The Times They Are a-Changin' (3:14)

“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.”