Bob Dylan: The Anti-War movement and Civil Rights influenced “Masters of war”, “Blowin in the wind” and “The times they are a-changing”
Throughout different encounters in one’s life, a person may meet different people and experience a multitude of events that can affect their character or behavior. Car accidents, death, or even getting a new job can can alter your life. This effect is said to be having an influence on someone. An opinion can be voiced through multiple platforms. For Bob Dylan, his influences were brought through his music that was shared throughout the world. The generation that witnessed major world events such as the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Movement generated the biggest influencers of music during the 1960’s, and artists such as Bob Dylan were vocal proponents of the political climate of the time. Evidence of this can be heard throughout many of his songs such as “Masters of War”, “The times are a-changing”, and “Blowin’ in the wind”.
“Come you masters of war” is the first line to Bob Dylan’s song “Masters of War”. “Masters of War” was Dylan’s 1963 protest song against arm merchants (Marcus, 72). This song, one of the few Bob admits to be driven by hate (Mellers, 126) was written in particular reference to the Vietnam war. Unlike his other songs, This one is fueled by hate and can be seen by some of his lyrics such as “And I hope that you die, And your death’ll come soon”. This shows that there is no pity and no tolerance in what he feels. His words are put together through the anger of war and the senseless violence that is brought on by war. An old protest song like this “can change shape, swing the mirror around and dare the singer to make it true” (Marcus, 72). Master’s of war echoed leftist concerns and rhetoric of an earlier era (Rosenstone, 133). Bob Dylan employs the use of very blunt statements in his song which exhibits his close minded nature. Dylan sees the war as having very negative outcomes which allowed him to connect with a lot of similar minded people. Masters of war contains lyrics such as “How to make a murderer, better yet how to make a terrorist” helps refer to the violence. His lyrics use the words murderer to demonstrate how in the war all you are doing is killing others. These harsh words help express how he feels and his music gives him an excellent platform to share his feelings.
The 1960’s was marked by the civil rights movement and influenced Dylan’s song “the times they are a-changing”. Dylan wrote this song as a direct response to contemporary events. These songs were vital to the events themselves, and posses literary qualities and carry an emotional charge that portrays multiple meanings. In the first stanza, Dylan is asking for unity to take place. This first part already helps us understand that it is about coming togeather as one. In the civil rights movement, Many groups came together to fight for their freedom and rights. Dylan began writing songs like the times they are a-changing which dealt with civil rights and the changing world of youth that parents did not understand (Rosenstone, 133). The civil rights was marked by a social movement meant to change the way things had worked in America beforehand. The title of the song contains the word change, which signals what the song has to say. In his lyrics, Bob says “Come senators, congressmen, please heed the call” shows just how political his song is. He is calling on the people who make laws and allow change to happen. Dylan references senators and congressmen shows that he wants a change to come in his country which he wrote during the civil rights movement. These words also bring to light the infectiveness of the government because of the fact he also says “Please heed the call, don’t stand in the doorway, don’t block up the hall”. Dylan saying “don’t stand in the doorway, don’t block up the hall” shows his feelings towards the government. He feels as if instead of helping, the government actually blocks the way and prevents change from happening. This song could be seen as a cry from dylan to tell the government don’t prevent change from taking place.
Another one of Dylan’s protest songs were “blowin in the wind”. Dylan began writing songs like blowin in the wind that pertained to the civil rights movement here at home along with the anti war movement. Dylan does not look back but he looks forward via the past (Browning,224). His song references terms such as cannonballs and white doves which represents peace. This reference of cannonballs and doves shows Dylan is referring to the anti war movement. On July 26, 1963 at the end of the first evening’s concert, Bob Dylan stood cross armed with many others and sang blowin in the wind. This song was a symbolic image of racial harmony, this represented the fundamental aspirational myth of both American history and the folk protest movement (Dunlap, 233). In blowin in the wind, Dylan asked questions, specifically open ended questions which are open to a variety of answers (Dunlap, 234). These questions asked how long it will take for broadly defined social changes to occur such as civil rights. Words from his song such as “ How many times can a man turn his head and pretend he just doesn’t see, the answer my friend is blowing in the wind” represents Dylan asking the question. These words can reference the fact that Dylan is asking how long are people going to look the other way and pretend like nothing is wrong in the world.
A multitude of events can occur to influence ones perspective. For Dylan, the civil rights movement and anti-war movement were strong influences that influenced him to write songs such as Masters of War, “The times they are a-changing” and “blowin in the wind”. He used his music as a window to share how he feels with the world and to help create a change. Music is one thing across many cultures that the majority of humans appreciate listen too. In Dylan’s times, few dared to write revolutionary material but for Dylan, this was an excellent approach to getting out his word and influencing a change.