Born Robert Allen Zimmerman on May 24, 1941, in Minnesota, Bob Dylan was hugely inspired

by modern poets since his childhood. He moved to New York City in 1961 to pursue a career in
music. Bob produced numerous music albums, including Bob Dylan in 1962 and timeless
classics like Oh Mercy (1989) and Modern Times (2006). "Bob Dylan represented the sixties'
counter-culture and created poetic expressions in American culture, which later won him a Nobel
Prize in 2016 for his contribution to music in the 60s" (Mathews, 2017). Due to his branding, his
popularity rose during his active years and formed an identity of his own. Additionally, he is still
active in the role of a painter, scriptwriter, and actor. 
The songs of the revolution were reflected in songs written in Greenwich Village, such as
"Blowin' in the Wind," "A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall," and songs of protest for referring to the life
in Cold War America" (Modell, 2020). 
Song 1: Hard Times in New York Town
It's hard times in the city, Livin' down in New York town are the lines that resonate with the
difficult times, as it is the song's chorus. This song is from The Bootleg Series from volumes one
to three and is tagged as Rare and Unreleased. "Hard Times in New York Town," Dylan's fourth
and last song from 1961, combines the tune, instrumentation, and introduction of "Down on
Penny's Farm" and twists it into a parody of rough living in the city, or perhaps a song about
difficult times for farm laborers (Attwood, 2017). The setting chosen for the song is about the
labor of a farmer who is having a difficult day in his life. Bob Dylan has successfully passed the
message of the song through the lyrics of the song and has repeatedly referred to the city life as
being mundane to the aspirations of a laborer. Richard Wines perform the cover song. It is a
purely acoustic version, and the YouTube link is https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=u50r0YHGNew. The original music is the organic version with Bob Dylan with an acoustic
guitar. Similarly, the cover version is also performed on an acoustic guitar.
My favorite part of the song in both the original and the cover is the pristine feeling of living a
rural life, and both performances were soulful.  
Song 2: Blowin' In The Wind
Blowing in the Wind was released in 1963 in the album named "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan."
My favorite line of the song is "The answer; my friend is blowin' in the wind." This line is my
favorite because it is the only answer a compatriot can give to the plethora of problems he is
facing in his life. In addition to it, the song's background symbolizes the Vietnam War and the
conflicts with the United States of America. The original song was released with pure acoustic
music, symbolic of Bob Dylan in his times. 
This song attempts to generalize the concept of wars and their catastrophic repercussions on
people, morality, civilization, the human intellect, and the ecosystem. The hypotheticals offered
in all three stanzas attempt to sensitize the readers to the evils, atrocities, and devastation of war
(Vishwakarma, 2020).
This song has the same lyrics, but the instruments used are a Mandolin and a Spanish Acoustic
Guitar with a capo. Jessica Rhaye and the Ramshackle Parade perform the cover song. The cover
song was released on May 24, 2020. 
The link to the cover song is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oho_DejDTjQ 
The songs gave me a patriotic feel and took me back to the times when music healed. Overall, I
could relate them to my childhood when I used to dream of a perfect world. However, the world
is never perfect, and the song has true elements of a harsh life for fellow citizens.
Attwood, T. (2017). Hard times in New York Town; Dylan re-writing rural classics for the urban chic.
Untold Dylan Retrieved May 20, 2022, from https://bob-dylan.org.uk/archives/3431

‌ athews, S. (2017). Bob Dylan: Poet of Disruption, Dissonance and an Aesthetic of Dissent. Rupkatha
M
Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities, 9(1), 21–28.
https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v9n1.s03

Modell, S. M. (2020). 4.1 Bob Dylan’s Fit into the Literature of Peace and War, and the Search for Human
Ultimacy. Ultimate Reality and Meaning, 37(1-2), 70–86. https://doi.org/10.3138/uram.37.1-2.70

Vishwakarma, Sanjeev. (2020). A Critical Appreciation of 'Blowin' in the Wind'.