“Blowin’ in the Wind”  is a song written by Bob Dylan in 1962 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 rhetorical 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”.  In 1994, 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”.  (More from Wikipedia)

 

Another time (from Wikipedia), Bob Dylan connected up some of his early songs with the Second Coming:  “You know we’re living in the end times. . . .  The scriptures say, ‘In the last days, perilous times shall be at hand.  Men shall become lovers of their own selves.  Blasphemous, heavy and highminded.’ . . .  Take a look at the Middle East.  We’re heading for a war. . . .  I told you ‘The Times They Are A-Changin’’ and they did.  I said the answer was ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’, and it was.  I’m telling you now Jesus is coming back, and He is!  And there is no other way of salvation. . . .  Jesus is coming back to set up His Kingdom in Jerusalem for a thousand years.” 

(August 2014)

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But suppose Peter, Paul and Mary hadn’t had the same manager as Bob Dylan, or that they hadn’t liked “Blowin’ in the Wind”?  Or suppose it hadn’t been a hit?  Bob Dylan is an unquestioned songwriting genius, but his singing style is an acquired taste – if Dylan had to depend on his own recordings, the world might have already moved on by the time “Like a Rolling Stone” came out more than two years later. 

You think I’m kidding?  You think Bob Dylan is such a huge talent that he would have been a success no matter what?  Consider the case of Mimi and Richard Fariña. 

(March 2015)