"... the song is not a ballad."
It's funny to see someone saying this about a Dylan song. It's a ballad if someone wants to perform it as such. It could also be done as a reggae tune, a straight-up rocker, a waltz, a punk song, a country number, a gospel blaster, a disco song ...
There's no one who has messed with his own songs more than has Dylan. Others covering them ought to be afforded that same luxury, don't ya think?
True story: The second time I saw Dylan -- it was, if memory serves, in the early-1980s at the New Haven Coliseum -- a friend of a friend who attended, a guy who'd liked Dylan way back in the day but hadn't kept up, said as we were leaving that he'd enjoyed the show, but that he'd really wanted to hear Bob play "Blowin' in the Wind."
At the same moment, my friend and I both responded: "He did!"
He had, of course, but not on acoustic guitar. He played it with a full band, all rearranged.
