One thought on “Bob Dylan: 6 “Blowin’ In The Wind” Versions From 6 Different Decades”

1. Egil; Thank you for this wonderful post. Bobby was well established as a singer of Woody Guthrie songs when he wrote “Blowin’ in the Wind.” This song was the anthem that separated the wheat from the chaff . Those of us who were plying the folk singers trade in the Village in those days witnessed an explosion that changed the world of music and the ancient troubadour tradition of songwriting forever. Yet when he appeared on the scene he deftly played the role of a wandering country bumpkin. Here’s an excerpt from my book, “This Singin’ Thing” that tells of my first sit down conversation with Bobby. I grew up in Hannibal, MO and was a lover of Mark Twain’s tall tales about Tom Sawyer, BeckyThatcher and Huckleberry Finn. This story from Bobby was also very well told.

   “He’d appeared on the scene in 1960 and started the rounds of the basket houses, clubs like the Café Wha’ where you could walk in off the street and play for tips. At that time he was singing Woody Guthrie songs in a voice that sounded like he had a mouth full of corn mush. He really did look like a homeless waif and rough as his singing was, I found it to be curiously engaging. One morning about a couple of weeks after he showed up in New York City he wandered into the Gaslight. I was having a morning blast of espresso and invited him to join me. He mumbled something like “sure enough” and sat down on the other side of the booth. I introduced myself, told him that I’d seen one of his performances, had enjoyed it and was interested in knowing something of his background. He fiddled with the brim of a crumpled old cap that was squished down on a very tousled head of hair and proceeded to unwind a most unusual ball of yarn. “I’m an orphan and I was raised on an Indian reservation in Gallup, New Mexico. I ran away to travel with the circus when I was sixteen. I hoboed around and rode the rails with Big Bill Broonzy. Then I hitchhiked to Memphis where I played piano for Elvis Presley.” As I was listening to these fanciful tales, I thought, this guy looks to be about 19 years old and these are really some wild stories. And as we later found out, that’s all they were, stories. But hey, they were good stories. Most of us who had been in the Village for a while took them with a substantial sprinkling of salt. But there were many who were believers. When the news surfaced that his real name was Bob Zimmerman from Hibbing, Minnesota, his fans would not have been more astonished if they had just learned that the Pope was not Catholic.” JRW

Comments are closed.