Bobby Dylan Told Me the Times, They are a' Changing

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Bobby Dylan Told Me the Times, They are a' Changing

Submitted by Mike on Sat, 01/26/2008 - 12:14pm.

I keep my cd clips on my computer and use real player or songbird to shuffle songs and this morning, the shuffle function brought up Bobby Dylan's wonderful old tune suggesting that the times were changing. This song, the Youngbloods song Get Together, some Crosby Stills and Nash, lots of Grateful Dead, these songs were playing all around me a few decades ago. So many seem naive today, and Bobby's sense that change was coming certainly feels naive today as this country wages war that are so reminiscent of the Vietnam War that was the backdrop for the musical soundtrack of my youth, but be that as it may be, I still want to believe that Bobby has this figured right.

Here are the lyrics, courtesy of www.bobdylan.com:

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'.

Mike's blog
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The Dead's music...

Submitted by The Original Yoda on Sun, 01/27/2008 - 1:56am.

...still seems revelant to me. When they chose a Dylan tune, they didn't choose a naive one.

Desolation Row is more revelant than ever, no?

As far as my take on the sentiments of "The Times They Are A-Changing" goes:

It was practically a new anthem for a revolution that almost was. Sometimes, I wonder what the world could be like now if...things had gone differently.

New times call for new songs but who will sing them, eh? I love the "older" stuff. The 60's were absolutely, without question, the equivilant of a renaissance it American music.

revolution lost

Submitted by Mike on Sun, 01/27/2008 - 10:15am.

It was practically a new anthem for a revolution that almost was. Sometimes, I wonder what the world could be like now if...things had gone differently.

Yes, I think it came out about 63 or 64. It was a couple of years ahead of its time and I think it could not foresee the brutal efficiency of the reaction to a revolution against militarism. I think it could not foresee the killing of folks like Fred Hampton, Malcolm X, RFK, MLK and other "extremists" and the toll that would take on the movement.

Will post Desolation Row. It is a bit of a bookend to the times are changing.

Thanks

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