Blowin’ In the Wind, Bob Dylan, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, 1963
Warning! Really popular hit song ahead.
I’m a little iffy on really popular hit songs, especially ones that supposedly ‘defined a generation’ and ‘changed the world forever’. Defining a generation is not what Dylan set out to do (or so he says now). It’s just an example of a generation finding something they like and defining it for themselves and then saying it was the other way around. Another thing I’m iffy about is message heavy early sixties folk music. I don’t think it was Dylan’s finest moment, I’m sorry. I think his political songs were a bit ham-fisted, as political songs are wont to be. I especially don’t like The Times They Are A-Changin’. It’s ok to have one or two socially responsible songs, but a whole album of them is just too, too much. And it’s not that I dislike the songs themselves – they’re perfectly fine songs all on their own. It’s that a whole album of political songs begs the quesiton, “who made you the expert on society’s maladies, Zimmy?”. I like my Dylan when he’s talking nonsense, not preaching justice.
How many roads must a man walk down
Before you call him a man?
Yes, ‘n’ how many seas must a white dove sail
Before she sleeps in the sand?
Yes, ‘n’ how many times must the cannon balls fly
Before they’re forever banned?
The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind,
The answer is blowin’ in the wind.How many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?
Yes, ‘n’ how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, ‘n’ how many deaths will it take till he knows
That too many people have died?
The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind,
The answer is blowin’ in the wind.How many years can a mountain exist
Before it’s washed to the sea?
Yes, ‘n’ how many years can some people exist
Before they’re allowed to be free?
Yes, ‘n’ how many times can a man turn his head,
Pretending he just doesn’t see?
The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind,
The answer is blowin’ in the wind.
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