BLOWIN’ IN THE WIND How many roads must a man walk down Before you call him a man? Yes, 'n' 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. “How many roads” how many courses in life “must a man” must a blackman “walk down” take such as rape, murder, theft, the creation of dangerous public schools and generations of single welfare mothers “Before you call him a man?” before the Whites realize that he is a genetically inferior being who can never amount to anything more than a male servant, a subordinate, “man” as in ‘Man Friday’ which is more like a “boy” (unless “man” had two meanings the first two lines of Blowin’ In The Wind are redundant). “Yes, 'n' how many seas must a white dove sail” how long will it take before White supremacist apartheid (who ever heard of a black dove?) that brought racial peace and stability to South Africa, sails effortlessly across the ocean to America “Before she sleeps in the sand?” and becomes a part of America history? “Yes, 'n' how many times must the cannonballs fly” how many times must the niggers become suddenly enraged, commit gun crimes ‘fly off the handle’ “Before they're forever banned?” before they are treated in the same way as South Africa treats its niggers? Under the former system of apartheid, “banned” meant to deprive a person suspected of illegal activity of the right of free movement and association with others “The answer” the answer to the ‘Negro question’ in America “my friend, is blowin'” is spreading “in the wind” in something that destroys “wind” as in ‘The winds of war.’ On another level the answer is to treat niggers as they did in the Old South, the answer is in White vigilantism, lynch ‘em and let ‘em blow (cause to move by means of a current of air) in the wind! Billie Holliday, Strange Fruit, “Southern trees bear a strange fruit / Blood on the leaves and blood at the root / Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze / Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.” “Roads” as ways and courses of action; Playboys and Playgirls, “Your insane” your immoderate and wild “tongues” language, rhetoric, “of war talk ain't a-gonna guide my road” Song to Woody, 1962 “I’m walking a road other men have gone down” I am trying to master a path in life of that of a folksinger as so many others have in the past. Also “roads” as John Cecil Rhodes a mining magnate and politician in South Africa and a
violent and brutal racist who used forced labor tactics as a means of founding De Beers Diamonds. “Walk” as live; Ballad of Donald White, “But the jails they were too crowded, / Institutions overflowed / So they turned me loose to walk upon / Life's hurried tangled road.” All Over You 1962, “You made me to a walkin' wreck” a living wreck. “Sleep” as co-exist with, be comfortable with; You’re No Good 1962, “You got the ways of a devil sleeping in a lion's den” Let Me Die In My Footsteps Before I Go Down Under the Ground 1962, “Let me sleep in your meadows with the green grassy leaves” let me co-exist in America with great books of poems such as Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman “Let me walk down the highway with my brother in peace.” Tomorrow is a Long Time 1962, “only if she was lying by me I would lie in my bed once again.” Eleven Outlined Epitaphs 1964, “an' I'm still on that road, Jim / I'm still sleepin' at night by its side.” “Sand” as history; Chronicles, “Ray Gooch wasn't like that; He wasn't somebody who would leave any footprints on the sands of time, but there was something special about him.” To the Left in Tears of Rage 1968, “We pointed out the way to go” we told you that you should move in the direction of the Right “And scratched your name in sand” and tried to cancel any major role you will play in history “But you just thought it was nothing more than a place” but you just thought it was nothing more than a suitable setting and occasion “for you to stand” for you to stand the test of time, to endure and to take a stand on certain key issues. “Cannonball” as a “crazy nigger” I’m In The Mood For You 1962, “Sometimes I'm in the mood, I'm gonna sleep in my pony's stall” sometimes I am content to be continually drunk in a bar, “stall” booth, cubicle, or stand used by a vendor “Sometimes I'm in the mood, I ain't gonna do nothin' at all” sometimes I want to be shiftless like an urban Negro on welfare “Sometimes I'm in the mood, I wanna fly like a cannonball” sometimes I want to fly off the handle and commit a violent gun crime like the niggers do. The Weight 1967, “Catch a cannonball now” find a Black heroin dealer, catch a nigger by the toe “t'take me down the line” so I can lay out a few lines of smack to snort “My bag” of dope “is sinkin' low and I do believe it's time.” Mary and the Soldier 1993, “Perhaps in battle I might fall / From a shot from an angry cannonball.” “Pony” as intoxicant, glass for beer and liquor; Poem To Woody 1961, “And tomorrow's mornin' seems so far away / And you feel the reins” restraint and control “from yer pony are slippin'” New Pony 1978, “I had a pony, her name was Lucifer.” “Blow” to move along or be carried by or as if by the wind: It’s in the wind, it’s spreading rapidly; Poem to Woody 1961, “You need a cyclone wind” you need a destructive force “on a steam engine howler” that will drown out others songs, howl down a performer “that's been banging” slang: causing a sense of excitement; a thrill “and booming” and suddenly increasing, as in popularity “and blowing forever” and spreading forever.
Worried Blues 1962, “I'm going where the chilly winds don't blow.” Go Away You Bomb 1962, “I want it blowin' from every pore” Brownsville Girl 1986 “And you know it blows right through me like a ball and chain.” “Wind” something that disrupts or destroys; Eleven Outlined Epitaphs 1963, “with its old stone courthouse decayin' in the wind” Eleven Outlined Epitaphs: “south Hibbing is where everybody came t' start their town again. but the winds of the north came followin' an' grew fiercer” Dignity 1994, “Chilly wind sharp as a razor blade” Cold Irons Bound 1997, “The winds of Chicago have torn me to shreds” Note: when Dylan’s fans, or “friends” heard the word “wind” in Blowin In The Wind it was defined as a tendency; a trend: the winds of change. How many years can a mountain exist Before it's 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 Pretending he just doesn't see? “How many years can a mountain exist” how much longer can the mountainous problem of the Negro be allowed to exist “Before it's washed” before the true nature of the problem will wash, will be made believable, obvious “to the sea?” to America. Also how many years will the problem of the Negro plague America before they are herded on to a boat and forced to make the long voyage across the sea to Africa where they can join their fellow savages! George Lincoln Rockwell offered free passage back to Africa for Blacks and made up mock one-way steamship tickets to this effect “Yes, 'n' how many years can some people exist” how many years will America allow poor Blacks to live at a minimal level; subsist “Before they're allowed to be free?” before the are allowed to receive free money, an allowance, through the welfare system “Yes, 'n' how many times can a man turn” how many times can a man change “his head” his leader, the United States President “Pretending he just doesn't see?” fooling himself into believing that this is not the truth about Blacks and electing a liberal Democrat or middle of the road Republican President rather than a Dixiecrat or a Goldwaterite Republican; Also “pretend” as one who sets forth a claim to a throne. “Mountains” as problems: someone who can move mountains can solve a difficult problem. Beyond Here Lies Nothin' 2009, “Beyond here lies nothin' / But the mountains of the past.” In Changin of the Guard 1978 Dylan wrote this to the Communist Party, “I've moved your mountains” I’ve helped you with your problems like gaining acceptance to the American people “and marked your cards” and I almost became a card-carrying Communist.
“Sea” as America; God Bless America, “from sea to shining sea” In the Summertime 1981, “By that soft and shining sea” When The Ship Comes In 1963, “And the chains of the sea would have busted in the night” and the present restraints preventing the American working class from getting it’s just due would be thrown off “and be buried on the bottom of the ocean” and will never return after the Communist revolution. Emmett Till 1962 “While Emmett's body floats the foam of a Jim Crow southern sea” while Emmett is a corpse because of the intense anger and rage of a segregated South in the United States. Emmitt Till came to Mississippi from Chicago only to be mutilated and murdered for ogling a White woman. Dylan expressed his beliefs about welfare in Chronicles by quoting the Nazi David Duke: “The ex-Klansman David Duke from Metairie in Jefferson Parish had been elected to the Louisiana State House of Representatives and he was being interviewed. He said that welfare wasn't working and that workfare would be better; make people on welfare work for the community instead of getting a free ride. He also wanted to put prisoners from state pens on work programs. Didn't want them getting a free ride, either. I hadn't seen Duke before; he looked like a movie star.” 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 till he knows That too many people have died? “How many times must a man look up” how many times must the Whiteman become better, improve himself, advance; ‘things are looking up.’ “Before he can see the sky?” before he can see he is the best of the various races “sky” as the highest level and degree; ‘reaching for the sky’ or ‘The sky’s the limit’ “Yes, 'n' how many ears must one man have?” and how much sympathy, as in ‘lend a sympathetic ear’ must the White Man have “Before he can hear people cry?” before he can hear that his own people are suffering as a result of integration “Yes, 'n' how many deaths will it take till he knows” yes and how many Black on White homicides will it take until he learns “That too many people have died?” that too many White people, not a bunch of nappy-headed Black criminals, have been murdered. “Sky” as the highest level and degree; ‘Trails of Trouble 1962, “I walked down by the river” I went to an area of great abundance, the folk music scene “I turned my head up high” I thought on a higher level than the one I was on “I saw that silver linin'” an articulate interior covering of my thoughts “Silver” eloquent; persuasive: ‘a silver voice’ “That was hangin' in the sky” that was hanging like a fine painting and would elevate me to much higher level and degree.
“River” as an abundant stream or flow; To Dave Glover 1962, “They damned up the clear runnin river of ‘Love thy neighbor’ said by Jesus Christ.” Where Teardrops Fall 1989, “By rivers of blindness” God Knows 1990, “God knows there's a river” god knows there was abundance of wealth in Palestine “God knows how to make a flow” God knows how to make it abound and teem “God knows you ain't gonna be taking nothing with you when you go” God knows that when you are driven out of your homeland by the Zionist Jews all you wealth will be lost. Dylan expressed his views on Black on White crime in Chronicles, “He [Frank Sinatra Jr.] talked about the Civil Rights Movement, said his father had been active in civil rights and had always fought for the underdog-that his father felt like he was one himself. Frank Jr. seemed pretty smart, nothing faked or put-on or ritzy about him. There was a legitimacy about what he did, and he knew who he was. The conversation rolled along. ‘How do you think it would make you feel,’ he said, ‘to find out that the underdog had turned out to be a son of a bitch?’ ‘I don't know,’ I said, ‘probably not so good.’”
Dylan made chumps out of his political opponents by having them adopt a song with an embedded racist message as their national anthem however only a miniscule number of people were aware of this so in the long run he furthered the cause of what he considered to be wrong. He was a racist, absurdist and opportunist.