P is for politics

Dylan has frequently denied being a committed, signed-up political activist, but has always been drawn by social issues rather than pure politics. Racial injustice, equality and civil rights; opposition to war and proliferation of nuclear weapons; poverty... these are the matters of the moment, then as now in many ways.

His appearance on stage with Martin Luther King during the ‘I have a dream...’ speech at the March on Washington demonstration of August 1963, gave him real political credibility. He could have stayed in that groove, but, of course, didn’t.

Hard Times In New York Town, Talking Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre Blues, Talkin’ John Birch Paranoid Blues, Long Ago, Far Away, Ain’t Gonna Grieve, Ballad Of Donal White, Quit Your Low Down Ways, John Brown, The Ballad Of Emmett Till, Blowin’ In The Wind, Masters Of War, A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall, Oxford Town, Talkin’ World War III Blues, I Shall Be Free, Walls Of Red Wing, Who Killed Davey Moore?... and that’s just political-type songs from a couple of albums!