Bob’s Best Originals 1/100: “Blowin’ In The Wind”
Dylan’s 100 Best Original Songs: A Chronological History (Part 1 of 100)
The story is well known: how Dylan arrived in New York at the impressionable age of 20; how he quickly gained a reputation amongst the bohemian folk crowd then fomenting at places like the Gaslight Cafe; how he impressed John Hammon and Al Grossman enough to land a contract at Columbia; how he recorded his first album full of cover materials and immediately needed to return and release another album… a better album. You see, he’d started writing his own material, and he hit it off with a home run pretty early in the game: Blowin’ in the Wind.
Pete Segar first published the lyrics of Dylan’s new song in two magazines he helmed at the time: May 1962 issue of Broadside and the June 1962 issue of Sing Out! in which Dylan gives the following commentary:
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 [way] … 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 wars … You people over 21, you’re older and smarter. [1]
He recorded “Blowin’ in the Wind” on July 9, 1962, but the song would have to wait for The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan for its commercial release (in May of 1963). By then, it was already causing a stir. And Blowin’ in the Wind was almost immediately covered by some of the biggest names of the day.
Mavis Staples expressed bewilderment that this young man from a white background could so seemingly easily capture so powerfully the frustrated aspirations of those who were oppressed [2].
Sam Cooke was also impressed and released his own version on Sam Cooke at the Copa. While Albert Grossman, ever the opportunist — and managing both Dylan and Peter, Paul and Mary — saw the commercial power of the song, recruited the trio to record the song ASAP, managed it on a single take and took it all the way to the Billboard’s number two spot.
Dylan acknowledged — some fifteen years later in 1978 — the song’s melody comes from the African-American spiritual “No More Auction Block/We Shall Overcome,” telling 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.” [3]
[1] Quoted in Michael Gray (2006). The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia. p. 64
[2] Martin Scorceses (2006). No Direction Home
[3] John Bauldie’s sleeve notes The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961–1991
