Is 'Blowin in the Wind' special?

Subject: RE: Is 'Blowin in the Wind' special?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 14 Feb 07 - 11:25 AM

Aha!!! That is a very cogent point.

Subject: RE: Is 'Blowin in the Wind' special?
From: GUEST,meself
Date: 14 Feb 07 - 08:08 AM

Many of us are every bit as flawed as the person in question - but we haven't produced a body of work that exposes some of our flaws to the world, and induces strangers to dig up and publicize the unflattering details of our personal lives ...

Subject: RE: Is 'Blowin in the Wind' special?
From: Scrump
Date: 14 Feb 07 - 07:53 AM

100!

Subject: RE: Is 'Blowin in the Wind' special?
From: Alec
Date: 14 Feb 07 - 03:34 AM

More accurately again,I WILL BE 45 this year.
Isaac Newton was a genius but I would not want him as a next door neighbour.
Gifted and admirable need not correlate.
Sloppy performances,disdain for the public,disinclination to acknowledge debts to others & blatant tendency to act in bad faith are all part & parcel of the Dylan experience.
That, however, does not invalidate his work. (Though it does make you want to give him a slap on occasion)

Subject: RE: Is 'Blowin in the Wind' special?
From: Charley Noble
Date: 13 Feb 07 - 10:14 PM

Someone is not counting my middle finger!

Charley Noble, a little late, being distracted by malfunctioning furnace

Subject: RE: Is 'Blowin in the Wind' special?
From: WFDU - Ron Olesko
Date: 13 Feb 07 - 09:32 PM

"But I know which of those I respect more"

Why do we have to tie our thoughts about the writer into our reaction about the song? If we knew who wrote "Barbara Allen", would that increase our descrease our feelings about the song?

Dylan doesn't seem like the kind of person whose company I would enjoy, but that isn't the point. I don't care whether he joined the "movement" or just had a nice one. Whether I respect him as a person or not was not the question being discussed and it has absolutely bupkis to do with the song.

Subject: RE: Is 'Blowin in the Wind' special?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 13 Feb 07 - 09:03 PM

We all find our own special brand of sacrifice and suffering. Dylan's was in coping with the outrageous dimensions of both his fame and many people's expectations of him.

Subject: RE: Is 'Blowin in the Wind' special?
From: GUEST,pat cooksey.
Date: 13 Feb 07 - 09:01 PM

In answer to the original question, YES.

Subject: RE: Is 'Blowin in the Wind' special?
From: Jack Campin
Date: 13 Feb 07 - 08:24 PM

Sure it might have "detracted from his mystique" if he'd been harassed by the cops like Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, or sacked and imprisoned like Ruhi Su, or tortured like Mikis Theodorakis, or killed like Victor Jara and Peter Tosh. But I know which of those I respect more.

Subject: RE: Is 'Blowin in the Wind' special?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 13 Feb 07 - 07:15 PM

For me, to say that the answer is "blowing in the wind" is to say this: There is an answer. It's out there somewhere. But it's elusive. To find it is like trying to catch the wind and hold it in your hand. No one knows where the wind comes from, and no one knows where it goes. The same is true of the answers to the questions Dylan asks in the song. It can also be seen, of course, as the winds of change...blowing away the old order, bringing in the new.

As in "Changing of the Guards" (an anthem-like Dylan song from 1979):

"Peace will come
With tranquility and splendor on the wheels of fire
But will offer no rewards (other) than her false idols' fall
And cruel death surrenders
with its pale ghost retreating
between the King and the Queen of Swords"

I always thought it would scan better this way:

"Peace will come
With tranquility and splendor on the wheels of fire
But will offer no rewards when the false idols fall
And cruel death surrenders
with its pale ghost retreating
between the King and the Queen of Swords"

So I normally sing it that way.

Subject: RE: Is 'Blowin in the Wind' special?
From: GUEST,Mike B.
Date: 13 Feb 07 - 06:33 PM

From Nat Hentoff's liner notes to "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan" -

"The first of Dylan's songs in this set is "Blowin' in the Wind". In 1962, Dylan said of the song's background: '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 wars... You people over 21 should know better.' All he prefers to add by way of commentary now is: 'The first way to answer these questions in the song is by asking them. But lots of people have to first find the wind.'"

Joan Baez has expressed disappointment that he never 'joined the movement'. But it might have detracted from the Dylan mystique had he actively participated in protest demonstrations back in the 60s.

Subject: RE: Is 'Blowin in the Wind' special?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 13 Feb 07 - 06:18 PM

I find Dylan's rendition to be by far the best, although the Peter, Paul, and Mary version is very good in its own right. Watching the video of Mary singing it in the early days (the black and white movie) is just riveting! Man, we really thought we could change the world back then. And we did change it...some.

Subject: RE: Is 'Blowin in the Wind' special?
From: NightWing
Date: 13 Feb 07 - 06:13 PM

"Try 45" says NightWing, who was also born in '62.

BB,
NightWing

On the topic, some poetry just doesn't click with some people. I happen to like "Blowin'" a lot, but it doesn't have the same emphatic resonance that it does for (some!) people 5-10 years older than me.

Subject: RE: Is 'Blowin in the Wind' special?
From: Jim Lad
Date: 13 Feb 07 - 05:14 PM

Thank You, Spaw: You brought us right back on to the topic.

Subject: RE: Is 'Blowin in the Wind' special?
From: catspaw49
Date: 13 Feb 07 - 05:12 PM

I think the fingers should not be an issue if you were born next to a big nuke plant...........

Spaw

Subject: RE: Is 'Blowin in the Wind' special?
From: Jim Lad
Date: 13 Feb 07 - 05:10 PM

And how many fingers must one man have before he can count that high?
I also think, Dylan's rendition was the best. As much for what he was at the time as for his delivery. (and it was his. Right?

Subject: RE: Is 'Blowin in the Wind' special?
From: Peace
Date: 13 Feb 07 - 05:10 PM

Bullshit! I was born in 1947 and I'LL be 47 this year. Did the math myself.

Subject: RE: Is 'Blowin in the Wind' special?
From: catspaw49
Date: 13 Feb 07 - 05:06 PM

And NONE of you can pass basic addition and subtraction!! Count on your fingers if you must but I think born in '62 makes you 45 this year..................

Spaw

Subject: RE: Is 'Blowin in the Wind' special?
From: Jim Lad
Date: 13 Feb 07 - 05:02 PM

Sorry: My eyes aren't what they used to be. So born in 62. Yep! Charlies right. You're 35. Guess I've just walked down a few more roads than you.

Subject: RE: Is 'Blowin in the Wind' special?
From: Charley Noble
Date: 13 Feb 07 - 04:49 PM

That would make Alec about 35?

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Is 'Blowin in the Wind' special?
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Feb 07 - 04:44 PM

Alec is not 62--Alec was born in '62--

Subject: RE: Is 'Blowin in the Wind' special?
From: GUEST,meself
Date: 13 Feb 07 - 02:27 PM

Jim Lad says: "Congratulations Alec. You're 62? Just twenty years older than myself."

Um, Jim Lad - if you're the same Jim Lad who was born in '55, I have some unfortunate news for you regarding your age ...

Subject: RE: Is 'Blowin in the Wind' special?
From: Charley Noble
Date: 13 Feb 07 - 02:19 PM

One of the best discussions of an important song I've seen on this website in months!

Yes, Alec, some of us were there, and that song still resonates with powerful feelings. Unfortunately, the damn song isn't obsolete. The question is still unanswered, swirling around, for those who listen.

I always assumed that Dylan had also picked up the "winds of change" rhetoric that was voiced in the 1960's.

I certainly didn't identify "the answer" with a flag but I can see how someone very patriotic might interpret the song that way. Interesting!

Peace-

Special thanks to your link to Mary Travers and the P's.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Is 'Blowin in the Wind' special?
From: Jim Lad
Date: 13 Feb 07 - 10:50 AM

Congratulations Alec. You're 62? Just twenty years older than myself.

Subject: RE: Is 'Blowin in the Wind' special?
From: GUEST,pattyClink
Date: 13 Feb 07 - 09:39 AM

Exactly, Wordsmith. It wasn't a pop song you heard on the radio and played on the record player for entertainment. It was an anthem people sang together, and it was part of the movement, not a little amusing tune.

Subject: RE: Is 'Blowin in the Wind' special?
From: Scrump
Date: 13 Feb 07 - 05:42 AM

So we know where you were when JFK was assassinated then, Alec - in nappies (diapers)! :-)

Subject: RE: Is 'Blowin in the Wind' special?
From: Alec
Date: 13 Feb 07 - 05:38 AM

Clearly a song that means many things to many people, then.
As Peace pointed out the fact that we consider it to still merit discussion 44 years on(which is nearly 2 generations,which is more than half a lifetime)must count for something.
Alec,
Who was born in '62.

Subject: RE: Is 'Blowin in the Wind' special?
From: Scrump
Date: 13 Feb 07 - 04:43 AM

Some interesting comments since I last looked at this thread yesterday.

Those who support the "US flag" argument seem to be trying to justify it based on Dylan's later persona and output. Like many a young rebel before him, he probably became part of the establishment later, and his musical output reflected that. (How much of a rebel is Mick Jagger or Rod Stewart these days?)

As I and others have said, the key to understanding the song's impact is to understand the political and social context of the time (early 1960s).

The "Freewheelin'" album (on which the song was issued) was the first Bob Dylan LP I bought (I didn't buy the 1st album until later, and I got all the others up to around 1970). That was my favourite album for the next few years and it's still my favourite Dylan album. But I have to admit the Blowin' In The Wind was never my favourite track, and to be frank, it was probably one of my least favourites on the album. When I started in folk clubs in the late 1960s a large part of my repertoire was Dylan songs, and I performed most songs off that album (even I Shall Be Free and Talking WW3 Blues!), but I don't recall singing Blowin' In The Wind much. I think even by the late 1960s, it had become a bit hackneyed and I was aware of that.

Subject: RE: Is 'Blowin in the Wind' special?
From: Wordsmith
Date: 13 Feb 07 - 04:14 AM

Boy, is this a trip down memory lane. I guess, to touch on my thoughts about the original question, it depends on whose version you like best. Mine was Peter, Paul and Mary's. I never cared for Dylan's voice. I was living in Chicago, right after the Democratic convention, and it was a truly remarkable place to be in. Richard Daley, the first, was mayor...and the Chicago police were like...well, storm troopers. To quote Dickens, It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.... I was fortunate enough not to get my head busted or myself, either, on any of the peace marches, sit-ins, picket lines, rallys, etc. I attended. Blowing in the Wind was just one of many anthems, we sung in between chants...but it seemed to be the one that transcended the generation gap that was extremely wide then. Maybe, as someone above said, because it was somewhat innocuous...i.e., old people didn't get it, so it could be safely sung sweetly when you were at churches trying to raise money for the peace movement. It is its ambiguity, I think, as well, as others have said, that keeps it current, no matter what the era...just as This Land is Your Land.
I want to thank the person who provided the YouTube link...I attended three PPM concerts in Chicago between '68 and '72, and they were very much like the ones portrayed. Judy Collins and Joni Mitchell, too. Was, still am a big Joan Baez fan, as well as the others, too. I think PPM's Great Mandala, I think that's the title, was a stronger anti-war anthem, but Blowing... has stood the test of time, and more people relate to it. I do think you had to have been there.
Before the Vietnam War, people on the U.S. mainland only heard about war from the radio, newspapers, or relatives, friends who'd been there. We ate the images on television for dinner! (Sorry, I forgot newsreels.) Did we accomplish anything? The answer, my friends, is blowin' in the wind...

Subject: RE: Is 'Blowin in the Wind' special?
From: Jim Lad
Date: 13 Feb 07 - 03:20 AM

Aimlessly withering in the breeze with little chance of being rescued or even noticed is truly blowing in the wind.
Flags my Celtic arse!

Subject: RE: Is 'Blowin in the Wind' special?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 13 Feb 07 - 02:27 AM

Yes, absolutely, a huge part of it revolved around what was called at the time in the media "the Generation Gap". Young people in the 60's and early 70's had a most extraordinary sense of themselves as a sort of nation apart, a positively tribal sense of separation from the older people, and the system was clearly run (as it always is) by the older people....so the young people felt at greatly at odds with the system. The draft and the Vietnam War added much fuel to that fire.

I lived through it, and I have never seen or heard of such a ferment among a youthful generation deeply at odds with their elders as occurred at that time. There was this incredible sense of shared identity and purpose among young people for about 10 years or more.

It had its good side and it had its bad side. On the good side, it stirred a great deal of creativity and idealism and helped to change society's attitudes toward race, religion, politics, war, gender issues, really almost every important issue you can think of. This led to a lot of positive change in people's philosophies.

On the bad side, young people became very arrogant and close-minded in many cases in their assumptions of moral superiority to older people, and they got sidetracked into deadends like drug use and promiscuity and general irresponsibility. (tune in, turn on, drop out)

It was pretty bizarre, and at the same time pretty intoxicating. The dreams we dreamed were spectacular. The mistakes we made were considerable. The victories we won were considerable too, but it felt like we had failed at the time. We changed the world, but not nearly as much as we had hoped to.

Yes, the divisions between old and young tremendously accentuated the impact of young singers like Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Phil Ochs, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Jimi Hendrix, the Rolling Stones, the Beatles and a host of others at the time.

I haven't seen anything even vaguely like it since. Things are much more fragmented now.

The $ySStem was badly shaken in the mid to late 60's by the youth movement. They've been pretty much in control since then, because they learned how to control the media...from the top down. Reporters don't go to war like they did in the 60's. They are "embedded" now. That means...they are controlled.

Subject: RE: Is 'Blowin in the Wind' special?
From: Jim Lad
Date: 13 Feb 07 - 01:59 AM

I was born in '55 so my recollection of all of this probably pales in comparison to you (mature) folks but tell me; Wasn't a huge part of what went on in the sixties, not a generation thing? Teenagers telling the establishment how to run the country at a time when anyone under the age of thirty was pretty well irrelevant. And isn't that part of the reason Bob Dylan had such an impact?

Subject: RE: Is 'Blowin in the Wind' special?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 13 Feb 07 - 01:46 AM

Well, he's got a couple of other "hate" songs too, but they're about more personal matters. ;-)

"Idiot Wind" and "Positively Fourth Street" come to mind. "Ballad of a Thin Man" is pretty venomous too and so is "Like A Rolling Stone", but they express something a little more akin to contempt than hatred.

"Masters of War" is the single most uncompromising antiwar statement that's ever been put to music, in my opinion, and it goes straight to the heart of the issue by focusing on those shadowy few at the top who control and instigate wars in order to make more money for themselves.

Subject: RE: Is 'Blowin in the Wind' special?
From: Barry Finn
Date: 13 Feb 07 - 01:28 AM

No KT, I haven't had a listen in awhile now but "The Times They Are A Changing" was & still is a master piece, IMHO. It's a song that really can't be murdered no matter who sings it. It's pretty raw emotion & better than that I always loved the "Masters Of War". It's probably his only hate song. The hatred of those who'd bring the fear on bringing children into a world & the curse that follows is an emotion to be reckoned with.

"And I hope that you die & your death it comes soon
And I'll follow your casket on a pale afternoon
And I'll watch as lowered int to your death bed
And I'll stand over your grave till I'm sure that you're dead".

Brilliant, pure & so simple, no mistaken the feelings here no complex symbolism. It ought to be rereleased along with a few others, they're as fit for today as they were way back when.

Barry

Subject: RE: Is 'Blowin in the Wind' special?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 13 Feb 07 - 01:17 AM

Wickipedia says this about Rod Stewart's version of "Forever Young": ("Forever Young" was an unconscious revision of Bob Dylan's song of the same name; the artists reached an agreement about sharing royalties.)

The Dylan song was recorded in 1974. The Rod Stewart song in 1988.

Unconscious? Yeah, maybe. It's clearly a reworking of the Dylan song, kind of like what would happen if someone had a really vague memory of a song they'd heard 15 years ago and they tried to recreate it from the fragments. Dylan's song was written for his children. Rod's sounds to me like it was intended to be one of those anthems that gets a stadium audience to all do "the wave" in unison. He's had a couple of others like that.

Subject: RE: Is 'Blowin in the Wind' special?
From: KT
Date: 13 Feb 07 - 01:02 AM

"When Will We Ever Learn"? That catches in my throat today as much as much as the answer is "Blowing In The Wind" did 40 years ago!

It catches in mine, too, Barry. As do the words to "The Times They Are A Changin'" Have you reviewed those lyrics lately? I never was much into the song the first time around, but recently discovered Finest Kind's rendition. Gulp.

Subject: RE: Is 'Blowin in the Wind' special?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 13 Feb 07 - 12:58 AM

You'd be surprised, "Bob", what I know about Mr Dylan after a lifetime of very keen interest in him and his works. I'm not going to waste my time explaining how and why, because it would be a kind of long story.

Yes, I did live in the USA during the civil rights struggle and most of the Vietnam War.

The atrocities committed by the South Vietnamese would never have happened in the first place if the USA had not gone in there with CIA and military people even before the French pulled out, because the frikkin' Catholic South Vietnamese corrupt joke of a USA puppet government would never even have come into being in the first place, and there would have been NO Vietnam War after the French left. Vietnam was one country before the French, it was one country during the French colonial rule, and it would have been one country afterward if the CIA and the US military had left it bloody well ALONE and allowed national elections to occur (as was planned and agreed upon on paper) after the French left! They chose not to. They chose to divide that country and prevent those elections from occuring. They and the Vietnamese people paid the price. At least a million people died in that war for absolutely nothing...except to get the USA out of that country.

It is now one country again.

Regarding the 2 songs: "Forever Young" by Dylan was written and recorded in '74. Here's the lyric:

May God bless and keep you always,
May your wishes all come true,
May you always do for others
And let others do for you.
May you build a ladder to the stars
And climb on every rung,
May you stay forever young,
Forever young, forever young,
May you stay forever young.

May you grow up to be righteous,
May you grow up to be true,
May you always know the truth
And see the lights surrounding you.
May you always be courageous,
Stand upright and be strong,
May you stay forever young,
Forever young, forever young,
May you stay forever young.

May your hands always be busy,
May your feet always be swift,
May you have a strong foundation
When the winds of changes shift.
May your heart always be joyful,
May your song always be sung,
May you stay forever young,
Forever young, forever young,
May you stay forever young.


"Forever Young" as recorded by Rod Stewart a decade or so later was written, supposedly, by him and 2 other people. Here are the lyrics:

May the good lord be with you
Down every road you roam
And may sunshine and happiness
Surround you when youre far from home
And may you grow to be proud
Dignified and true
And do unto others
As youd have done to you
Be courageous and be brave
And in my heart youll always stay
Forever young, forever young
Forever young, forever young

May good fortune be with you
May your guiding light be strong
Build a stairway to heaven
With a prince or a vagabond

And may you never love in vain
And in my heart you will remain
Forever young, forever young
Forever young, forever young
Forever young
Forever young

And when you finally fly away
Ill be hoping that I served you well
For all the wisdom of a lifetime
No one can ever tell

But whatever road you choose
Im right behind you, win or lose
Forever young, forever young
Forever young ,forever young
Forever young, forever young
For, forever young, forever young


Now, as you can see, there's more than a passing resemblance between the lyrics, but the Dylan lyric is far better organized in a structural sense, and its got a bit more content. Anyone who knows the 2 songs well, and I do, can hardly escape noticing that the Rod Stewart song is a deliberate imitation of the Dylan song. It's not a direct copy of it, but it is an imitation, and not a very good one.

If you're going to imitate a song that closely, you might as well at least do a good job while you're at it. I think the people who wrote the Rod Stewart one figured that 95% of the public wouldn't even remember the Dylan one...and they're probably right about that. After all, the attention span is getting pretty short out there these days.

Subject: RE: Is 'Blowin in the Wind' special?
From: Barry Finn
Date: 13 Feb 07 - 12:53 AM

Thanks Spaw for the hon. mention. It's getting a bit tiresome to be an aging radical, you'd think by now the bastards would give it up & make it easier on us elderly but no they gotta start "rolling out their guns again haroo haroo". Jesus, they still don't get it. How many songs does it take, how many roads must men walk & how many times must the cannonballs fly? And here we are, at it again, same old shit.

"And I would be interested in knowing how many of you Dylanologists lived through in the US and through the civil rights/vietnam era."

Well Guest Bob I lived through it, though sadly enough many didn't, I marched, I protested & I fought in the streets & did time for my part in it. My brother didn't fair as well. He fought & came home & has been lost ever since. You couldn't believe how angry it makes me to see it all happening again, for the same no good reason, power & greed! We are still asking the same questions today.

"BTW, it was a south vietnamese plan that dropped the napalm on the little girl, it was not an atrocity committed by the US military."

It's that the little girl suffered for no reason except that she was in the wrong spot at the wrong time, an innocent & those who were directing the death didn't give a sweet caring shit about her. It didn't matter who dropped the Balm it was ours & it was an awful act & it was for no good reason. "When Will We Ever Learn"? That catches in my throat today as much as much as the answer is "Blowing In The Wind" did 40 years ago!

Barry

Subject: RE: Is 'Blowin in the Wind' special?
From: KT
Date: 12 Feb 07 - 11:32 PM

Right on, Spaw!

There's nothing wrong with sweetness in delivery of a song, although I think of it more as gentleness. Gentleness can serve as an invitation to be introspective and reflective, and in that space, ask the questions that need asking. Sometimes that's a better place to seek the answers. Sometimes the gentleness makes us feel the pain of the way things are going even more deeply, thus moving us to say, "never again." Sometimes that gentleness is what it takes to provoke the fire that we saw in the eyes of PP & M. No doubt about their meaning when they sang those songs.

As for the meaning of the phrase, Blowin' In the Wind.....I could not presume to know what Dylan intended, but in my interpretation - As the wind is here, touching us all, nudging us, trying to get our attention....so are the answers.

Subject: RE: Is 'Blowin in the Wind' special?
From: katlaughing
Date: 12 Feb 07 - 11:26 PM

Did he ever. Thanks, Spawdarlin'...luvyakat

Subject: RE: Is 'Blowin in the Wind' special?
From: frogprince
Date: 12 Feb 07 - 10:54 PM

1. Spaw nailed it
2. What the hell does "pornous" mean?

Subject: RE: Is 'Blowin in the Wind' special?
From: GUEST,Bob
Date: 12 Feb 07 - 10:11 PM

And how do you presume to know what someone was thinking, what they were feeling at a particular period of their life. Were you there, did you live with him, discuss these things with him, did he tell you how he felt, what he thought? IMHO, some of ya'll seem to take yourselves and things in general way to seriously. And I would be interested in knowing how many of you Dylanologists lived through in the US and through the civil rights/vietnam era. And some of you seem to be pretty pomous. BTW, it was a south vietnamese plan that dropped the napalm on the little girl, it was not an atrocity committed by the US military. I gotta go, gotta change the words, chord patterns, evisceate the chorus and alter the tune of Amazing Grace and see if I can write a hit.

Subject: RE: Is 'Blowin in the Wind' special?
From: GUEST,Bob
Date: 12 Feb 07 - 09:51 PM

I am confused by the part about Rod Stewart and Forever Young. He "altered the chord pattern, altered and simplified the tune, eviscerated the chorus and took most of the lyrics, changed them slightly, added a couple more then mixed up the order of the lines."
WTF does all that mean? Did you ever read the part about Dylan not wanting to meet people cause they were always asking dumb ass questions about what a song meant?

Subject: RE: Is 'Blowin in the Wind' special?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 12 Feb 07 - 08:56 PM

Funny you should mention that. I go to a cafe that plays a blues program all the time...satellite radio or something. There was this blues song on by some blues singer, and it was a carbon copy of a Dylan song...but the words had all been changed. Whereas the Dylan song was about a rather complex theme, the blues song was some standard thing about the guy's negotiations with his woman. I can't remember which darn song it was now, but it just jumped out at me at the time and I thought it was kind of funny that someone would do that. They replaced some pretty meaningful lyrics with a whole brand new set of lyrics that were totally banal.

Another case of some very obvious "borrowing" of a Dylan song was Rod Stewart's blatant imitation of "Forever Young"...even using the same title as the original. He basically took Dylan's 1974 song, altered the chord pattern, altered and simplified the tune, eviscerated the chorus, and took most of the lyrics, changed them slightly, added a couple more, and then mixed up the order of the lines. This was a very shoddy attempt to pretend to have a new song on Rod Stewart's part, but it worked, and it was new musically speaking. The damn thing was a radio hit. (grin) I think it's lacklustre.

So my guess would be this: attempts to improve on Dylan's songs have generally not been too successful, thus far. I've heard some great covers, though. Sean Colvin does a great job on "You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go". Joan Baez does certain Dylan songs very well....such as "Farewell Angelina" and "Love is Just a Four Letter Word". She also added an additional verse to it, so I guess that's a rewrite. Hendrix's version of "All Along the Watchtower" was another really good adaptation of a Dylan song, by the way, although I don't know why he says "somewhere in the tall distance". He added the word "tall" to that. Strange.

I agree that folksongs should be open to development. Dylan himself has almost endlessly revamped and revised his older songs over the years, and I expect that others will do so as well.

To those who don't get that "Blowin' In The Wind" was an angry and passionate protest song...well, that's sad. Check out that link Peace provided. By God, that was a time, and Bob Dylan, more than any other soul alive wrote the songs that fired up the movement. Joan Baez has always said that, and don't tell me she didn't get out there and fight for her ideals. She's still doing so. Judy Collins always said so too.

If "Blowin' In The Wind" isn't literal enough protest for you, then listen to "The Times They Are A-Changin'". If that isn't literal enough for you, then listen to "Masters of War". Or try "Lonesome Death of Hattie Carrol". Or listen to "It's Allright, Ma...I'm Only Bleeding" (the song that protests just about everything in society).

If you can't see it, then you're the man who keeps looking up and never sees the sky. You're the one who turns his head and just doesn't see. You're the one who doesn't hear other people cry.

You think Dylan didn't care about that stuff when he wrote those songs? I think you're completely wrong about that. He cared about it right to the bone, and it's totally obvious if you listen to his voice when he sings, specially at the live concerts. He went with it full force for about 3-4 years, 3-4 very concentrated years, and then he started getting extremely uncomfortable with being the New Left's political icon. He felt he was being used by other people and he didn't want that. That's when he stepped away from the protest material and went into more personal songs and soon returned to electric music (which he'd played with great gusto in a series of high school rock bands). This was considered a betrayal by the folk establishment of the time. It was not a betrayal. It was a man trying to escape being put into a box by other people, and the actions of a man not content to rest on his laurels and keep doing the same damn thing over and over again till hell freezes over. He wanted to do something new and different.

Want to know what I think? I think that nothing beats Dylan's acoustic live performances in '65-66. I think he was at the absolute top of his craft then, and I think his finest writing (arguably) was on the 1965 album "Bringing It All Back Home". I love the electric stuff that came in the next 2 albums too, but Dylan alone with just an acoustic guitar and a harmonica was the ultimate and you could hear the words a lot clearer that way. It was more intimate. So I understand, what the folk audience was upset about at the time... Still, for him at that time it had become very boring to keep doing that. He wanted to work with a band. I can understand why he would've felt that way too.

Some people are happy to just keep doing the same thing. Others have to move on.

Subject: RE: Is 'Blowin in the Wind' special?
From: GUEST,mickburke
Date: 12 Feb 07 - 08:02 PM

" I guess it depends on how you define the term "folksong". How do you define it? "
Little Hawk ,I suppose that's a million dollar question. I wouldn't be able to define what a folksong is ,but think I usually recognize one if I hear one . Euan MacColl ,Johnny Cash , mudcat's own Jim Maclean , Pete St John ,Ralph McTell , they're all people who have written what I'd call folksongs - songs of the people ,for the people.
Dylan's songs are more arty ,but Blowin' in the Wind came close.
A folksong should in my opinion be open to development what has been called on this site "the folking process" .
But copywriting laws have stopped that unfortunately .You're correct about Dylan's right to use and improve folk songs, but what do you think would happen if somebody took one of Dylan's songs and attempted to improve on it?

Subject: RE: Is 'Blowin in the Wind' special?
From: catspaw49
Date: 12 Feb 07 - 07:54 PM

Thanks Bruce....That's it exactly!

Spaw

Subject: RE: Is 'Blowin in the Wind' special?
From: Peace
Date: 12 Feb 07 - 07:49 PM

This I think is the face of Mary you meant in your insightful post, Pat.

And it was never an act with that gal. She DID mean every word of it.

Subject: RE: Is 'Blowin in the Wind' special?
From: Peace
Date: 12 Feb 07 - 07:44 PM

TRight with you, Spaw. I heard the following 'youtube video' done live in 1971 in Washington. It got tears in my eyes, because as you said, we just keep doing the same shit over and over and fuckin' over again. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8U6Oh9uSY8

Subject: RE: Is 'Blowin in the Wind' special?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 12 Feb 07 - 07:38 PM

Tastes differ.

Not "the best version" - "the version I like best".

And the version of blowing in the wind I've rank as best would probably be people singing to keep their spirits up in a situation where it actually mattered. It's that kind of song.

Subject: RE: Is 'Blowin in the Wind' special?
From: catspaw49
Date: 12 Feb 07 - 07:36 PM

First, thanks to Hawk for the general Dylan explanations, no one does it better. Then to my old friend Barry for moving this into the real realm of understanding. Finally, if at this point you don't "get it"......that's okay of course. You didn't have to be here in the US at the time or involved in The Movement or an SDS member or a Vet Against the War or a SNCC worker to "get it".........but that helps. So as a favor to an aging and angry radical, try this.

Forget the song as often done, lyrically and sweetly. Covered by an incredibly broad range of artists, the universality of it became apparent, but let's skip all of those often silly versions and talk about what hooked the generation of radicals running amok as it were in the US at the time. We heard something different and it may have been what Dylan meant.....or not.

Get out the words and read them with a headful of anger. Read every line with the inflection of "How long is this shit going to go on?" Get pissed and read on! Now ask "Why the fuck can't the gawdamn government quit lying to us and end this fuckin' war?" Beat your hands on the table and chant "HEY-HEY...LBJ......How Many Kids Did You KILL Today?" Can you see the marine lying face down in the jungle mud?   See the little girl on the road with her clothes and most of her skin burned off? Now sing, "How many deaths will it take til he knows that too many people have died?" Can you see the fresh faces of four little girls in Birmingham now blown to bits? See the Blacks knocked to the ground and rolled along by Bull Connor's fire hoses? Now see if there is any sweetness left to sing the first line. "How many roads must a man walk down befrore you call him a man?"

PPM probably got the sweetness ball rolling because their harmonies and blends were so soaring and beautiful. But watch an early performance and see the looks on their faces, the hardness of Mary Travers' eyes and mouth, and tell me they did not see the anger. Hopefully now you can see the anger and feel it too and somewhere in there perhaps you can "get it" like many of us did then. The answer was blowin' in the wind and we mostly couldn't grab it and perhaps it was futile to try.........but we did.

For me, that's what it meant.

Spaw.......Aging Radical