Bloomington, Minnesota

Everything Bloomington is known for

1 song mention this city 1 artist from here

Music in Bloomington

Songs About Bloomington

when doves cry
prince
45%

Artists From Bloomington

R
Remo Drive
rock Pop: 39

Rivers & Roads in Song near Bloomington

Songs written about the waterways and highways that run near Bloomington.

Mississippi River 135 songs Interstate 35 27 songs

Musical Heritage

First Avenue: The 'Purple Rain' Club RoadyGoat

1970

First Avenue, at 701 First Avenue North in downtown Minneapolis, is the star-spangled black nightclub at the heart of Prince's 1984 film 'Purple Rain.' The building opened in 1937 as the city's Art Deco Greyhound bus depot, ran 31 years as a station, and became a music club in 1970. Prince's team paid the venue a reported one hundred thousand dollars to film in the main room in late 1983, and the current stage was custom-built by Prince for the shoot. The chrome stars studding the exterior honor acts who've played there. Prince debuted 'Purple Rain' live on this stage in August 1983; that recording became the single. After Prince's death in 2016, the club's star for him was painted gold.

9.6 mi away

Paisley Park — Prince's Compound RoadyGoat

1987

Behind plain white walls at 7801 Audubon Road in suburban Chanhassen sits Paisley Park, Prince's 65,000-square-foot home, studio and creative sanctuary for nearly three decades. He recorded much of his later work here, hosted late-night dance parties, and rarely had to leave. Prince died here of an accidental fentanyl overdose on April 21, 2016, at age 57. Six months later, in October 2016, the compound opened to the public as a museum. An urn shaped like Paisley Park itself, holding his ashes, was displayed in the atrium and later moved into the building's vault, brought out briefly for anniversaries. The complex is unmarked from the road by design — Prince wanted the focus on the music made inside, not the building.

12.7 mi away

History of Bloomington

Minneapolis, MN RoadyGoat

Minneapolis, a city whose name itself whispers of water, has nurtured more than just flour and industry. The flow of the Mississippi, once powering mills that defined the city, seems to have also fueled a current of creativity and ambition in its people. From these streets emerged figures who’ve shaped the national landscape, whether in music, politics, or sport.

9.8 mi away

Crystal Was Named for a Lake, Not a Mineral RoadyGoat

1860

Crystal, Minnesota, sounds like it ought to sit on a vein of quartz, all sparkling mineral and geode. It doesn't. The name has nothing to do with crystals you'd dig out of the ground. The town grew out of Crystal Lake Township, organized in eighteen sixty, and the township took its name from a small local lake. That lake was called Crystal for one simple reason: its water was so clear, so clean, that early settlers described it as crystal-clear. The naturalist Warren Upham, who cataloged Minnesota's place names, recorded the same story for the state's other Crystal lakes, all named for the clarity of the water. So the "crystal" here is about a lake you could see straight to the bottom of, not a rock. A clarity of water, frozen into a name.

13.6 mi away

Mall of America

1992

The largest mall in the United States, built on the former site of Metropolitan Stadium where the Twins and Vikings played.

First Avenue

1970

Iconic Minneapolis nightclub featured in Prince's Purple Rain and launchpad for the city's music scene.

9.7 mi away

Historic Fort Snelling

1820

Military fort at the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers, sacred Dakota land, and site of internment during the US-Dakota War.

6.8 mi away

Minnehaha Falls

1855

Fifty-three-foot waterfall in Minneapolis made famous by Longfellow's poem The Song of Hiawatha.

6.7 mi away

Mill City Museum

1880

Museum built into the ruins of the Washburn A Mill, once the largest flour mill in the world.

9.8 mi away

Lake Harriet Bandshell

1888

The fifth bandshell on this site since 1888, hosting free concerts on the shores of Lake Harriet in the Minneapolis Chain of Lakes.

5.6 mi away

Everything Near Bloomington

79 stories, landmarks & places within ~20 miles — the same local lore RoadyGoat plays as you drive through.

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