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| - Echo Star Helstrom was Bob Dylan’s high-school girlfriend in Hibbing, Minnesota. She met Dylan (then Bob Zimmerman) in 11th grade, and they were romantically involved for about one year. Helstrom, a free-spirited blonde from a less-affluent section of town than the Zimmerman family, has been frequently cited as the inspiration for Dylan’s classic folk ballad Girl From The North Country. (This identification is far from certain, and other candidates for the girl from the north country are Bonnie Beecher, or perhaps no single person in particular.) Helstrom has also been seen as a possible inspiration for Dylan’s song Hazel, and perhaps for parts of his album Blonde on Blonde.
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| - Echo Star Helstrom was Bob Dylan’s high-school girlfriend in Hibbing, Minnesota. She met Dylan (then Bob Zimmerman) in 11th grade, and they were romantically involved for about one year. Helstrom, a free-spirited blonde from a less-affluent section of town than the Zimmerman family, has been frequently cited as the inspiration for Dylan’s classic folk ballad Girl From The North Country. (This identification is far from certain, and other candidates for the girl from the north country are Bonnie Beecher, or perhaps no single person in particular.) Helstrom has also been seen as a possible inspiration for Dylan’s song Hazel, and perhaps for parts of his album Blonde on Blonde. What influence Helstrom had on the young Dylan is unclear, although it could hardly have been negligible; Dylan’s youth has been one font of his inspiration, and Helstrom was certainly an important part of that. Dylan refers to Helstrom as "...my Becky Thatcher" in his memoir Chronicles Part One. Dylan also writes "Everyone said she looked like Brigitte Bardot, and she did.", which raises interest because Dylan (noted for obfuscation) stated in a 1961 interview "I dedicated my first song to Brigitte Bardot." And at one of Dylan’s first public performances ever, in his high school auditorium, he sang a song beginning "I got a girl and her name is Echo...". Toby Thompson’s 1971 book Positively Main Street argues that she did have considerable influence on Dylan Perhaps more important musically, Dylan also recounts in Chronicles: "One of the reasons I’d go [to Helstrom’s house]... was that they had old Jimmie Rodgers records, old 78s in the house." Dylan readily absorbed musical influences, and his very early music was heavily country-tinged; so Helstrom’s record collection, at least, seemed to have played a part in Dylan’s development. Helstrom appeared in Martin Scorsese's 2005 film No Direction Home.
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