Bruce Springsteen – Blowin’ in the Wind Review

Bruce Springsteen has made his love of Bob Dylan clear. Not just with covers of classic songs, not even with a collaboration on-stage, but in writing, too. The Boss has noted Dylan’s influence, as many acclaimed songwriters have done in the past. What separates Springsteen’s love of that effect on his writing is clear from this performance of Blowin’ in the Wind. Where many say they are moved by the lyrics Dylan has written over the years, few have truly embodied the spirit when adapting them to the stage. Fewer still can do those songs justice, not least a song as delicate as Blowin’ in the Wind. That lived-in voice, words of suspense and intense reactions to the fear of the 1960s, it’s a staggering pairing. Blowin’ in the Wind is still relevant now, as it was when Springsteen chose to cover the track. This is not about reinventing the song, but about applying the same acoustic beauty that makes it such a discography staple for Dylan. 

What we seek out in covers of Dylan’s finest is that one moment that’ll define and redefine the meaning of the original piece. It helps that Springsteen is so completely moved by Dylan as an artist; it clears up any sense of The Boss wanting to outdo his idol. He does not. You can hear his voice break around the two-minute mark, that emotive core leaking through with such a powerful voice behind it. Springsteen is one of the few artists who can interpret Dylan from a different generation but connect with it so totally. He is a pop music continuation of the protest songs of the 1960s, with his 1980s output a clear signal against power and problems the world over. There’s a clear comparison between Blowin’ in the Wind and Born in the U.S.A., for instance. It may be different in instrumentation and tone, but the message is similar. Dylan never did comment so clearly on the larger problems; his answer is, as the song title would suggest, somewhere in the ether.  

But that’s what sets it up for the fall on most cover occasions. Springsteen is one of the few to play it straight. Another, lesser artist, would interpret the song as many have done so in the past. Dylan had moved from reportage ballads to inconclusive yet completely moved and sincere interpretations of the present. It is this change that makes his songwriting sting that much, decades on from release. This performance from Springsteen is a mesmerising example of what Dylan can do, and what those who understand the vagueness of his work can do with it. Springsteen and an acoustic guitar is all it needs. It’s not quite bringing to life the coffee shop performances Dylan gave, but it does connect, deeply, with the essence of the song. Not the meaning, that much is still impossible to know.  

Springsteen makes it clear that it is not his job to interpret one of the all-time greats, and instead, he focuses on the communal spirit now found on that song. There’s a truth and beauty to the performance, which involves a little audience participation. Blowin’ in the Wind, this performance in particular, highlights the unspoken truth of one of Dylan’s very best songs. The audience knows the words, the artists on stage are heavily influenced by it, and yet it’s the sense of community in that overlap that strikes as far more important than the meaning of The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan track. It evokes an emotive turn once through the premise of the song, another through the shared language which, as Springsteen proves here, stretches across generations of songwriters and listeners.