Dylan Song by Song: "Idiot Wind" Quiz

Answer: Blood on the Tracks

"Blood on the Tracks" was released on January 20, 1975 on the Columbia label. "Tangled Up In Blue" and "If You See Her Say Hello" were the two singles released from the album, which peaked at number one on the US Billboard 200 and at number four on the UK albums (OCC) chart.

Answer: His wife

Rolling Stone magazine called the song "one of his most scathing, frothing, furious songs - a rant against the woman he married and idiocy itself." At the time of the song's writing, Dylan was experiencing a deteriorating relationship with his wife Sara. Dylan himself, however, has maintained that the song is not autobiographical, and in his 1985 interview with Bill Flanagan, he said the song "didn't pertain" to him and that it was merely "a concept of putting in images that defy time."

Answer: Hootie & The Blowfish

"Only Wanna Be With You" contains they lyrics:

"Put on a little Dylan sitting on a fence
I say that line is great, you ask me what it meant by
Said, I shot a man named Gray, took his wife to Italy
She inherited a million bucks and when she died it came to me
I can't help it if I'm lucky."

Darius Rucker of Hootie & The Blowfish has elsewhere displayed his fondness for Bob Dylan by recording "Wagon Wheel," a fleshed-out version of an unfinished Bob Dylan song that was popularly titled "Rock Me, Mama" in bootleg versions.

Answer: Anton Chekhov

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, a physician by profession, was born in 1860 and became a revered playwright and short story writer. In his 2004 memoir, Bob Dylan states that "Blood on the Tracks" in its entirety was "based on Chekhov short stories" even though "critics thought it was autobiographical."

Answer: skull

Here "skull" and "capitol" rhyme as sung by Dylan. Christopher Ricks points out in his 2003 book "Dylan's Visions of Sin" that the capitol resembles a skull because of its white dome structure and symbolizes a "skull/head" because it is where the "heads of government" sit.

Answer: A lone soldier

"There's a lone soldier on the cross
Smoke pourin' out of a boxcar door
You didn't know it, you didn't think it could be done
In the final end he won the wars
After losin' every battle."

In the Israel Defense Forces, a "lone soldier" is a serviceperson who does not have immediate family in Israel and who serves in a regular unit.

The version of "Idiot Wind" on "Blood on the Tracks" features Dylan on vocals, guitar, harmonica, and organ. Chris Weber also plays guitar, and Gregg Inhofer is on keyboards, Bill Berg on drums, and Billy Peterson on bass.

Answer: The priest

"The priest wore black on the seventh day
And sat stone-faced while the building burned."

British-American bluegrass band the Coal Porters covered "Idiot Wind" on their album "How Dark This Earth Will Shine" in 2004. In 2002, Mary Lee's Corvette covered it on their full-abloom cover of "Blood on the Tracks."

Answer: breathe

Later in the song, the singer does take on some responsibility of his own saying, "It's a wonder WE can even feed ourselves."

According to Bob Dylan's official website, he played "Idiot Wind" live 55 times between April 18, 1976 and August 30, 1992. A version of the song can be found on the 2018 Deluxe Edition of "More Blood, More Tracks, The Bootleg Series Volume 14."

Answer: The holes within our hearts

"Idiot wind
Blowing through the buttons of our coats
Blowing through the letters that we wrote
Idiot wind
Blowing through the dust upon our shelves
We're idiots, babe
It's a wonder we can even feed ourselves."

Bob Dylan released a live version of "Idiot Wind" on "Hard Rain," which was recorded during his Rolling Thunder Revue tour during a May 23, 1976 concert at Hughes Stadium in Fort Collins, Colorado. Bob Dylan's soon to be ex-wife was in the audience at the time.

Answer: 1991

"Idiot Wind" began as a "rueful acoustic ballad" for "Blood on the Tracks," reports Rolling Stone magazine, but then Bob Dylan "rerecorded half of the album at the last minute in Minneapolis." The version recorded in New York appears on "Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3", a collection of rare and previously unreleased recordings from 1961-1991.