Fact #88850
When:
Short story:
Blowin' In the Wind by Peter, Paul And Mary peaks at No2 in the Billboard Top 40 singles chart in the USA. The song is also the first hit for its composer, Bob Dylan.
Full article:
Bob Dylan : I'd been playing the song for a while anyway and people had always responded to it in a positive way to say the least. Money was never a motivation to write anything. I never wrote anything with 'this is gonna be a hit or this isn't' type of attitude. I'm not that smart anyway.
(Source : not known)
Paul Stookey (Peter, Paul And Mary] : We were not in competition. We were students of the same muse. If somebody did a song of yours, you were blown away that they would even think your song was important enough to do.
(Source : not known)
Bob Dylan : I remember running into Peter of Peter, Paul And Mary on the street after they had recorded it. 'Man,' he said, 'you're going to make $5,000.' And I said, 'What? $5,000?" Five thousand dollars, it sounded like a million at the time.
(Source : not known)
Bob Dylan : 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.
(Source : Bob Dylan's comments in Sing Out! magazine, June 1962)
Bob Dylan : I didn’t usually think of myself as writing songs for others to sing, but it was starting to happen. And it couldn’t have happened with a better group. They took a song of mine that I’d recorded before that was buried on one of my early records (Blowin’ in the Wind), and they turned it into a hit song. Not the way I would have done it - they straightened it out. But since then hundreds of people have recorded it. I don’t think that would have happened if it wasn’t for them. They definitely started something for me.
(Source : speech at Musicares Person Of The Year event, Feb 2015)
Tweet this Fact
(Source : not known)
Paul Stookey (Peter, Paul And Mary] : We were not in competition. We were students of the same muse. If somebody did a song of yours, you were blown away that they would even think your song was important enough to do.
(Source : not known)
Bob Dylan : I remember running into Peter of Peter, Paul And Mary on the street after they had recorded it. 'Man,' he said, 'you're going to make $5,000.' And I said, 'What? $5,000?" Five thousand dollars, it sounded like a million at the time.
(Source : not known)
Bob Dylan : 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.
(Source : Bob Dylan's comments in Sing Out! magazine, June 1962)
Bob Dylan : I didn’t usually think of myself as writing songs for others to sing, but it was starting to happen. And it couldn’t have happened with a better group. They took a song of mine that I’d recorded before that was buried on one of my early records (Blowin’ in the Wind), and they turned it into a hit song. Not the way I would have done it - they straightened it out. But since then hundreds of people have recorded it. I don’t think that would have happened if it wasn’t for them. They definitely started something for me.
(Source : speech at Musicares Person Of The Year event, Feb 2015)