Lyrics for Blowin' In The Wind as interpreted by Jack

Blowin' In The Wind Lyrics
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, 'n' how many times must the cannon balls fly
Before they're forever banned?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind,
The answer is blowin' in the wind.

Yes, 'n' how many years can a mountain exist
Before it's washed to the sea?
Yes, 'n' how many years can some people exist
Before they're allowed to be free?
Yes, 'n' 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, 'n' how many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?
Yes, 'n' how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, 'n' how many deaths will it take till he knows
That too many people have died?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind,
The answer is blowin' in the wind.

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MrMojoRisin5552
05-03-2002

Rated 0 
This song, to me, is about how knowledge and enlightenment is right in front of us but we cannot see it (just like the wind.)
"how many times must the cannon balls fly
Before they're forever banned?" and "how many deaths will it take till he knows
That too many people have died?" are very clear anti-war messages and Dylans saying that people still don't realize that war is pointless.
Additionally, the line about the mountain washing to the see shows that nothing lasts forever, the line about people not being free shows that there is too much oppression in the world. He also talks about people turning their heads and pretending they do not see the trouble in the world. Dylan is saying that the answer to all these questions is right in front of us, yet we do not see it.




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CrzyGmOfPkr19
05-14-2002

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i like this song for many reasons. first, because it makes people think (well, anyone with half a brain). it raises many questions of morality in the world at the time... ie war, oppression, any sort of human rights violations. second, and it kind of goes along with the first, is that though he says "the answer to all these questions is right in front of us, yet we do not see it" (from MrMojo) he doesnt ever say what that answer is, thus provoking more thought upon the listener. Though the questions are all rhetoric, i believe there is one answer that will solve all of them. Love. yeah, it sounds all hippie-like, and it doesnt really seem like a dylan message, but this song was perfect for that time period. Dylan is, was, and always will be an extroidinary song-writer... one of the best there's ever been.

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BlackBasilSupply
05-14-2002

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Yeah, you guys are right...but I think it's more that people CHOOSE not to see the reality. It's like, they think we can't change it, so they try not to notice. For example, about the 'too many people have died'...everyone SEES that people are dying horrible deaths, but for some reason don't understand the severity.
It's kind of Bob's way of sayin' that yes, love is all that can change everything. And I agree with him :).

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BlackBasilSupply
05-14-2002

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Yeah, you guys are right...but I think it's more that people CHOOSE not to see the reality. It's like, they think we can't change it, so they try not to notice. For example, about the 'too many people have died'...everyone SEES that people are dying horrible deaths, but for some reason don't understand the severity.
It's kind of Bob's way of sayin' that yes, love is all that can change everything. And I agree with him :).

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retsyn
05-28-2002

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bob dylan is THE greatest songwriter ever. this song sums up a majority of the worlds problems and puts them in to question form. Dylan then goes on to give you the answer that all the answers are there, we just decide not take hold of them and turn our heads again

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apryl008
06-20-2002

Rated 0 
this is awsome.amazing.incredible.why dont people listen?

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retsyn
07-06-2002

Rated 0 
that's the beauty of the song. we know its there but we just refuse to act on it.

i kinda just had an epiphany, back in the early 1900's woodrow wilson tried to prevent future wars w/ the treaty of versailles. of course stalin and mussolini were both against him but he called world war one, "the war to end all wars" he saw this answer blowin' in the wind and tried to bring it to light but failed to do so. this shows some people can see this wind but the world in general is too involved in its own betterment to try and prevent future events which keep this world from being peaceful.
also another thing it reminds me of is books like '1984' in which it shows that a utopian society will never happen.

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Ciarán
08-04-2002

Rated 0 
Beautiful song.
Everytime I hear it, it's like the first time. I just listen, it's unbelieveble brillant.

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landingstill
09-23-2002

Rated 0 
denial

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thinkinghurts
10-27-2004

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This song actually isn't about the war...It's about Kennedy being shot. He wrote it right after he heard the knews of the shooting...Which by the way happened a few years before the war started.

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moldbyhand
11-14-2004

Rated 0 
If you sing folk music, you KNOW this song.

and I adore it.

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tupadjia
11-19-2004

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This is a response to "thinkingbyhearts". This song has nothing to do with Kennedy. Its clearly about war when the question, "Is it ever going to stop?", "Will there ever be no more wars?"
Reffering to "MrMojoRisin5552", this person is absolutely right. Nothing in this song links to Kennedy and everyone I talked to, mostly musicians, never said anything about Kennedy, mostly about war and reality.

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tupadjia
11-19-2004

Rated 0 
Response to "thinkinghurts", I appologize

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JoE][BoXeR
11-24-2004

Rated 0 
Best protest song ever written..

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purplehaze999
12-17-2004

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"thinkinghurts" ---- the Vietnam War was started long before Kennedy was assasinated. Kennedy had plans to pull out of Vietnam before he was assasinated. Love your username, so true!

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stephiphany
01-05-2005

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War isn't the problem, conflict is the problem. As long as the world is worth fighting over, people are going to fight. It's never going to be as simple as "love thy neighbor." So I think this song deserves to take a backseat to beautiful songs like "If you see her, say hello."

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KerryCherry1616
01-09-2005

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I'm not quite sure if this song is about war or Kennedy but I think that the first half of the song is about torture. And putting up with all these difficult tasks and never seeking happiness. The second half is about pure stupidity and ignoring all these terrible things. This song is deppressing but is marvelous at the same time. I love it. The answer is right in front of us, but we can't see it. We know it is there and we can feel it, but we can't describe it. And it kills us. Bob Dylan is so bold and I think we should all admire him.

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diseased_and_amused
02-24-2005

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I dont know if this song is about any specific incidents, but in general, I think Dylan is just addressing the horrors that people often refuse to see and those things that people live with everyday, and is just asking the question; why must we live this way and when will it end? Great song. It's harsh, but true how people are so blind to the suffering of others.

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sirpsycho85
03-01-2005

Rated 0 
amazing song, the part im not sure about is the refrain. what exactly does he mean by "the answer is blowin' in the wind"? My guess would be that he is saying the answer should be obvious (tho it is ignored)

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Detective
03-24-2005

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.

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osubuckeye420
05-04-2005

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Sirpsycho, I think it is the exact opposite...

Blowin in the wind, wind is something that we know exists, we feel it all the time, but we can't actually see it, we can only see how it impacts us (tornados, a light breeze, ect.)

It is definatly a thought provoking song if you really try to analyze it. The message is also ambigious to a certain extent as well. Is it anti-war, anti-oppression? When you first listen to it you figure that's the obvious meaning, but when I listen to it a second time I think something completely different.

I think it's about how some people get so caught up in leaving a "legacy" or "proving themselves"... the line about how many roads must a man walk, before he is called a man. It's almost like Dylan is trying to tell the world that it's really not necessary to always try to upstage ourselves, and as long as everyone is happy and loves eachother and is good to one another.

Definatly a powerful song, and I'm not even a folk fan at all, but Dylan was definatly a genius.

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flesther711
05-10-2005

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I have 2 historical comments (to retsyn and thinkinghurts). Neither Stalin nor Mussolini were in power during WWI. The Russian Revolution had not even taken place (Lenin was before Stalin too). Also, this song was written in 1962, which is the year before Kennedy was killed.
I agree with diseased_and_amused that it is a general song. Dylan was just making observations on the problems he saw in the world, not specific incidents, I think.

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nwallace
05-20-2005

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The BBC are currently running a documentart series about the history of Soul Music called Soul Deep.

Episode 2 "Gospel Highway" was about the cross over from Gospel to Soul with the main focus being on Sam Cooke.

In this they claim that Sam Cooke's final song was a response to Bob Dylans Blowin in the Wind.

Whether or not Dylans message was about segregation wasn't mentioned by Cooke apparently was stunned to realise that this was a white man singing about something that blacks didn't dare.

In this context "How many roads must a man walk down, before you can call him a man" reffers to the calling of Black Men "boy" by white oppressors.

On this note the song is about the oppressed and how even though they are something they are not recognised as being so.

Another way to phrase the question may be
How long will it be before a black man is called a man?

However the rhetorical questions open up a much wider range of things that can be considered.

Cannon Balls may reffer to war but they could also reffer to legal verbal abuse or legal segregation of "races"

THere are other questions there that can also reffer to all forms of oppresion. The mountain could be a current state and how long will it be until its eroded away?

I see it as a range of questions that reffer to the many unjust things in this world.

War and Oppression being jsut 2 of them

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mrjones
06-16-2005

Rated 0 
Dylan is truely a GOD, and this song proves it. The hippie anthem of the 60's, this song simply expresses an ideal of perfection - forgiveness, and most importantly of all, acceptness. I first heard this song in my car, listening to a tape freshly stolen from my father, "Bob Dylan's Greatest hits volume 1", and it truely changed my existence on this planet. Cannonballs should be forever banned, and killing in any form (including the death penalty) should be forever banned, and it it isn't, we should all cry "like a fire in the sun". Please stop killing, stop injustice, stop religion. I beg of you to stop the carpet that is moving under you. The vagabond who is rapping at your door, is standing in the clothes that you once wore. Strike another match and start anew, it's all over now baby blue. Forgive me, I'm drunk. Anyway, to continue with my contrived drunkended ramblings, I love Sabrina, so fucking much. Oh God, please help me, please make me fall out of love with her. Make promises by the hour, my love she laughs like the flowers, my love she laughs like the flowers, valentines can't buy her. There's no sucess like failure, and that failure's no sucess at all. Even the pawn must hold a grudge. My love winks, she doen't bother, she knows too much to argue or to judge. The wind howls like a hammer, the night blows cold and rainy. My love she's like some raven at my window with a broken wing.

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blue_meanie
06-16-2005

Rated 0 
To me this song is about the development of nuclear weapons,look at the lyrics verse by verse and at the end of each the answer is blowin in the wind i.e. when a nuclear bomb goes off and the radiation is carried by the wind.

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