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"Blowin' In The Wind"
Bob DylanÌý
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Legend has it that pop music first found its voice in a Greenwich Village cafe, sometime during early April 1962, in the 10 minutes it took Bob Dylan to scrawl a handful of lines in a notebook.
"Blowin’ In The Wind" was inspired by the apocalyptic 1959 film On The Beach - and for the melody Dylan lifted a traditional tune from the anti-slavery song "No More Auction Block".
He was barely 21 years old, but Dylan’s song posed fundamental questions of the kind which threatened to divide America at that time. This was a nation obsessed by Cold War and the nuclear threat. A superpower riven by the Civil Rights movement, which was tentatively venturing into south-east Asia. A country led by youthful vigour, where the young were questioning the established values of their parents. Somehow, unwittingly, all those doubts, anxieties and paradoxes found their way into the three verses of "Blowin’ In The Wind".
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"It introduced poetryÌýand a question of issues into popular song." |
When Gil Turner, the MC at Gerde's Folk City, premiered an incomplete version of the song on 9 April 1962, some thought the imagery seemed strangely antiquated: lines about "cannonballs flying" incongruous in a world on the verge of nuclear war. And Dylan was also criticised for just asking questions - and not supplying any answers.
But Dylan had captured the zeitgeist and, within months, "Blowin’ In The Wind" was on everyone's lips. From being a joke figure (a self-confessed 'Woody Guthrie jukebox') bouncing around Greenwich Village, Bob Dylan was suddenly well on his way to becoming the most influential singer-songwriter in the history of popular music as Tim Rice explains:
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"There's usually one who's slightly better than the rest and that one happened to be Bob Dylan." |
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Calculatedly heritage ... the campfire harmonica, the old settler’s voice, the anachronistic imagery (when did these ‘cannin balls’ pose a threat - 1815?). The music plays its part - the return to the fifth note of the scale over the tonic major chord at end of lines 1 and 3 giving a plain, folksy feel. The placing of "The Answer ..." on the fourth note brings a real and sudden pathos to each refrain.
Dominic King |
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At the time, Dylan was uncertain of the song's resonance and almost pulled it off his second album, ¹ó°ù±ð±ð·É³ó±ð±ð±ô¾±²Ô’. Forty years on, and despite having copyrighted over a thousand compositions since then, "Blowin’ In The Wind" remains the song with which he is most identified, but Dylan remains dismissive. '"Blowin’ In The Wind" was a lucky classic,' he insisted, 'no more, no less than "Your Cheatin’ Heart".'
Within a year, Peter, Paul & Mary had taken "Blowin’ In The Wind" to no.2 on the American charts and over 60 cover versions followed, by everyone from Percy Faith to Marlene Dietrich. "Blowin’ In The Wind" had kick-started the folk revival, the protest song movement and Dylan’s career. The times they were, indeed, 'a-changin'.
Patrick Humphries
© 91Èȱ¬i
Recommended reading:
Down The Highway: The Life Of Bob Dylan - Howard Sounes (Doubleday, 2001)
The Complete Guide To The Music of Bob Dylan - Patrick Humphries (Omnibus, 1995)
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