Blowin’ in the Wind—Bob Dylan
#365Songs: Aug 7
All week long, I’ve been ruminating, reflecting, and raging about patriotism, nationalism, and national anthems.
As I wrap up this week’s suite of articles, I’d like to make a few things clear:
“Imagine” is a terrible song. Not only should no nation choose it as their national anthem—let alone the United States—it shouldn’t be played or performed at all, anywhere, ever.
“The Star-Spangled Banner” should not be the national anthem of the United States.
Songs that glorify violence should not be national anthems.
Power and money should be classified as Schedule I drugs. They are deeply, horribly addictive, and they change and ruin people.
Capitalism should never be embraced for the long-term. It’s a short-term fix to a short-term problem, and that’s it. Allowed to continue, it becomes almost uncontrollably destructive.
Now, with all that said, if we were to adopt a new national anthem in this country, it should be “Blowin’ in the Wind.”
A national anthem must, above all else, be singable by the masses in a way that is genuinely stirring and uplifting. The melody of “Blowin’ in the Wind” is exactly that. It is an almost inherently populist melody that draws on and conjures a collective human connection as it makes manifest its folk and spiritual DNA.
A national anthem must also cross lines. It must unite. “Blowin’ in the Wind” does this. Don’t believe me? Here’s Mavis Staples talking about hearing the song for the first time:
Oh yes, when he sang Blowin’ In The Wind, Pops said, ‘We can sing that song.’ Bobby was singing, ‘How many roads must a man walk down before you call him a man?’ and my father had literally lived that. He told us stories of Mississippi, where if he was on one side of the street and a white man on the same side was walking towards him, he’d have to cross over. We came home and learned Blowin’ In The Wind and Pops said he felt so good singing that song, he said, ‘this song is me’. Then we listened to A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall and Masters Of War and we sang them too.
The song has been sung in both Protestant and Catholic churches. It has been covered by Stevie Wonder, Johnny Cash, and Sam Cooke. It has been sung at civil rights marches. It was performed at Live Aid, Farm Aid, and the Concert for Bangladesh. It’s a song that repeatedly crosses every aisle.
A national anthem must also capture in some fashion the character of a nation and its people. “Blowin’ in the Wind” does this. America is a country of aspiration and desire, but also one of ambiguity and uncertainty. We’ve long claimed to know what we want to go, but we’ve rarely known how to get there. We know what isn’t us, but we’re not so good and defining what is us. We are a land of questioners and seekers. We have a complicated relationship with authority, seemingly driven to both challenge and establish it. We are a living dichotomy, pursuing peace and harmony through a legacy of violence and oppression. We are of the church, yet we struggle with and against the church. The Bible is everywhere in our culture, our language, our laws, our morals, and yet we are neither biblical nor holy. Above all, we are impatient, and this is often our greatest strength, for we are constantly asking, why not now? How long must this go on before we change it?
“Blowin’ in the Wind” captures all of this.
Perhaps a national anthem’s most important characteristic is that it feel timeless.
I believe “Blowin’ in the Wind” is as close to timeless as a United States national anthem could possibly be. There is no time in our history when it would not have been relevant, and it is as relevant today as it was when it was first written.
In the spirit of the lyric, I’ll ask a question: How long must we sing a song before we realize it is our song?
How many roads must a man walk down
Before you call him a man?
How many seas must a white dove sail
Before she sleeps in the sand?
Yes, and how many times must the cannonballs fly
Before they’re forever banned?
The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind
The answer is blowin’ in the wind
Yes, and how many years must a mountain exist
Before it is washed to the sea?
And how many years can some people exist
Before they’re allowed to be free?
Yes, and how many times can a man turn his head
And pretend that he just doesn’t see?
The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind
The answer is blowin’ in the wind
Yes, and how many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?
And how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, and how many deaths will it take ’til he knows
That too many people have died?
The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind
The answer is blowin’ in the wind
~
Start following the #365Songs playlist today, and listen to each new song with each new article!
