Blowin' in the Wind

"Blowin' in the Wind" is a song written by Bob Dylan and released on his album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan in 1963. Although it has been described as a protest song, it poses a series of questions about peace, war and freedom. The refrain "The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind" has been described as "impenetrably ambiguous: either the answer is so obvious it is right in your face, or the answer is as intangible as the wind".^[2]

In 1999, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. In 2004, it was ranked #14 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time".

Origins and initial response

In a 60 Minutes interview, Dylan said that he probably wrote "Blowin' in the Wind" in 10 minutes. Dylan originally wrote and performed a two-verse version of the song; its first public performance, at Gerde's Folk City on April 16, 1962, was recorded and circulates among Dylan collectors. Shortly after this performance, he added the middle verse to the song. Some published versions of the lyrics reverse the order of the second and third verses, apparently because Dylan simply appended the middle verse to his original manuscript, rather than writing out a new copy with the verses in proper order.^[3] The song was published for the first time in May 1962, in the sixth issue of Broadside, the magazine founded by Pete Seeger and devoted to topical songs.^[4] The theme may have been taken from a passage in Bound for Glory,where Woody Guthrie compares his political sensibility to newspapers blowing in the winds of New York City streets and alleys. Dylan was certainly familiar with Guthrie's work and reading this book had been a major turning point in his intellectual and political development.^[5]

In June 1962, the song was published in Sing Out!, accompanied by Dylan's comments:

There ain’t too much I can say about this song except that the answer is blowing in the wind. It ain’t in no book or movie or TV show or discussion group. Man, it’s in the wind—and it’s blowing in the wind. Too many of these hip people are telling me where the answer is but oh I won’t believe that. I still say it’s in the wind and just like a restless piece of paper it’s got to come down some  ...But the only trouble is that no one picks up the answer when it comes down so not too many people get to see and know . . . and then it flies away. I still say that some of the biggest criminals are those that turn their heads away when they see wrong and know it’s wrong. I’m only 21 years old and I know that there’s been too many   . . . You people over 21, you’re older and smarter.^[6]

In his sleeve notes for The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961-1991, John Bauldie writes that it was Pete Seeger who first identified the melody of "Blowin' in the Wind" as Dylan's adaptation of the old Negro spiritual "No More Auction Block". According to Alan Lomax's The Folk Songs of North America, the song originated in Canada and was sung by former slaves who fled there after Britain abolished slavery in 1833. In 1978, Dylan acknowledged the source when he told journalist Marc Rowland: "'Blowin' in the Wind' has always been a spiritual. I took it off a song called 'No More Auction Block' — that's a spiritual and 'Blowin' in the Wind' follows the same feeling."^[7] Dylan's performance of "No More Auction Block" was recorded at the Gaslight Cafe in October 1962, and appeared on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961-1991

Dylan critic Michael Gray has suggested that the lyric is an example of Dylan's incorporation of Biblical rhetoric into his own style. A particular rhetorical form deployed time and again in the New Testament and based on a text from the Old Testament book of Ezekiel (12:1–2) is: "The word of the Lord came to me: 'Oh mortal, you dwell among the rebellious breed. They have eyes to see but see not; ears to hear, but hear not." In "Blowin' in the Wind", Dylan transforms this into "Yes'n' how many ears must one man have ...?" and "Yes' n' how many times must a man turn his head / Pretending he just doesn't see?"^[8]

"Blowin' in the Wind" has been described as an anthem of the 1960s civil rights movement.^[9] In Martin Scorsese's documentary on Dylan, No Direction Home, Mavis Staples expressed her astonishment on first hearing the song, and said she could not understand how a young white man could write something which captured the frustration and aspirations of black people so powerfully.

Sam Cooke was also deeply impressed by the song and began to perform it in his live act. A version was included on Cooke's 1964 album Live At the Copacabana. He later wrote the response "A Change Is Gonna Come", which he recorded on January 24, 1964.^[10]

"Blowin' in the Wind" was first recorded by the Chad Mitchell Trio, but their record company delayed release of the album containing it because the song included the word "death," so the trio lost out to Peter, Paul and Mary, who were represented by Dylan's manager, Albert Grossman. The single sold a phenomenal three hundred thousand copies in the first week of release and made the song world famous. On August 17, 1963, it reached number two on the Billboard pop chart, with sales exceeding one million copies. Peter Yarrow recalled that, when he told Dylan he would make more than $5,000 (in 1963 dollars) from the publishing rights, Dylan was speechless.^[11] Peter, Paul & Mary's version of the song also spent five weeks atop the easy listening chart.

Critic Andy Gill wrote: "'Blowin' in the Wind' marked a huge jump in Dylan's songwriting. Prior to this, efforts like 'The Ballad of Donald White' and 'The Death of Emmett Till' had been fairly simplistic bouts of reportage songwriting. 'Blowin' in the Wind' was different: for the first time, Dylan discovered the effectiveness of moving from the particular to the general. Whereas 'The Ballad of Donald White' would become completely redundant as soon as the eponymous criminal was executed, a song as vague as 'Blowin' in the Wind' could be applied to just about any freedom issue. It remains the song with which Dylan's name is most inextricably linked, and safeguarded his reputation as a civil libertarian through any number of changes in style and attitude."^[12]

Dylan performed the song for the first time on television in the UK in January 1963, when he appeared in the BBC television play Madhouse On Castle Street.^[13]

Allegation of plagiarism

An allegation circulated that the song was written by a high-school student named Lorre Wyatt and subsequently purchased or plagiarised by Dylan before he gained fame.

This allegation was published in a Newsweek article in November 1963; while the story left the claims unconfirmed, it prompted much speculation. Several members of Wyatt's school (Millburn High) and community (Short Hills and Millburn, New Jersey) reported having heard his singing the song and claiming authorship a year before it was released by Dylan, or made famous by Peter, Paul and Mary. Wyatt even told his teacher that he'd sold the song for $1,000 and donated the money to charity, when asked why he had suddenly stopped performing it.

The plagiarism claim was eventually shown to be untrue. Wyatt had performed the song at school and elsewhere months before it was made famous, but not before it had been published and credited to Dylan in Broadside magazine. Wyatt finally explained his deception to New Times magazine in 1974. He credited his initial lie to panic that he wasn't pulling his weight as a songwriter in the school's male folk group, The Millburnaires.^[14]

Afterlife of song

The first line of the song ("How many roads must a man walk down?") is proposed as the "Ultimate Question", in the science fiction novel The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. It is also likely that this line was an allusion to Big Bill Broonzy's song, "When Will I Get to be Called a Man?"

In the 1994 film Forrest Gump, Jenny sings this song for a show in a strip club, and is introduced as "Bobby Dylan". The film's soundtrack album features Joan Baez's 1976 live recording of the song, from her From Every Stage album.

In 1975, the song was included as poetry in a new high school English textbook in Sri Lanka. The textbook caused controversy because it replaced Shakespeare's work with Dylan's.^[15][16]

During the Iraq War protests, commentators noted that protesters were resurrecting songs such as "Blowin' in the Wind" rather than creating new ones.^[17]

The song has been embraced by many liberal churches, and in the 1960s and 1970s it was sung both in Catholic church "folk masses" and as a hymn in Protestant ones. In 1997, Bob Dylan performed three other songs at a Catholic church congress. Pope John Paul II, who was in attendance, told the crowd of some 300,000 young Italian Catholics that the answer was indeed "in the wind" – not in the wind that blew things away, but rather "in the wind of the spirit" that would lead them to Christ. In 2007, Pope Benedict XVI (who had also been in attendance) wrote that he was uncomfortable with music stars such as Dylan performing in a church environment.^[18]

In 2009, Dylan licensed the song to be used in an advertisement for the British consumer-owned Co-Operative Group. The Co-Op claimed that Dylan's decision was influenced by "the Co-Op's high ethical guidelines regarding fair trade and the environment." The Co-Op, which is owned by about 3 million consumers, also includes Britain's largest funeral parlour and farming business.^[19][20]

On the title track of Kevin Ayers' Whatevershebringswesing, the last section of the third verse references the refrain to "Blowin' in the Wind":

But you won't find the answer

Even when the wind blows

'Cause the answer, my friend, is in front

Right there in front of your nose

Everybody knows, it's their nose

Cover versions

"Blowin' in the Wind" has been covered by hundreds of artists. The most commercially successful version is by folk music trio Peter, Paul and Mary, who released the song in June 1963, three weeks after The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan was issued. The trio's version, which was used as the title track of their third album, peaked at #2 on the Billboard charts.^[21] The group's version also went to number one on the Middle-Road charts for five weeks.^[22]

• Other covers have been by The Hollies, country guitar virtuoso Chet Atkins, Odetta, Dolly Parton, folk chanteuse Judy Collins, The Kingston Trio, Marianne Faithfull (1964 single), Jackie DeShannon, The Seekers, soul singer Sam Cooke, blues belter Etta James, Duke Ellington, Neil Young (with air raid sound effects), the Doodletown Pipers, Marlene Dietrich, Bobby Darin, Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Presley, Sielun Veljet, on their single "Blowin' in the Wind", Stevie Wonder (whose version became a top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1966), John Fogerty, The Hooters on their 1994 album The Hooters Live, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, and was performed by Jenny in the award-winning film Forrest Gump (sung by Joan Baez), and was lampooned in Me, Myself & Irene. The Me First and the Gimme Gimmes' version appears on their album "Blow in the Wind", a play on the title of the song.

• Nena - German superstar - covered the song on her 2007-album Cover Me.

• An instrumental arrangement by Stan Getz served as the B-side for Astrud Gilberto's 1964 hit single "The Girl From Ipanema" and Stanley Turrentine recorded an instrumental version on his album Common Touch (1968).

• A traveling exhibition called Bob Dylan's American Journey, 1956–1966, which was featured at the Experience Music Project in Seattle, contains an audio display with samples of dozens of different cover versions of the song, sung in numerous languages and from a variety of musical genres.

• The song has also been sung and recorded in German by Marlene Dietrich as "Die Antwort weiss ganz allein der Wind".

• Bender briefly sang this song when a magnet gets attached to his head on the Futurama episode "The Series Has Landed".

• In Bengali there has been a translation of the song recorded by popular Bengali blues singer Suman Chatterjee. It goes "Kotota Path" ("How Many Roads") in Bengali.

• The song was translated to Romanian by poet Adrian Păunescu and was sung by folk band Pasărea Colibri under the name "Vânare de vânt" ("Windhunting").

• The Italian version was written by Giulio Rapetti (better known as Mogol) and sung by Luigi Tenco with the title "La risposta (è caduta nel vento)" ("The answer (has fallen down the wind)").

• Tore Lagergren wrote lyrics in Swedish, Och vinden ger svar ("and the wind gives answer"), which chartered at Svensktoppen for two weeks during 1963, first as recorded by Otto, Berndt och Beppo, peaking at #8 on October 12, and by Lars Lönndahl during November 9–15 with sixth and seventh position.^[23] Both were released on single A-sides during 1963. This lyrics version was also recorded by Sven-Ingvars, as B-side for the single Du ska tro på mej, released in March 1967.^[24] With these lyrics, the song also chartered at Svensktoppen in 1970, with Michael med Salt och peppar.^[25]

• Hugues Aufray sang a French version, entitled "Dans le souffle du vent" ("In the blow of the wind"). Aufray has been known to adapt various international artists' songs to French, including several from Dylan's repertoire.

• Another French singer Richard Anthony recorded an adaptation of the song in French as "Ecoute dans le vent" (1964).

• The song was covered on American singer-songwriter Jay Brannan's latest album "In Living Cover.

• Gerard Quintana (former lead singer of the Catalan rock band "Sopa de Cabra") recorded a cover of this song in Catalan under the title 'Escolta-ho en el vent' (Hear it in the wind) for his album 'Els Miralls de Dylan' (Mirrors of Dylan)."

• Josh Sigurdson covered the song to critical acclaim in 2010.

• Brazilian singer Zé Ramalho recorded a version of this song in Portuguese called "O Vento vai responder" (The Wind will answer) on his 2006 album Zé Ramalho Canta Bob Dylan – Tá Tudo Mudando.

In addition, "Blowin' in the Wind" is one of seven Dylan songs whose lyrics were reset for soprano and piano (or orchestra) by John Corigliano for his song cycle Mr. Tambourine Man: Seven Poems of Bob Dylan.^[26]

Notes

References

• Gill, Andy (1999), Classic Bob Dylan: My Back Pages, Carlton, ISBN 1-8586-8599-0 
• Gray, Michael (2006), The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia, Continuum International, ISBN 0-8264-6933-7 
• Sounes, Howard (2001), Down The Highway: The Life Of Bob Dylan, Grove Press, ISBN 0-8021-1686-8 
• Williams, Richard (1992), Dylan: a man called alias, Bloomsbury, ISBN 0-7475-1084-9 

External links

• Lyrics