Bob Dylan was an activist before it was cool. Here are a few of his most impactful lyrics.
“Blowin’ In The Wind”
“Yes, and how many years must a mountain exist / Before it is washed to the sea? / Yes, and how many years can some people exist / Before they’re allowed to be free?”
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Thanks to a version of this song by Peter, Paul and Mary that peaked at No. 2, Bob Dylan became increasingly well known. This song has been covered by countless artists since, including Dolly Parton and Neil Young.
“Masters Of War”
“You that never done nothin’ / But build to destroy / You play with my world / Like it’s your little toy.”
In this song, Dylan calls out those with power and influence. This song is a little bit more violent than some of his other protest songs, as it calls for the death of certain types of individuals.
“The Times They Are A-Changin’”
“Come senators, congressmen, please heed the call / Don’t stand in the doorway, don’t block up the hall / For he that gets hurt will be he who has stalled / The battle outside ragin’.”
Dylan calls this one “a song with a purpose” in the liner notes of his Biograph album. “The Times They Are A Changin’” addresses the civil rights movement and the rise of protest from younger generations. In a way, this song is an anthem for them.
“A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall”
“And I’ll tell it and think it and speak it and breathe it / And reflect it from the mountain so all souls can see it.”
This song is not only unique structurally but was also written with impeccable timing. Dylan penned this song about nuclear war close before the Cuban Missile Crisis began.
“‘Hard Rain’ is a desperate kind of song,” Dylan said in the liner notes of The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan. “Every line in it, is actually the start of a whole song. But when I wrote it, I thought I wouldn’t have enough time alive to write all those songs, so I put all I could into this one.”
Photo by: Steve Morley/Redferns
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