Bob Dylan - Blowin' In The Wind Lyrics

Bob Dylan Lyrics

"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, and how many times must the cannonballs fly
Before they're forever banned?

The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind

Yes, and how many years can a mountain exist
Before it's washed to the sea?
Yes, and how many years can some people exist
Before they're allowed to be free?
Yes, and how many times can a man turn his head
And pretend that he just doesn't see?

The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind

Yes, and how many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?
Yes, and how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, and how many deaths will it take 'til he knows
That too many people have died?

The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind

Submit Corrections

Thanks to Marc Chevalier for correcting these lyrics.

Writer(s): Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan originally sang a two-verse version of this song during its first public performance at Gerde's Folk City on the 16th of April 1962.

The middle verse of these lyrics was added by Bob Dylan shortly after the first performance of this song. Some published versions of the lyrics had that verse as a third one, because Dylan appended the middle verse to his original manuscript, without re-writing the whole lyrics in proper order.

When this song was published in Sing Out! in June 1962, it had some Bob Dylan's comments, "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 ..."

This song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1994.

In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked this song number 14 on its list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time".