Lindsey Skoog
TE 408—Humanities—Artifact 2
The Times They Are A-Changin' (Bob Dylan)
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 savin’
Then you better start swimmin’ or you’ll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin’
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’
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
There’s a battle outside and it is ragin’
It’ll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin’
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’
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’
Copyright © 1963, 1964 by Warner Bros. Inc.; renewed 1991, 1992 by Special Rider Musi
Bob Dylan
About the Album, The Times They Are a-Changin’
The Times They Are a-Changin' is singer-songwriter Bob Dylan's third studio album, released in January
1964 by Columbia Records.
Produced by Tom Wilson, it is the singer-songwriter's first collection to feature only original
compositions. The album consists mostly of stark, sparsely-arranged story songs concerning issues such
as racism, poverty, and social. The title track is one of Dylan's most famous; many felt that it captured
the spirit of social and political upheaval that characterized the 1960s.
Some critics and fans were not quite as taken with the album as a whole, relative to his previous work,
for its lack of humor or musical diversity. Still, The Times They Are a-Changin' entered the US chart at
#20, eventually going gold, and belatedly reaching #4 in the UK in 1965.
About the title track, “The Times They Are a-Changin’”
Dylan recalled writing the song as a deliberate attempt to create an anthem of change for the moment.
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'. I wanted to write a big song, with short concise verses that piled up on each other in a
hypnotic way. The civil rights movement and the folk music movement were pretty close for a while and
allied together at that time.”
A self-conscious protest song, it is often viewed as a reflection of the generation gap and of the political
divides marking American culture in the 1960s. Dylan, however, disputed this interpretation in 1964,
saying "Those were the only words I could find to separate aliveness from deadness. It had nothing to do
with age." A year later, Dylan would say: "I can't really say that adults don't understand young people
any more than you can say big fishes don't understand little fishes. I didn't mean "The Times They Are aChangin'" as a statement... It's a feeling."
Name: ______________________________________________________________
Hr. __________
Bob Dylan’s, “The Times They Are A-Changin’”
(1) Who do you think is the audience for this song?
(2) What do you think is Dylan’s intended purpose for this song?
(3) Based on the lyrics, do you think that Dylan saw change as inventible? Or do you think he was
trying to stir action towards change? Explain.
(4) What do the ideas of this song tell you about the Counter-Culture movement?
(5) “The Times They Are a-Changin’” is often referenced today, and is still a popular song. What
about the themes of the song do you think make it universal?