Bob Dylan, “The Times, They Are A-Changin’” (1964)

INTRODUCTION

Dylan
Bob Dylan in 1964 by Richard Avedon (New Yorker)

Bob Dylan (1941- ) was born in Minnesota but came to New York in 1961 as a 20-year-old aspiring folk songwriter influenced by the work of Woody Guthrie.  He quickly became famous as a singer and songwriter, releasing three albums in the span of three years.  “The Times, They Are A-Changin'” was the title track of his third album (1964).  The song became an anthem for the civil rights movement and for student protestors in the 1960s.  Dylan himself seemed ambivalent about his celebrity, however, and went on to have an eclectic career across several musical genres and with various bands.  He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016 “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.”   As of 2025, Dylan was still on tour and performing his music, at the age of 86.

The Times, They Are A-Changin’

Come gather ’round peopleWherever you roamAnd admit that the watersAround you have grownAnd accept it that soonYou’ll be drenched to the boneIf your time to you is worth savin’And you better start swimmin’Or you’ll sink like a stoneFor the times they are a-changin’
Come writers and criticsWho prophesize with your penAnd keep your eyes wideThe chance won’t come againAnd don’t speak too soonFor the wheel’s still in spinAnd there’s no tellin’ whoThat it’s namin’For the loser nowWill be later to winFor the times they are a-changin’
Come senators, congressmenPlease heed the callDon’t stand in the doorwayDon’t block up the hallFor he that gets hurtWill be he who has stalledThe battle outside ragin’Will soon shake your windowsAnd rattle your wallsFor the times they are a-changin’
Come mothers and fathersThroughout the landAnd don’t criticizeWhat you can’t understandYour sons and your daughtersAre beyond your commandYour old road is rapidly agin’Please get out of the new oneIf you can’t lend your handFor the times they are a-changin’
The line it is drawnThe curse it is castThe slow one nowWill later be fastAs the present nowWill later be pastThe order is rapidly fadin’And the first one nowWill later be lastFor the times they are a-changin’