Discovering Dylan

My interest in Bob Dylan arose naturally out of a combination of revolutionary romance and my interest in guitar. His music was fairly easy to cover if you were a rudimentary acoustic guitarist with a second-rate voice. 1967 was the year Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits came out, and my buddies and I worked out how to play about half of the tunes on it. *

1. "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35"
2. "Blowin' in the Wind" *
   
3. "The Times They Are A-Changin'" *
4. "It Ain't Me Babe" *
   
5. "Like a Rolling Stone" *
   
6. "Mr. Tambourine Man" *
   
7. "Subterranean Homesick Blues"
8. "I Want You"
9. "Positively 4th Street"
10. "Just Like a Woman"

The really cool thing about Dylan was that he was folky without being ornate. While there was a certain amount of skill involved in replicating the finger-picking patterns heard in music by The Byrds or Peter Paul and Mary, this wasn't necessary to cover Dylan tunes. Since the essence of Dylan was in his lyrics, all one needed to do was to sing the lyrics with conviction and minimal accompaniment and one could pull it off. It helped that the accompaniment itself consisted of basic chords.

Blowin' in the Wind

G C G Em
How many roads must a man walk down
G C G D
Before they call him a man?
G C G Em
How many seas must a white dove sail
G C D
Before she sleeps in the sand?

G C G Em
How many times must the cannon balls fly
G C D
Before they're forever banned?

C D G Em
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind
C D G
The answer is blowin' in the wind.

G C G Em
How many years must a mountain exist
G C G D
Before it is washed to the sea?
G C G Em
How many years can some people exist
G C D
Before they're allowed to be free?

G C G Em
How many times can a man turn his head
G C D
And pretend that he just doesn't see?

C D G Em
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind
C D G
The answer is blowin' in the wind.

G C G Em
How many times must a man look up
G C G D
Before he can see the sky?
G C G Em
How many ears must one man have
G C D
Before he can hear people cry?

G C G Em
How many deaths will it take till he knows
G C D
That too many people have died?

C D G Em
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind
C D Em
The answer is blowin' in the wind.
C D G Em
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind
C D C G (C G)
The answer is blowin' in the wind.....

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