Bob Dylan: "There Ain't Too Much I Can Say About This Song...."

Bob Dylan and Joan Baez, March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, August 28, 1963

Bob Dylan was only 21 on July 9, 1962 when he walked into the Columbia Recording Studios in New York to record a song to be included on his second album. The song, Blowin' in the Wind, brought him fame and recognition as one of the nation's leading folk poets in the twentieth century. The lyrics and Dylan's comments on the song were published in June 1962 in the folk journal, Sing Out. He said this:

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.

The music critic, Andy Gill, said this about the song in his book, Classic Bob Dylan, 1962-1969: My Back Pages:

Blowin' in the Wind marked a huge jump in Dylan's songwriting. Prior to this, efforts like The Ballad of Donald White and The Death of Emmett Till had been fairly simplistic bouts of reportage songwriting. Blowin' in the Wind was different: for the first time, Dylan discovered the effectiveness of moving from the particular to the general. Whereas The Ballad of Donald White would become completely redundant as soon as the eponymous criminal was executed, a song as vague as Blowin' in the Wind could be applied to just about any freedom issue. It remains the song with which Dylan's name is most inextricably linked, and safeguarded his reputation as a civil libertarian through any number of changes in style and attitude.

The song remains a poem for our times, perhaps all times.

Sources

Photo: 

U.S. Archives and Records Service, Rowland Scherman Collection

Text:

wikipedia.com, Bob Dylan entry

history.com

Egypt Moves Into The Future

Elliott Abrams, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and an adviser to George W Bush's administration, has some significant thoughts on the current situation in Egypt and the Middle East. Though our marines will not be in this fight, OTR keeps hearing "From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli" echo in his thoughts. Though our government has its faults, as all governments do, the United States remains the best hope for the free world and for those who want to be free. You can read Abrams's Washington Post column here. Let us pray that others in positions to affect policy do the same and follow through with actions to secure peace and liberty in the Middle East and throughout the world.

Money Really Does Move Away From Taxes

If you had any doubt about this post's title, here's a report by Arthur Laffer and Stephen Moore in today's Wall Street Journal that will answer the question. Mobility is a powerful component of freedom . Until the nanny state politicians control mobility, they really can't depend on taxing wealth to satisfy their appetite for spending money they don't have. Thanks to George Moneo at Babalu for the link.

A Pro-Fascist Dynamic

My freshman year in college, 1964-65, coincided with the birth of the Free Speech Movement at UC-Berkeley. It took a while for that movement to cross the continent and take root in greater Washington where it would merge, in short order, with the anti-war forces. In four decades, the term "free speech" has undergone an Orwellian transformation. Some - the learned Marxists - would say it was on schedule. To practice "free speech" on many campuses today means that what you say must conform with the wishes of the mob or you can't speak at all. This is why it is acceptable for an Ahmadinejad to be heard and a Netanyahu to be silenced. Edward Olshaker, writing at American Thinker, provides us with some background on this turn of events.

Again, I must return to a frequent theme I have addresses since beginning this blog in October 2008. That theme is the struggle between classical reason and revolutionary emotion on the national stage. That struggle has led some nations into serious pathology. It is a journey my county must avoid if we are to fulfill the intents of the Founding Fathers.

For a look at the Free Speech Movement today, go here. To read more about Mario Savio, the modern-day Rousseau who led the movement then, go here.

More On Migration To The Free States

In several posts I've mentioned economic issues as a factor motivating migration away from the nanny states. Here's a post from Moonbattery that addresses personal freedom and its impact on migration. The statistics are good news for those states where collectivist thinking has yet to take root. On the other hand, those who migrate to the free states always have the potential of bringing the nanny mentality with them. The classic example today is the "californication" of Nevada.

Escape From Paradise

Hugh Conner, British foreign service officer, finds himself crashed in the forbidding Himalayas, rescued, and taken to a lamasery. There, he finds his true vocation and wants to stay, however, his good friend wants to return to the world he knew and cannot do it without help. Conner agrees to leave with him, but once outside, finds that his only desire is to return to the Valley of the Blue Moon and its lamasery, Shangri La.

Many of you may recognize the above as a summary of James Hilton's novel, Lost Horizon. I thought about it this morning while reading a news story that 31 more Cuban exiles had arrived on U.S. soil near Turkey Point on Biscayne Bay. Most likely, the 28 adults and three children were transported by a smuggler at great cost to themselves - and Florida friends and relatives - and at high risk as well. The "dry foot rule" means they must be on our soil physically in order to stay. Being on a boat thirty feet from land means they are returned to Cuba. I cannot imagine the sorrow that situation would create.

Many leftists would tell us that, in spite of some difficulties, the 50 year old communist regime that these exiles left behind in Cuba was a paradise. The evidence readily available on any number of web sites would tell us otherwise, yet there seems to be a growing movement on our shores to reestablish closer official contact with this brutal dictatorship. True, the Cuban people no longer struggle under capitalism. Instead, they struggle to sustain a tiny wealthy ruling group and a much larger and far poorer population in a perpetual tension of the common denominator. No up. No down. Simply the pursuit of an equality of prosperity. What then motivates 28 adults, many of them too young to have known their country before communism, to risk all in an attempt to leave such a place? Family or friendship may be in play, but I would say they leave also to pursue freedom and actualization. The U.S. is their Valley of the Blue Moon. We are, after all, a nation of Hugh Conners. In our search for actualization in a free environment, sometimes we may chose loyalty and friendship over the security of Shangri La thinking that we can return at will. One must be careful, for the simple act of choice guarantees that there is no guarantee.

Did Conner return to his paradise? You need to read the book. I think our 31 Cubans have found theirs. Where will their choice for freedom and actualization take them? Anywhere they want. I wish them well. And I pray for swift liberation for those they left behind.

Thanks to Babalu for kindling these thoughts.

America's Diplomacy of Freedom is Over

William Katz's always insightful Urgent Agenda brought this Wall Street Journal article by Fouad Ajami to my attention this morning. Remember that Katz also contributes occasional articles on Hollywood and television history from the '50s to the '80s at Power Line. Such a good writer, too.