GLASGOW, Scotland -- In a rare interview after arriving here to receive a special university honor and play two concerts, music icon Bob Dylan addressed a controversial issue in public for the first time in his 50-some-odd years of being a performer.
"I wrote the song, Blowin' in the Wind in two minutes," he told Angus Roy of the Scotland Plaid Dealer.
"The story has always been that you wrote it in two hours," said Roy.
"Not true," growled Dylan. "Two minutes is more than enough to write that simple song."
"But that is amazing," said Roy.
"Sure is. Took Hank WIlliams three days to write Your Cheatin' Heart. 'Course he was on a five-day bender," Dylan said.
Roy asked him about how long some other songs took to write and Dylan responded without blinking an eye.
According to Dylan, It Ain't Me Babe took four minutes; A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall took one minute; Like A Rolling Stone took twelve minutes (Dylan said it felt like twelve because he was on LSD); and Tombstone Blues took fifty seconds.
Dylan's manager said all the times it took to write every one of Dylan's songs will be published in a new book called The Times It Took To Write The Songs They Are Not Changing.
Dylan reportedly told professors at St. Andrews University that he wanted to re-write every one of his songs before he died. "Hell," he said, "won't take that long. Didn't to do 'em in the first place."
