“Blowin' in the Wind” is Bob Dylan’s first single of his second album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan.

In this song, Dylan poses a list of hypothetical questions; questions people may say cannot be answered, comparing them to the Civil Rights Struggle. An anthem for black people during the 60s, it even inspired Sam Cooke to write “A Change is Gonna Come”. Dylan does not claim to know the answers, but beautifully says the answers are out there ‘blowin’ in the wind.'

The melody of “Blowin' in the Wind” is Dylan’s adaptation of the old Negro spiritual “No More Auction Block”. Dylan acknowledged the source when he told journalist Marc Rowland: “‘Blowin’ in the Wind' has always been a spiritual. I took it off a song called ‘No More Auction Block’ – that’s a spiritual and ‘Blowin’ in the Wind' follows the same feeling.” – WP

Bob Dylan claimed that it took him ten minutes to write this song in a small café. The song deals with various hypothetical questions surrounding the elements of peace, war, and freedom. Specifically, the song dealt with the civil rights movement.

The song is actually based off an old spiritual “No More Auction Block”, sung by African slaves who fled after Britain abolished slavery. Later on, the song also became adopted as an anthem for the anti-war movement.

When asked about the specific subject of the song Dylan said, “It can mean anything to anybody. It’s critical and it’s hard, this litany of questions about what’s wrong with the world.” If one had to choose one subject to label the song, it would be a song asking “why”. In other words, it asks why we have the issues we do in our world. The answer is blowin’ in the wind.