On April 16, 1962, at Gerde’s Folk City in New York’s Greenwich Village, young Bob Dylan announced from the stage, “This here ain’t no protest song or anything like that, ’cause I don’t write no protest songs.” He then proceeded to sing “Blowin’ in the Wind.”
Contrary to Dylan’s pronouncement, his was the ultimate protest song, posing a series of fierce rhetorical questions about peace, war, social responsibility and racial prejudice, with an ongoing refrain abstractly promising that “the answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind.”
Peter, Paul and Mary’s hit 1963 version of the song became Warner Brothers Records’ fastest-selling single ever. “I wrote ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’ in 10 minutes, just put words to an old spiritual, probably something I learned from Carter Family records,” Dylan said…