Bob DylanThe Times They Are A-Changin' (3:14)

On 67 albums see all

Buy at Amazon MP3 ($0.99) | Send Ringtones to Cell
More options
Save

Shouts: 299 shouts

Share this track:
Know about a video for this track?
Help build Last.fm by adding it.

About This Track

“The Times They Are a-Changin” is a song written by Bob Dylan and released on his 1964 album of the same name.
Dylan appears to have written the song in September and October 1963. He offered it as a Witmark music publishing demo in that month—a version that was finally released on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961–1991. The song was then recorded in the Columbia studios in New York on the 23rd and 24th October, and the latter yielded the version that became the title song of Dylan’s third album.

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.”
Dylan biographer Clinton Heylin recounts how 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.”
Read more… Edit
Send Ringtones to Cell

Albums featuring this track

See all 67 albums

Shouts

Leave a comment. Log in to Last.fm or sign up (it’s free).
See all 299 shouts

Track Stats

2,190,777 Scrobbles 388,918 Listeners

Recent Listening Trend

Listening Now

Top Listeners

See more

Recent Activity

Related Journals

See more