Crystal Jankowski
ENG 101
25 October 2011
Post 7
“The Times They are A-Changin”
The Sixties was a decade of protest and revolution. Protests regarding everything
from war to racism sprung up across the country. These messages were ingrained in the
minds of Americans through protests, literature, and music. Bob Dylan became
especially popular during the sixties and released a song titled “The Times They are aChangin,” which spoke of change being on the horizon and unavoidable.
At the beginning of each verse, Dylan sings slowly and somberly when describing
how certain people have not been able to accept the change that is coming. The pace gets
faster and his voice sounds less gloomy during the chorus where he writes “For the times
they are a-changin’”(1). This change of pace gives the verse a sense of hope and
encouragement. This makes the change seem like a positive thing.
Throughout the song Dylan addresses individual groups of people and urges them
to accept that change is coming and that it will affect them. He writes, “Gather ‘round
people wherever you roam and admit that the waters around you have grown”(1), “Come
writers and critics who prophesize with your pen”(1), “Come senators, Congressmen
please heed the call”(1), and “Come mothers and fathers throughout the land don’t
criticize what you can’t understand”(1). He begs these people, who have been resisting,
criticizing, and ignoring any change, to realize what is going on in the world and simply
accept it. Writers and critics should not write negatively about the events because “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(1). Political leaders should not try to stop the changes that are coming
because, according to Dylan, they will be the ones to get hurt. Mothers and fathers
should be supportive of children’s actions regarding the revolution regardless of their
understanding. Their actions are out of the parent’s control.
Like Dylan’s message of the times changing, President Lyndon B. Johnson’s
Commencement Address at Howard University also spoke of change and the necessity of
accepting it. In this address, Johnson provides a list of evils that affect African
Americans and then offers changes that need to be made to conquer those evils. He lists
poverty, oppression, and deteriorating family life as evils that must be changed. He says,
“There is no single easy answer to all of these problems”(1). Providing decent jobs, god
homes in good areas, welfare programs, health programs, and “An understanding heart by
all Americans” are all solutions to these problems. They must all be pursued to ensure
that African Americans have the opportunity to live a life with the same amenities,
comforts, and rights as any white American.
Not unlike Dylan’s song, Johnson’s address starts rather somber and gets more
encouraging and hopeful as it progresses. He starts with explaining the difficulties
African Americans are facing even after being granted certain freedom. He explains,
“Freedom is not enough… You do not take a person who for years has been hobbled by
chains and liberate him, bring him up to the starting line of a race and then say, ‘you are
free to compete with all the others,’ and still justly believe that you have been completely
fair”(1). Granting a person freedom does not also grant them the same opportunity to
pursue that freedom. America is striving for equal rights at this point and that requires
equal opportunity, which has not been granted at this point.