The Young Bob Dylan: Prophet or Punk

Was Bob Dylan really the voice of a generation?  Did he have the collective unconscious of the turbulent 1960's?   His music was ahead of two major shifts that occurred in the 1960's. First, the Vietnam Conflict and the Student Protest Movement, which gained acceptance on university campuses with the 1962 Port Huron Statement, which called out the social, political, and economic shortcomings of the United States.  Secondly, the 1968 Chicago Democratic National Convention, the Kent State shooting, and the Madison Bombing show a drastic shift towards violence in student protest movements.

The Bob Dylan song "Masters of War" is seen by many people as a song about the Vietnam Conflict. The song was written in 1963, nearly two years before the United States became officially involved in Vietnam. The strong lyrics and apocalyptic tone foreshadow the coming suffering Vietnam would bring to American Society. "You that build the big guns, You that build the death planes, You that build all the bombs", can be easily misunderstood as being written about Vietnam, as many Dylan fans believe this song to be written about, but in fact were written well before the United States started bombing North Vietnam in 1965. Dylan put into words what students were feeling leading up to Vietnam and continued to be the voice of a generation with his songs, but just as "Masters of War" was ahead of the times, so too would his album titled "John Wesley Harding" be which was released in December of 1970.

Many of the warnings spelled out in the lengthy 1962 Port Huron Statement and echoed in Bob Dylan's protest era albums had come to fruition. His album released in December of 1967 titled, "John Wesley Harding", marked a dramatic shift and shows how Dylan was again prophetic with his music. A drastic shift from his protest albums, "John Wesley Harding", was released without much publicity and was a mellow, somewhat biblical sounding album. Student Protest Movements would not follow this albums mood, with ever increasing violence starting with the 1968 Chicago Democratic National Convention, the Kent State Tragedy in May of 1970, and finally the Madison Bombing in August of 1970, Dylan had enough. No longer able to accept the increasing violence in Student Protest Movements, "John Wesley Harding", marked well in advance where the Student Protest Movement would be after the Madison Bombing in August of 1970, they had gone to far in a chaotic world, the answer to which, lies in simplicity, marked by albums mellow tone.

Bob Dylan was the voice of a generation, but much as the children who were beyond their parents commands, Bob Dylan's "advice" understood through his lyrics, was prophetic, plain and simple.  He essentially summed up the what people were feeling through his music in the 1960's and when protest turned more and more violent, he offered a solution, but things went to far before people got his message.  The song "Masters of War" and the album, "John Wesley Harding" both were ahead of their times, and their prophetic nature is left for us to ponder.