The Story Behind “Blowin’ in the Wind” by Bob Dylan and the Nasty Rumor that Wouldn’t Go Away

As Bob Dylan gathered elements from Woody Guthrie and Hank Williams, the most important thing he took was speaking for the everyman. Early on, his biggest commercial success came from others singing his songs. It wasn’t until he shifted gears and added the rock backing that success came calling. With a melody taken from the spiritual “No More Auction Block,” the song became one of Dylan’s most covered songs. Let’s take a look at the story behind “Blowin’ in the Wind” by Bob Dylan.

I’m Only 21

Sing Out! magazine published the lyrics to “Blowin’ in the Wind” in June 1962 along with Dylan’s comments. “There ain’t too much I can say about this song except that the answer is blowing in the wind,” he said. “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. … 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.”

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

A Rumor

In November 1963, Newsweek magazine published an article containing the theory that Dylan had purchased the song from a Millburn, New Jersey high school student named Lorre Wyatt. The article even included Wyatt’s denial, but there was too much circumstantial evidence for the story to die. Wyatt did get the lyrics from Sing Out! magazine and falsely claimed to his classmates he was the author. They performed “Blowin’ in the Wind” before Dylan released it himself, leading Wyatt’s classmates to believe the story further. Several other factors fueled the rumor.

Dylan would visit his idol, Woody Guthrie, at Greystone Hospital in New Jersey, where Wyatt was a volunteer who was known for singing songs to the patients. Wyatt and Dylan both hung out in Greenwich Village at the same time, and Dylan didn’t publish the song until three weeks after he recorded it. In 1974, Mike Royko of the Chicago Daily News asked Wyatt about the rumor. Wyatt refused to comment, and his absence of a denial signaled to some that he was the author and had sold the song with the agreement he was to never talk about it as part of the terms. Several months later, he came clean in the New Times. He spoke of how the rumor gathered momentum the more he tried to downplay it. “I’d begun to make Pinocchio look like he had a pug nose,” he said.

Dylan spoke of the whole situation in his 2012 Rolling Stone interview. “Newsweek magazine lit the fuse way back when,” he said. “Newsweek printed that some kid from New Jersey wrote ‘Blowin’ in The Wind,’ and it wasn’t me at all. And when that didn’t fly, people accused me of stealing the melody from a 16th-century Protestant hymn. And when that didn’t work, they said they made a mistake, and it was really an old Negro spiritual. So what’s so different? It’s gone on for so long I might not be able to live without it now. F–k ’em. I’ll see them all in their graves.”

Yes, ‘n’ how many years can a mountain exist
Before it is 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

“A Change Is Gonna Come”

When Sam Cooke heard “Blowin’ in the Wind,” he was so moved that he was inspired to write his own anthem about racism in America. Although it was only a modest hit when Cooke released it in December 1964, “A Change Is Gonna Come” would become one of the most enduring songs of Cooke’s career and has been included in many of the best all-time song lists by different publications. Dylan performed the Sam Cooke classic in 2004 at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York.

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 ’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

Pope John Paul II

Dylan and his band played for Pope John Paul II in 1997 at the World Eucharistic Congress in Bologna, Italy. The Pope said, “You say the answer is blowing in the wind, my friend. So it is, but it is not the wind that blows things away. It is the wind that is the breath and life of the Holy Spirit, the voice that calls and says, ‘Come!’”

The Pope also addressed one of Dylan’s questions in the original song, “You’ve asked me: ‘How many roads must a man walk down before he becomes a man?’ I answer you: One. There is only one road for man, and it is Christ, who said, ‘I am the life.’”

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Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images