha, Baby, we could be in Kansas By the time the snow begins to thaw.
There is a 56th and Wabash (no 'a') in Chicago, not far from the University of Chicago. It would not be a nice place to visit, to put it mildly. People frequently shoot each other around there...
MELJOHN@MAINE.MAINE.EDU:
MORE ON INTERPRETATION: Look at 56th and Wabasha(w?) in Meet Me in the Morning I think we're fairly certain there is no such place in the real world (as the saying goes...) Nevertheless it suggests the Midwest (Wabash and Washtenaw are inportant streets in Chicago, Wakeshaw is a midwestern town), Native American (the aw sound. NA is BTW, IMHO, at *least* as insulting a term as "Indians"), and the fact that the city is large (large enough to have a 56th Street). By implication, that W street is long, probably going out to the city's edge and beyond. In such a lage city, such an intersection is both an *exact* location and anonymous. It's liable to be a large intersection and, probably having at least 4 corners, there's an element of uncertainty: will they find each other? All this ambiguity, uncertainty, and resonance makes me, at least, happy enough that noone's been able to pin 56th & W to a city. This way I can visualize 56th & W, and this situation, without having to know the "REAL" place. Ambiguity is so comforting, don't you think?
Loralee Ahmann:
Well, if you look in a city where Dylan spent much of his formative years, the Twin Cities in Minnesota, there is a Wabasha street that runs right down the heart of St. Paul; however, there is no 56th street that intersects with it. Just a 5th and 6th street. This may appear as an ambiguity to you but I always think he's talking about St. Paul. FYI Hwy 61 also runs through St. Paul.
Where is 56th and Wabasha? "Meet Me in the Morning" Dylan Mystery Solved from Zachary Drake, Feb 23, 2021