Dylan biographer Clinton Heylin describes how musician Tony Glover stopped by Dylan’s apartment in September 1963, picked up a page of the song Dylan was working on, and read a line from it: “Come senators, congressmen, please heed the call.” Turning to Dylan, Glover said, “What is this shit, man?” Dylan shrugged his shoulders and replied, “Well, you know, it seems to be what the people want to hear.”
The ashy, parched album cover of The Times They Are a-Changin’ signaled exactly where Dylan would take us on this record. It was his first album of entirely original compositions, filled with stark ballads about racism, poverty, and social change. More than any other Dylan record, this one shaped me as an impressionable teenager — it helped set my values and opened my eyes to what appeared the road less travelled.
This was the moment Dylan was being hailed as the spokesman of a generation and the poster boy for the folk movement. On his third studio album, and especially in the title track, he was at his most sermon-like — a cross-generational rallying cry worthy of a biblical mountaintop. He admitted in 1985 that he wrote the song deliberately to be an anthem for its time, saying, “The civil rights movement and the folk music movement were pretty close for a while and allied together at that time.”
The battle outside ragin’
Will soon shake your windows and rattle your walls
When I got into the song in the mid-to-late ’80s, the world was very different from today — and, as Dylan put it, “Ah, but I was so much older then / I’m younger than that now.” That’s why I rarely revisit The Times in the 21st century. Those songs feel like they’ve been lifted from a time capsule, reflecting the urgent causes of their day — from Jim Crow laws to Cold War paranoia. After this album came Another Side of Bob Dylan, where he began drifting from the narrow idealism and pressure of the political left, including peers like Joan Baez and Pete Seeger. Nowhere is this clearer than in My Back Pages, where he seems to reject his earlier political preaching, admitting he had “become my own enemy in the instant that I preach.”
But the times are always changing. These days, other Dylan songs speak to me more — especially his Oscar-winning Things Have Changed, which I play often. Now it feels like the shoe’s on the other foot: the train of “progress” never stopped at the station, kept going full steam ahead, and in some ways has become more radical and uncompromising than the movements Dylan once championed.
People are crazy and times are strange
I’m locked in tight, I’m out of range
I used to care, but things have changed
Now back to The Times, most of which was abridged from the Wikipedia article below:
In 1985, he told Cameron Crowe, “This was definitely a song with a purpose. It was influenced of course by the Irish and Scottish ballads …’Come All Ye Bold Highway Men‘, ‘Come All Ye Tender Hearted Maidens‘. According to Dylan’s official website, he performed the song 633 times between 1963 and 2009, making it his 23rd most-performed song as of June 2023. The song was ranked number 59 on Rolling Stone‘s 2004 list of the “500 Greatest Songs of All Time“.
In January 1984, a young Steve Jobs recited the second verse of “The Times They Are a-Changin‘” in his opening of the 1984 Apple shareholders meeting, where he famously unveiled the Macintosh computer for the first time.
[Verse 1]
Come gather ’round, people, wherever you roam
And admit that the waters around you have grown
And accept it that soon you’ll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you is worth saving
And you better start swimmin’ or you’ll sink like a stone
For the times, they are a-changin’
[Verse 2]
Come writers and critics who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide, the chance won’t come again
And don’t speak too soon, for the wheel’s still in spin
And there’s no tellin’ who that it’s namin’
For the loser now will be later to win
For the times, they are a-changin’
[Verse 3]
Come senators, congressmen, please heed the call
Don’t stand in the doorway, don’t block up the hall
For he that gets hurt will be he who has stalled
The battle outside ragin’
Will soon shake your windows and rattle your walls
For the times, they are a-changin’
[Verse 4]
Come mothers and fathers throughout the land
And don’t criticize what you can’t understand
Your sons and your daughters are beyond your command
Your old road is rapidly agin’
Please get out of the new one if you can’t lend your hand
For the times, they are a-changin’
[Verse 5]
The line, it is drawn, the curse, it is cast
The slow one now will later be fast
As the present now will later be past
The order is rapidly fadin’
And the first one now will later be last
For the times, they are a-changin’
References:
1. The Times They Are a-Changin’ (song) – Wikipedia
“The more I live, the more I learn. The more I learn, the more I realize, the less I know.”- Michel Legrand
Observation Blogger 
“The Times They Are a-Changin'” remains a classic. To say it was a remarkable song written by a 22-year-old in 1963 would be an understatement. Granted, the song is very much a child of its time. I feel the same can be said about many other songs, especially when it comes to social-songs written in a specific context. That said the times are still a-changing and in that sense it remains relevant to this day.
I don’t dispute it remains a classic and relevant to this day for many, but just not so much for me, based on what I wrote in the article. I’d rather listen to ‘Things Have Changed’ every day of the week and twice on Sunday than ‘The Times They Are a-Changin’. I find more truth (from an older, more circumspect, and street-wise Dylan), engagement, and relevance to my life as an older fan than in a song written by a 22-year-old Dylan who admits he was just giving the people what they wanted and appeasing the civil rights and folk music movements.
It’s such a great song and it’s cool that he opened his concert with this song when I saw him in June. I hate to say this but I think of a movie when I hear this song now…The Watchmen…. it’s such a powerful scene and they used this one perfectly.
I’m so glad you were able to see Dylan open with this. I’m afraid I haven’t seen the Watchmen (the Marvel movie???).
I was watching an audience taping of ‘Positively 4th Street’ in a recent show on this Outlaw Tour. I thought Max would dig this, because it sounded pretty good. I’ll try and find it and add it below:
Thanks Matt…he actually got close to teh original in that one.
That’s exactly what I thought – how close it sounded to the original. Also he pulls off some magic with his intonations of voice on this one.
nice connection with Things have Changed, in fact really cool, I see that. Bob never stays the same,but circles around kinda…excellent
Yes, I’m glad someone connected the dots lol There’s a big difference between idealistic / impressionable 22 year-old Bob and Bob decades later who admits ‘I’m locked in tight, I’m out of range..I used to care..’
What’s really cool is during the Academy award performance of that song (in Sydney), you can see the disgruntled faces of many of the conceited actors who he’s actually directing this song at. My father told me just after that performance he’d never seen an artist’s eyes penetrate the camera like what Dylan did here.
that’s cool about your dad, he was absolutely correct, the audience was squirming in their chairs….
I think their live take of that song in Sydney (the day after I saw Dylan live btw) is my preferred version.
Everything about the ceremony is great including Jennifer Lopez’s priceless reaction to Dylan’s gaze at the end of their performance and Dylan’s acceptance speech including, ‘a song that doesn’t pussy foot around nor turn a blind eye to human nature’ and ‘God bless you all with peace, tranquillity, and goodwill’
spot on…