{"id":9075,"date":"2024-03-11T20:25:14","date_gmt":"2024-03-11T20:25:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/?p=9075"},"modified":"2024-05-31T16:08:15","modified_gmt":"2024-05-31T16:08:15","slug":"answers-in-the-wind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/11\/answers-in-the-wind\/","title":{"rendered":"Answers in the Wind"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Answers in the Wind<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Bob Dylan\u2019s music wrestled with good and evil throughout his career, but his 1967 track \u201cAll Along the Watchtower\u201d carries a heavy warning for those who wait passively in the face of coming disaster.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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By Toby Jaffe<\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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\"Christoph Murer, The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, published 1630<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Bob Dylan recorded \u201cBlowin\u2019 in the Wind\u201d during the summer of 1962. It was featured a year later on Dylan\u2019s second studio album, The Freewheelin\u2019 Bob Dylan<\/em>. Inspired by the protest folk of Woody Guthrie, \u201cBlowin\u2019 in the Wind\u201d is a song that reflects the youthful idealism, traumatic awakenings, and rapid societal change of the early 1960s and the late 20th century more broadly. As is often the case with Dylan\u2019s work, the song is universal and existential and as such remains relevant today.<\/p>

How many roads must a man walk down
<\/em>Before you call him a man?
<\/em>Yes, \u2019n\u2019 how many seas must a white dove sail
<\/em>Before she sleeps in the sand?<\/em>Yes, \u2019n\u2019 how many times must the cannonballs fly
<\/em>Before they\u2019re forever banned?<\/em><\/p>

The answer, my friend, is blowin\u2019 in the wind
<\/em>The answer is blowin\u2019 in the wind<\/em><\/p>

As he will do throughout the song, Dylan uses the first verse to ask a series of questions, in this case related to struggle, suffering, and violence. We acknowledge the effort and strain of the \u201cman\u201d who walks \u201cmany roads\u201d and ask why his humanity and self-sacrifice have been erased. Similarly, we acknowledge the tireless effort of the \u201cwhite dove\u201d and protest that she has been given no time at all to recharge or relax. We know<\/em> that life on earth is precious and that \u201ccannonballs\u201d are tools designed only to end<\/em> lives\u2014so why do we keep using them?<\/p>

\u201cThe answer,\u201d Dylan of course suggests, is in a force of nature which transcends the pettiness of human bigotry and evil: \u201cthe wind.\u201d A moral arc that bends toward justice. There is a moral conscience here, a clear-eyed sense of right and wrong. Dylan is ultimately singing of God and His righteous judgment.<\/p>

The rest of the song carries on in much the same manner.<\/p>

How many years can a mountain exist
<\/em>Before it\u2019s washed to the sea?<\/em>Yes, \u2019n\u2019 how many years can some people exist
<\/em>Before they\u2019re allowed to be free?
<\/em>Yes, \u2019n\u2019 how many times can a man turn his head
<\/em>Pretending he just doesn\u2019t see?<\/em><\/p>

The answer, my friend, is blowin\u2019 in the wind
<\/em>The answer is blowin\u2019 in the wind<\/em><\/p>

\u00a0<\/em>How many times must a man look up
<\/em>Before he can see the sky?
<\/em>Yes, \u2019n\u2019 how many ears must one man have
<\/em>Before he can hear people cry?
<\/em>Yes, \u2019n\u2019 how many deaths will it take till he knows
<\/em>That too many people have died?<\/em><\/p>

The answer, my friend, is blowin\u2019 in the wind
<\/em>The answer is blowin\u2019 in the wind<\/em><\/p>

As has quite often been the case throughout Dylan\u2019s songwriting career, \u201cBlowin\u2019 in the Wind\u201d contains allusions to the Bible. Take, for instance, the line \u201cYes, \u2019n\u2019 how many ears must one man have\/Before he can hear people cry?\u201d, which is borrowed from Ezekiel 12:1-2, in which God says to Ezekiel, \u201cSon of Man, you dwell in the midst of the rebellious house, who have eyes to see but do not see, who have ears to hear but do not hear, for they are a rebellious house.\u201d<\/p>

There is a sense that the \u201cwind\u201d brings with it an all-knowing righteous moral conscience and that, because it is a natural force, it cannot be stopped nor controlled. The suggestion is that we\u2019d do best to follow it, for there is no other way. For once we have identified what is right<\/em>, it must triumph over what is wrong<\/em>.<\/p>

This would not, however, be anything resembling Bob Dylan\u2019s final word on wind\u2014nor morality, injustice, and the shape of history and time.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Dylan retreated from the public eye. In doing so, he freed himself to explore his artistry strictly on his own terms.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Fast forward four years. Dylan\u2019s artistry and unique, often abrasive personality had made him a major celebrity. He had been constantly on the road and in the public eye since 1963, dealing with a steady, perpetual stream of negative attention and hostility. By 1966, Dylan was a particularly aged 25 years old and had grown tired of all the commotion, hype, and hysteria surrounding him. After a motorcycle crash, Dylan retreated from the public eye. In doing so, he freed himself to explore his artistry strictly on his own terms.<\/p>

Dylan was, by then, an entirely different artist and human being than he was when he had penned \u201cBlowin\u2019 in the Wind.\u201d He had released five studio albums after Freewheelin\u2019<\/em>. The first, “The Times They Are a-Changin\u2019\u201d <\/em>in 1964, mirrored many of its predecessors’ protest themes and point of view. But when his next release, summer 1964\u2019s Another Side of Bob Dylan<\/em> stepped away from the broader political and social messaging of his previous two albums, some in the folk community and media believed that Dylan had \u201csold out\u201d and was prisoner to fame and money. This criticism only deepened when Dylan released his folk rock masterpiece Bringing it All Back Home<\/em> in 1965.<\/p>

Not only did many of the songs on Bring it All Back Home <\/em>feature electric guitars (a huge no-no for a \u201cfolk singer\u201d at the time), they were also more abstract and ambiguous. And if the lyricism on Bringing it all Back Home <\/em>was complex, surreal, and iconoclastic, the songs on 1965\u2019s Highway 61 Revisited<\/em> were all the more so. And after Highway 61 <\/em>came Blonde on Blonde<\/em>, another herculean album presenting a mishmash of uncanny allusions, lengthy epics about jilted lovers, and an ever-maturing understanding (or lack thereof\u2014an admission indicating maturity) of the world.<\/p>

In late 1967, after Dylan\u2019s accident-prompted retreat from the public, came his first release since Blonde on Blonde <\/em>a year and a half earlier. John Wesley Harding <\/em>was not like Dylan\u2019s previous three releases, nor was it really quite like the folk albums, such as The Freewheelin\u2019 Bob Dylan,<\/em> which preceded them\u2014unlike those earliest records, which featured nothing more than Dylan, his acoustic guitar and harmonica, this album featured light backing instrumentation like bass and drums. And whereas Blonde on Blonde <\/em>was an exuberant and manic post-impressionist painting, John Wesley Harding<\/em> was stripped-down, direct, and Rockwellian. It is deeply contemplative, reflecting the eighteen-month break between albums\u2014full of stories, mythology, and folktales.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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There is an existential quality here, as all seem vulnerable to whatever is coming, no matter their class or status.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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It is on John Wesley Harding<\/em> that we find \u201cAll Along the Watchtower,\u201d a song which, like \u201cBlowin\u2019 in the Wind,\u201d explores morality, injustice, and the shape of time. Wind, too, plays a central part here. But in keeping with Dylan\u2019s evolved style, the track is more complex\u2014and perhaps more mature\u2014than its earlier counterpart.<\/p>

The song is a story that involves two characters, the joker and the thief. The two men converse with one another as they journey towards a watchtower. As they talk, it seems that they are waiting\u2014on an existential level\u2014for, well, something. <\/em>Perhaps it is a kind of catastrophic event, maybe even the apocalypse; perhaps it is God and salvation. Either way, their waiting is marked by paralyzed passivity.<\/p>

In the opening lines, it is the joker who speaks:<\/p>

\u201cThere must be some way out of here,\u201d said the joker to the thief,
<\/em>\u201cThere\u2019s too much confusion, I can\u2019t get no relief!
<\/em>Businessmen, they drink my wine, plowmen dig my earth\u2026
<\/em>None of them along the line know what any of it is worth!\u201d<\/em><\/p>

Typically, when we think of a joker or jester figure, we imagine a gregarious, humorous, and happy-go-lucky clown. As such, Dylan\u2019s deific joker seems to have at one point embodied the classic archetype. He was happy to share his \u201cwine\u201d and \u201cearth\u201d with those in the Watchtower out of genuine generosity, humility, and good cheer. He was once as clear-eyed as the narrator in \u201cBlowin\u2019 in the Wind.\u201d But he has become aghast at the ways in which the people of the Watchtower have exploited his generosity and is no longer in much of a mood to laugh or spread cheer. The joker feels that these folks have taken his creations and gifts in a selfish, greedy spirit. He can see the illusions they are chasing and the path they are going down and can imagine nothing but profound destruction, self-inflicted or otherwise. Worse, the joker feels that there is nothing he can do to rectify the situation. He despairs for himself only insofar that he is despairing for all. He struggles to grapple with the notion that pure righteousness\u2014such as the kind espoused in \u201cBlowin\u2019 in the Wind\u201d\u2014is insufficient.<\/p>

The thief, cynical, bitter, and self-assured, responds to the joker:<\/p>

\u201cNo reason to get excited,\u201d the thief, he kindly spoke
<\/em>\u201c\u2018There are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke
<\/em>But you and I, we\u2019ve been through that, and this is not our fate
<\/em>So let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late.\u201d<\/em><\/p>

The thief is not nearly the romantic idealist that the joker is, nor as generous. In fact, the thief urges his counterpart to calm down and let go of his pretenses about the people of the Watchtower. Forget all that stuff about righteousness! Don\u2019t overcomplicate this, he suggests, people are people\u2014they’re not so great, they’re not so innocent, and they have agency to live differently if they so choose. But they choose not to, so that\u2019s their problem. The thief assures the joker that the two of them are enlightened\u2014that they<\/em> have seen beyond the illusion, and this will save them in the end. If the unenlightened perish, suggests the thief, so be it. They got what’s coming to them. Worry about yourself, joker. Disconnect. Catastrophe is coming, and we can only hope to save ourselves.<\/p>

The final verse is famously ambiguous, and it is where we once again find \u201cthe wind.\u201d<\/p>

All along the watchtower, princes kept the view
<\/em>While all the women came and went, barefoot servants, too
<\/em>Outside in the distance a wildcat did growl
<\/em>Two riders were approaching, the wind began to howl.<\/em><\/p>

We are treated to a zoomed-out, panoramic view of the “Watchtower.” We see all of its residents from royalty down to “barefoot servants.” There is an existential quality here, as all seem vulnerable to whatever is coming, no matter their class or status. Sure enough, our old friend the wind\u2014not so friendly now, not so morally driven\u2014kicks up, and ominous howling from a wildcat can be heard, suggesting the beginnings\u2014but not the resolution\u2014of the catastrophe hinted at by the joker and the thief.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Isaiah\u2019s prophecy sets the stage for \u201cAll Along the Watchtower\u201d in that it presents the people of Babylon, much like Dylan presents the people of the Watchtower, as frivolous and profoundly unprepared for coming catastrophe.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Dylan referred to John Wesley Harding <\/em>as \u201cthe first biblical rock album<\/a>.\u201d The references most apparent in the case of \u201cAll Along the Watchtower\u201d is Isaiah 21 from the Old Testament, as well as some references to the New Testament. These can perhaps deepen our understanding of the song. Isaiah 21 details the coming fall of Babylon according to the prophet Isaiah, who states: \u201cA grievous vision is declared unto me.\u201d \u201cAs whirlwinds <\/strong>(\u201cthe wind began to howl\u201d)<\/em> in the south pass through,\u201d he writes, \u201cso it cometh from the desert, from a terrible land.\u201d The vision continues:<\/p>

Prepare the table, watch in the watchtower, eat, drink (<\/strong>the essence of the joker\u2019s opening verse): arise, ye princes <\/strong>(\u201cprinces kept the view\u201d)<\/em>, and anoint the shield.<\/p>

For thus hath the Lord said unto me, Go, set a watchman, let him declare what he seeth.<\/p>

And he saw a chariot<\/strong> with a couple of horsemen <\/strong>(\u201ctwo riders were approaching\u201d)<\/em>, a chariot of asses, and a chariot of camels; and he hearkened diligently with much heed:<\/p>

And he cried, A lion<\/strong> (\u201ca wildcat did growl\u201d)<\/em>: My lord, I stand continually upon the watchtower in the daytime, and I am set in my ward whole nights:<\/p>

And, behold, here cometh a chariot of men, with a couple of horsemen. And he answered and said, Babylon is fallen, is fallen; and all the graven images of her gods he hath broken unto the ground.<\/p>

Revelation 16 has a section which reads:<\/p>

Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments <\/strong>(\u201cbut you and I, we\u2019ve been through that\u201d)<\/em>, lest he walk<\/strong> naked and they see his shame <\/strong>(\u201cthere are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke\u201d)<\/em>.<\/p>

And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon <\/strong>(\u201cthe hour’s getting late!\u201d)<\/em>.<\/p>

Isaiah\u2019s prophecy sets the stage for \u201cAll Along the Watchtower\u201d in that it presents the people of Babylon, much like Dylan presents the people of the Watchtower, as frivolous and profoundly unprepared for coming catastrophe. The joker\u2019s opening verse and the neutral final verse echo this portrayal. The verse from Revelation 16 corresponds to the lyrics assigned to the thief character in the song.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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We live in an age of climate crisis, accelerating technological advancement, stockpiled nuclear weaponry, upward wealth distribution, book bannings, global pandemic, mass shootings, terrorism\u2014etc, etc, etc<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Like \u201cBlowin\u2019 in the Wind,\u201d \u201cAll Along the Watchtower\u201d ponders religiosity, spirituality, and morality in an age of science and supposed rationality and enlightenment. Characters and narrators wait on the deific forces of time, change, and justice. In fact, it can be said that the joker, posited to be Dylan himself, is an older, sadder, and more bitter version of the narrator in \u201cBlowin\u2019 in the Wind.\u201d In \u201cBlowin\u2019 in the Wind,\u201d questions are asked and answered, the inevitable morally righteous \u201cwind\u201d of time and change well on its way. Imagine the joker\u2019s surprise then, when he discovers that the wind in \u201cAll Along the Watchtower\u201d is not righteous nor clarifying in any kind of moral sense; that it is instead a harbinger of doom, uncertainty, and despair.<\/p>

We can also read the joker to be those, generally on the American left, who had entered the 1960s with great ambitions of changing the world but who would find, by the end of the decade, that change was not so straightforward, and that previously heralded solutions would not resolve all the problems. The War in Vietnam created a sense of abject powerlessness, as the American invasion continued unabated despite widespread protests. Now, it\u2019s not exactly that the joker generation\u2019s messaging was being outright ignored; rather it was being co-opted (\u201c<\/em>businessmen drink my wine, plowmen dig my earth\u201d<\/em>) and distorted by those with other motives. Where things had once seemed straightforward and pure to the joker, they now seemed entirely incoherent and corrupted.<\/p>

The thief, then, represents another form of political and spiritual paralysis. He embodies an emerging mode of thinking characterized by a jaded detachment that would become quite prevalent in the decades that followed. He has defaulted to the idea that human nature is simply what it is, and that there is no hope of ever changing that\u2014the failings of the 1960s have proven that. This form of self-alienating cynicism was to become a key characteristic of both the Baby Boom generation and Generation X.<\/p>

These characters are applicable well beyond the specific context in which they were created. They can easily be applied today, as we are living through dark times and are staring down an even bleaker, perhaps unimaginable, future. So, too, can we still seriously ponder the questions asked in \u201cBlowin\u2019 in the Wind.\u201d<\/p>

We live in an age of climate crisis, accelerating technological advancement, stockpiled nuclear weaponry, upward wealth distribution, book bannings, global pandemic, mass shootings, terrorism\u2014etc, etc, etc. As if a steady stream of dystopia and apocalypse weren\u2019t bad enough, an increasingly \u201cconnected\u201d global populace stands idle as their sense of control and agency continuously evaporates. And when our institutions and leaders aren\u2019t actively inflaming our crises, they provide precious little solace at best.<\/p>

Surely, \u201cthere must be some way out of here,\u201d right?<\/p>

In some ways, the young Dylan was not wrong about finding answers in the wind. It is always blowing and carries with it essential truths. The problem, as the joker discovers, is that the wind can go unheeded, and the results of that are catastrophic. This is not mere metaphor: the storm clouds are here, and they are heavy. An essential and universal force, the wind ultimately cannot be avoided\u2014the longer we idly ignore the strong currents and carry on with the status quo, the closer we come to the ruin faced by those in the Watchtower.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Toby Jaffe<\/strong> is a writer from Philadelphia published in the New Republic<\/em>, the American Prospect<\/em>, Paste Magazine<\/em>, and elsewhere.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bob Dylan\u2019s music wrestled with good and evil throughout his career, but his 1967 track \u201cAll Along the Watchtower\u201d carries a heavy warning for those who wait passively in the face of coming disaster. 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