A thorough examination of a song that continues to ring true 60 years after it was first released. Portelli, an Italian university professor and folk scholar, analyzes the importance of Dylan’s take on a folk ballad at least hundreds of years old, and how it evolved as it was passed down from generation to generation, country to country, in the old oral tradition through which such ballads survived. His analysis is even more fascinating when taken into the context of his experience hearing it in in various different languages. Why did Dylan change some elements, why did he maintain others? Where did he find the courage to upend traditional song structure? And how did such a ballad survive so many years to become relevant in 1962, and continue to be so in 2022? Portelli ponders these questions and posits some answers, and the reader is enriched with a new understanding of the Bob Dylan classic.