Blowing in the Wind Parody | SPREADIN’ THROUGH THE AIR

Blowing in the Wind Parody. Lyrics by David Cohen and performed by Don Caron | Executive producer: Sally Headley and Jack Heighway

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LYRICS to SPREADIN’ THROUGH THE AIR
Written by David Cohen – inspired by Blowin’ in the Wind

How many months must we stay hunkered down,
before we can visit our clan?
Yes, and how many Zooms can we have in one day
while using their “Free Basic Plan”?
Yes, and how many lies can the President tell
before he’s forever banned?
The virus, mon frère, is spreadin’ through the air.
We just don’t know to whom, when, or where.

How many rounds can this ne’er-do-well play
while people keep dying each day?
Yes, and how many times will he stand there and say,
“There is no need for tests anyway?”
And how many times can he turn from the pleas
and pretend it will just go away?
And yet it’s still there. It’s spreadin’ through the air.
We just don’t know to whom, when, or where.

How many times must the experts all say,
“You should be standing six feet away?”
Yes, and how many times must we have to be told,
Please put on the mask everyday?
Yes, and how many deaths will it take ’til he knows?
Could be he can’t count anyway.
You might be unaware, but it’s spreadin’ through the air
and we don’t know to whom, when, or where.
You might be unaware, but it’s spreadin’ through the air
and we don’t know to whom, when, or where.
and we don’t know to whom, when, or where.

Spreadin’ through the Air inspired by Blowing in the Wind

“Blowin’ in the Wind” is a song written by Bob Dylan in 1962 and released as a single and on his album The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan in 1963. It has been described as a protest song, and poses a series of rhetorical questions about peace, war, and freedom. The refrain “The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind” has been described as “impenetrably ambiguous: either the answer is so obvious it is right in your face, or the answer is as intangible as the wind”.

In 1994, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. In 2004, it was ranked number 14 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the “500 Greatest Songs of All Time”.

Dylan originally wrote and performed a two-verse version of the song; its first public performance, at Gerde’s Folk City on April 16, 1962, was recorded and circulated among Dylan collectors. Shortly after this performance, he added the middle verse to the song. Some published versions of the lyrics reverse the order of the second and third verses, apparently because Dylan simply appended the middle verse to his original manuscript, rather than writing out a new copy with the verses in proper order. The song was published for the first time in May 1962, in the sixth issue of Broadside, the magazine founded by Pete Seeger and devoted to topical songs. The theme may have been taken from a passage in Woody Guthrie’s autobiography, Bound for Glory, in which Guthrie compared his political sensibility to newspapers blowing in the winds of New York City streets and alleys. Dylan was certainly familiar with Guthrie’s work; his reading of it had been a major turning point in his intellectual and political development.

In June 1962, the song was published in Sing Out!, accompanied by Dylan’s comments:

There ain’t too much I can say about this song except that the answer is blowing in the wind. It ain’t in no book or movie or TV show or discussion group. Man, it’s in the wind — and it’s blowing in the wind. Too many of these hip people are telling me where the answer is but oh I won’t believe that. I still say it’s in the wind and just like a restless piece of paper it’s got to come down some … But the only trouble is that no one picks up the answer when it comes down so not too many people get to see and know … and then it flies away. I still say that some of the biggest criminals are those that turn their heads away when they see wrong and know it’s wrong. I’m only 21 years old and I know that there’s been too many wars … You people over 21, you’re older and smarter.”

Bob Dylan performing Blowing in the Wind

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