'Bliwin' in the wind' - analysis

The 1960s was the period of time, when many youthful people protested against governments, conflicts, hunger as well as wars. These people were often called ‘hippies’. Famous singer, Allen Zimmerman, also known as Bob Dylan belonged to this counterculture. Allen was singing since he was fifteen years old. Majority of his songs were written in 60s and 70s and they objected a lot of social problems from all over the world. Dylan’s music did not only amuse listeners, but also it contributed to their meditations about existence, meaning of our being, earthly goods, sense of conflicts, and human ignorance. One of protest songs is ‘Blowin In The Wind’. It has been written in 1962 and was recorded as well as released next year. This song became popular quite quickly, what is more, it became one of his most famous hot numbers.
Presently, the authors of the songs do not use advanced vocabulary, like it was a half century ago. Most of people who write songs use simple words, so that everyone is able to understand the message clearly.
‘Blowin In The Wind’ carries a deep message to the people. Nowadays humans are interested in themselves, so fate of another human beings is not important for them at all. Bob Dylan has outlined this problem by using rhetorical questions in each stanza of the song. In ‘Blowin In The Wind’ the author asks the listeners how much violence and suffering has to appear to change the attitude of the egoistic society. We are used to information about disasters, wars, robberies, murders, and different tragedies. The image of the society is apprehend in the questions like: ‘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?’. Those sentences suggest that nobody is concerned about others. We care about our families and ourselves. Other quotations are as follows: ‘Yes, 'n' how many times must the cannon balls fly Before they're forever banned?’. This section is about unjust wars and human beings attendance in those conflicts. We can easier destroy, kill and smash than create, succour or compose. Bob Dylan also refers to racism and slavery: ‘Yes, 'n' how many years can some people exist Before they're allowed to be free?’. In the sentence above, the author of the song explains that people with different colours of skin are discriminated and degraded by intolerant men. ‘Blowin In The Wind’ is timeless and noteworthy on account of contained message.
This song was probably written to interest people with problems of present inhabitants of the earth. The world was ‘divided’ between rich and poor humans. The dream of hippies and also Bob Dylan was to live in peace and freedom. He wanted to gain the ‘paradise’ like this by writing and singing songs concerning pervasive troubles, what affected every human being. Dylan, in his songs, tries to convince us, that we are not alone, and other people have their needs and plans, which they can not realise because of poverty, war or different unpleasant situations. He appeals to the society and wants us to open ours hearts to other people in need.
I think that his work was a quite good idea to the depressing situation in 1960s and 70s. A lot of young people called to peace all over the world. They were protesting against Vietnam War and humans starving in The Third World. In my opinion, protest songs were helpful and necessary. Without singers like Bob Dylan and counterculture where he lived, the world would not probably know about many cruelties and crimes, which affected many people on the Earth. All singers who were writing the sons like that caused to much better situation of the majority of the human. People started to help each other. The song ‘Blowin In The Wind’ is still up to date. The proof for the former sentence is that ‘Rolling Stone’ magazine published the list of ‘The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time’ in 2004, where ‘Blowin In The Wind’ was on the fourteenth place. The text from this song was used by many famous singers like Elvis Presley as well as Steve Wonder. What is more, it was also used in film productions, for example. ‘Forrest Gump’ or ‘Me, Myself and Irene’.
In my point of view, everyone should listen to this song, because it is one of the possibilities of changing our life for the better not only for us, but also next generation.