When I was considering the pros and cons of Blowing in the Wind by Bob Dylan as a protest song in a previous post it was before Russia, or to be more precise, Putin invaded Ukraine. Revisiting the song with war happening again in Europe and thousands of people dying unnecessarily puts it in a completely different light from six months ago.

It was probably written in 1962 with the Cold War, the Korean and early Vietnam wars in mind. From the distant isolation of the USA all this stuff must have seemed unreal affording the writer a more detached view.

I now think that detachedness and the song’s questions work really well. In the process of international slaughter at the behest of one man’s vanity any kind of reason or morals seem to have disappeared out of the window. Whether any of this feels rational to anyone or has any overall meaning is hard to say. It seems as if the world has just stepped off the edge and we are in freefall. The most obvious questions are going unanswered. However we land now it will be fatal for some and messy for all.

What is so crazy is that it does not have to be this way, and why some lunatic thinks war is for the best is beyond me. But we have to try to work out how this twisted course of action might be acceptable to some minds. Simply to rail against their ideas in our own echochamber solves nothing.

We just have to try to keep breathing and to live our lives as forces for good.

Playing at: Rochester Sweeps Festival 2022

Sat 30th April 12 Noon. Post Office stage at Star Hill with the ‘Songwriter’s Den’.

Monday 2nd May 11.45-12.20pm. Boley Hill Stage. + 2.30-2.45pm City Wall Winebar stage

Shouting and playing on a street near you if anyone reads this far!