“The Times They Are a-Changin’” is a song written by Bob Dylan and released as the title track of his 1964 album of the same name. Dylan wrote the song as a deliberate attempt to create an anthem of change for the time, influenced by Irish and Scottish ballads. Released as a 45 r.p.m. single in Britain in 1964, it reached number 9 in the British top ten and was Britain’s hundredth best selling single of 1965. Ever since its release the song has been very influential to people’s views on society, with critics noting the general yet universal lyrics as contributing to the song’s everlasting message of change. The song ever since has been an occasional staple in Dylan’s concerts. The song has been covered by many different artists, including Nina Simone, The Byrds, Peter, Paul and Mary, Simon & Garfunkel, The Beach Boys, Joan Baez, Phil Collins, and Bruce Springsteen. The song was ranked #59 on Rolling Stone’s 2004 list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. (More from Wikipedia)
On the following album, The Times They Are A-Changin’, the targets are even more diffuse. A careful listen to the title song, “The Times They Are A-Changin’” makes it clear that Bob Dylan is not sending out some clarion call for protest and change, although the tone of the song makes it seem that way. The lyrics are an acknowledgement that the train has already left the station – that the world has irrevocably changed – along with a warning to those who haven’t gotten it yet.
According to Joan Baez (speaking in the documentary No Direction Home), the genesis of “When the Ship Comes In” came from Bob Dylan’s own mistreatment at a hotel when a clerk refused to give him a room. The rousing music and vivid Biblical imagery gives the song’s theme – people rising up against oppressive forces that are mistreating them – an air of inevitability that is in the spirit of the title song on the album, “The Times They Are A-Changin’”.
(May 2013)
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Another time (from Wikipedia), Bob Dylan connected up some of his early songs with the Second Coming: “You know we’re living in the end times. . . . The scriptures say, ‘In the last days, perilous times shall be at hand. Men shall become lovers of their own selves. Blasphemous, heavy and highminded.’ . . . Take a look at the Middle East. We’re heading for a war. . . . I told you ‘The Times They Are A-Changin’’ and they did. I said the answer was ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’, and it was. I’m telling you now Jesus is coming back, and He is! And there is no other way of salvation. . . . Jesus is coming back to set up His Kingdom in Jerusalem for a thousand years.”
(August 2014)
