On May 24, 2016, the multifaceted, enigmatic, 'the man of the thin growl voice', the mesmerizing banyan tree of a songwriter, protest singer, folk-singer, harmonica-round-the-neck man - Bob Dylan, turned 75. If compared to a very commercial Hindi film song sequence, Dylan wears and discards many of his superhero to ordinary man costumes in the space of one song at a time.
Now, we may not call him a free-flowing great singer like Lata Mangeshkar, but the culmination of his wispy voice and sheer power of his elevating songwriting (what beautiful, searing poetry!) makes him sort of a charming, caravan-living, mysterious traveler who sings all that he absorbs from life, whenever one listens to him. Here are the lines from one of the first songs that made him conspicuous, way back in the mid-sixties:
"Blowin' In The Wind"
How many roads must a man walk down
Before you call him a man ?
How many seas must a white dove sail
Before she sleeps in the sand ?
Yes, 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.
Yes, how many years can a mountain exist
Before it's washed to the sea ?
Yes, how many years can some people exist
Before they're allowed to be free ?
Yes, how many times can a man turn his head
Pretending he just doesn't see ?
The answer my friend is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind.
Yes, how many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky ?
Yes, how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry ?
Yes, how many deaths will it take till he knows
That too many people have died ?
The answer my friend is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind.
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