13 tracks
Side one "Blowin' in the Wind" "Girl from the North Country" "Masters of War" "Down the Highway" "Bob Dylan's Blues" "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall" Side two "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" "Bob Dylan's Dream" "Oxford Town" "Talkin' World War III Blues" "Corrina, Corrina" "Honey, Just Allow Me One More Chance" "I Shall Be Free"

Music sample

"Blowin' in the Wind"

13 tracks
Side one "Blowin' in the Wind" "Girl from the North Country" "Masters of War" "Down the Highway" "Bob Dylan's Blues" "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall" Side two "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" "Bob Dylan's Dream" "Oxford Town" "Talkin' World War III Blues" "Corrina, Corrina" "Honey, Just Allow Me One More Chance" "I Shall Be Free"

"Blowin' in the Wind"

Single by Peter, Paul and Mary

from the album In the Wind

B-side

"Flora"

Released

1963

Format

7" single

Recorded

1963

Genre

Folk

Length

2:53

Bob Dylan

Peter, Paul and Mary singles chronology

"Settle Down (Goin' Down That Highway)""
(1963)

"Blowin' in the Wind"
(1963)

"Don't Think Twice, It's All Right"
(1963)

"Blowin' in the Wind"

Single by Marianne Faithfull

B-side

The House of the Rising Sun

Released

1964

Format

7" single

Bob Dylan

Andrew Loog Oldham

Marianne Faithfull singles chronology

"As Tears Go By"
(1964)

"Blowin' in the Wind"
(1964)

"Come and Stay With Me"
(1965)

"Blowin' in the Wind" is a song written by Bob Dylan in 1962 and released as a single and on his album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan in 1963. Although it has been described as a protest song, it poses a series of rhetorical questions about peace, war and freedom. The refrain "The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind" has been described as "impenetrably ambiguous: either the answer is so obvious it is right in your face, or the answer is as intangible as the wind".

In 1994, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. In 2004, it was ranked number 14 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time".

Dylan originally wrote and performed a two-verse version of the song; its first public performance, at Gerde's Folk City on April 16, 1962, was recorded and circulated among Dylan collectors. Shortly after this performance, he added the middle verse to the song. Some published versions of the lyrics reverse the order of the second and third verses, apparently because Dylan simply appended the middle verse to his original manuscript, rather than writing out a new copy with the verses in proper order. The song was published for the first time in May 1962, in the sixth issue of Broadside, the magazine founded by Pete Seeger and devoted to topical songs. The theme may have been taken from a passage in Woody Guthrie's autobiography, Bound for Glory, in which Guthrie compared his political sensibility to newspapers blowing in the winds of New York City streets and alleys. Dylan was certainly familiar with Guthrie's work; his reading of it had been a major turning point in his intellectual and political development.

In June 1962, the song was published in Sing Out!, accompanied by Dylan's comments:

There ain’t too much I can say about this song except that the answer is blowing in the wind. 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 ... You people over 21, you're older and smarter.

...
Wikipedia