"The Times They Are a-Changin is a song written by
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan; born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Described as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture over his nearly 70-year ...
and released as the title track of his
1964 album of the same name. Dylan wrote the song as a deliberate attempt to create an
anthem
An anthem is a musical composition of celebration, usually used as a symbol for a distinct group, particularly the national anthems of countries. Originally, and in music theory and religious contexts, it also refers more particularly to sho ...
of change for the time, influenced by Irish and Scottish ballads. Released as a
45-rpm single in Britain in 1965, it reached number 9 on the
UK Singles Chart.
The song was not released as a single in the US. In 2025 it was certified Gold by
BPI.
Ever since its release, the song has been influential to people's views on society, with critics noting the universal lyrics as contributing to the song's lasting message of change. According to Dylan's official website, between 1963 and 2009 he performed the song 633 times, which makes it his 23rd most-performed song as of June 2023. The song has been covered by many different artists, including
Nina Simone
Nina Simone ( ; born Eunice Kathleen Waymon; February 21, 1933 – April 21, 2003) was an American singer, pianist, songwriter, and civil rights activist. Her music spanned styles including classical, folk, gospel, blues, jazz, R&B, and po ...
;
Josephine Baker
Freda Josephine Baker (; June 3, 1906 – April 12, 1975), naturalized as Joséphine Baker, was an American and French dancer, singer, and actress. Her career was centered primarily in Europe, mostly in France. She was the first Black woman to s ...
;
the Byrds
The Byrds () were an American Rock music, rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1964. The band underwent multiple lineup changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn (known as Jim McGuinn until mid-1967) being the so ...
;
the Seekers
The Seekers were an Australian folk music, folk-influenced pop music, pop group originally formed in Melbourne in 1962. They were the first Australian pop music group to achieve major chart and sales success in the United Kingdom and the Unit ...
;
Peter, Paul and Mary
Peter, Paul and Mary were an American Contemporary folk music, folk group formed in New York City in 1961 during the American folk music revival. The trio consisted of Peter Yarrow (guitar, tenor vocals), Paul Stookey (guitar, baritone vocals), ...
;
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman (born March 30, 1964) is an American singer-songwriter, widely known for her hit singles " Fast Car" (1988) and " Give Me One Reason" (1995).
She was signed to Elektra Records by Bob Krasnow in 1987. The following year she rel ...
;
Simon & Garfunkel
Simon & Garfunkel were an American folk rock duo comprising the singer-songwriter Paul Simon and the singer Art Garfunkel. They were one of the best-selling music acts of the 1960s. Their most famous recordings include three US number-one sing ...
;
Blackmore's Night
Blackmore's Night is a British-American neo-medieval folk rock band formed in 1997, consisting mainly of Ritchie Blackmore (acoustic guitar, hurdy gurdy, mandola, mandolin, nyckelharpa, and electric guitar) and Candice Night (lead vocals, lyr ...
;
Runrig
Runrig were a Scottish Celtic rock band formed on the Isle of Skye in 1973. From its inception, the band's line-up included brothers and songwriters Rory MacDonald (musician), Rory MacDonald (bass, vocals) and Calum MacDonald (musician), Calum ...
;
the Beach Boys
The Beach Boys are an American Rock music, rock band formed in Hawthorne, California, in 1961. The group's original lineup consisted of brothers Brian Wilson, Brian, Dennis Wilson, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and their f ...
;
Joan Baez
Joan Chandos Baez (, ; born January 9, 1941) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and activist. Her contemporary folk music often includes songs of protest and social justice. Baez has performed publicly for over 60 years, releasing mo ...
;
Phil Collins
Philip David Charles Collins (born 30 January 1951) is an English musician, songwriter, record producer and actor. He was the drummer and later became the lead singer of the rock band Genesis (band), Genesis and had a successful solo career, ac ...
;
Billy Joel
William Martin Joel (born May 9, 1949) is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Piano Man" after his Signature song, signature 1973 song Piano Man (song), of the same name, Joel has ha ...
;
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949) is an American Rock music, rock singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Nicknamed "the Boss", Springsteen has released 21 studio albums spanning six decades; most of his albums feature th ...
;
Me First and the Gimme Gimmes;
Brandi Carlile
Brandi Marie Carlile (born June 1, 1981) is an American singer-songwriter and producer. Her music spans different genres, including folk rock, alternative country, Americana, and classic rock. Throughout her career, she has received eleven Gramm ...
; and
Burl Ives
Burl Icle Ivanhoe Ives (June 14, 1909 – April 14, 1995) was an American Folk music, folk singer and actor with a career that spanned more than six decades.
Ives began his career as an itinerant singer and guitarist, eventually launching his o ...
. The song was ranked number 59 on ''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason.
The magazine was first known fo ...
''
's 2004 list of the
"500 Greatest Songs of All Time".
Inspiration and composition
Dylan appears to have written the song in September and October 1963. He recorded it as a
Witmark publishing demo at that time, a version that was later released on ''
The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961–1991
''The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3'' is a box set by Bob Dylan issued on Columbia Records. It is the first installment in Dylan's Bootleg Series, comprising material spanning the first three decades of his career, from 1961 to 1989. It has been ...
''. The song was then recorded at
Columbia Studios in New York on October 23 and 24; the latter session yielding the version that became the title song of Dylan's third album.
[Gray (2006). ''The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia''. p. 662.] The ''
a-'' in the song title is an archaic intensifying prefix, as in the British songs "
A-Hunting We Will Go" and "
Here We Come a-Wassailing", from the 18th and 19th century.
Dylan recalled writing the song as a deliberate attempt to create an anthem of change for the moment. In 1985, he told
Cameron Crowe
Cameron Bruce Crowe (born July 13, 1957) is an American filmmaker and journalist. He has received numerous accolades including an Academy Award, BAFTA Award, and Grammy Award as well as a nomination for a Tony Award. Crowe started his career a ...
, "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."
[ Crowe, Cameron (1985). Liner notes. ''Biograph''.]
Dylan biographer
Clinton Heylin
Clinton Heylin (born 8 April 1960) is an English author. Heylin has written extensively about popular music, especially on the life and work of Bob Dylan.
Education
Heylin attended Manchester Grammar School. He read history at Bedford College ...
describes how musician
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."
Critic
Michael Gray called it "the archetypal
protest song
A protest song is a song that is associated with a movement for protest and social change and hence part of the broader category of ''topical'' songs (or songs connected to current events). It may be folk, classical, or commercial in genre.
...
." Gray commented, "Dylan's aim was to ride upon the unvoiced sentiment of a mass public—to give that inchoate sentiment an anthem and give its clamour an outlet. He succeeded, but the language of the song is nevertheless imprecisely and very generally directed."
Gray suggested that the song has been made obsolete by the very changes that it predicted and hence was politically out of date almost as soon as it was written.
Literary critic
Christopher Ricks
Sir Christopher Bruce Ricks (born 18 September 1933) is a British literary critic and scholar. He is the William M. and Sara B. Warren Professor of the Humanities at Boston University (US), co-director of the Editorial Institute at Boston ...
suggested that "the song transcends the political preoccupations of the time in which it was written". Ricks argued in 2003 that Dylan was still performing the song, and when he sang "Your sons and your daughters / Are beyond your command", he "sang inescapably with the accents not of a son, no longer perhaps primarily a parent, but with the attitude of a grandfather." Ricks concluded, "Once upon a time it may have been a matter of urging square people to accept the fact that their children were, you know, hippies. But the capacious urging could then come to mean that ex-hippie parents had better accept that their children look like becoming yuppies. And then
Republicans..."
Critic Andy Gill points out that the song's lyrics echo lines from the
Book of Ecclesiastes, which
Pete Seeger
Peter Seeger (May 3, 1919 – January 27, 2014) was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and social activist. He was a fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s and had a string of hit records in the early 1950s as a member of The Weav ...
adapted to create his anthem "
Turn, Turn, Turn!". The climactic line about the first later being last, likewise, is a direct scriptural reference to
Mark
Mark may refer to:
In the Bible
* Mark the Evangelist (5–68), traditionally ascribed author of the Gospel of Mark
* Gospel of Mark, one of the four canonical gospels and one of the three synoptic gospels
Currencies
* Mark (currency), a currenc ...
10:31: "But many that are first shall be last, and the last first."
[Gill (1999). ''My Back Pages'', pp. 42–43.]
Less than a month after Dylan recorded the song,
President Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963. The next night, Dylan opened a concert with "The Times They Are a-Changin; he told biographer
Anthony Scaduto, "I thought, 'Wow, how can I open with that song? I'll get rocks thrown at me.' But I had to sing it, my whole concert takes off from there. I know I had no understanding of anything. Something had just gone haywire in the country and they were applauding the song. And I couldn't understand why they were clapping, or why I wrote the song. I couldn't understand anything. For me, it was just insane."
Certifications
The Byrds' version
"The Times They Are a-Changin was one of two Dylan covers that
the Byrds
The Byrds () were an American Rock music, rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1964. The band underwent multiple lineup changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn (known as Jim McGuinn until mid-1967) being the so ...
included on their second album, ''
Turn! Turn! Turn!'', "
Lay Down Your Weary Tune" being the other.
Like other Dylan compositions that the band had covered, such as "
Mr. Tambourine Man" and "
All I Really Want to Do", the song was intended to be the
A-side
The A-side and B-side are the two sides of vinyl records and cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a single usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or ...
of a single. It was sung by bandleader
Jim McGuinn and prominently features his signature
twelve-string Rickenbacker
Rickenbacker International Corporation is a string instrument manufacturer based in Santa Ana, California. Rickenbacker is the first known maker of electric guitars, with a steel guitar in 1932, and produces a range of electric guitars and bass ...
guitar. The song was often played at concerts surrounding its release.
George Harrison
George Harrison (25 February 1943 – 29 November 2001) was an English musician, singer and songwriter who achieved international fame as the lead guitarist of the Beatles. Sometimes called "the quiet Beatle", Harrison embraced Culture ...
and
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained global fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and the piano, and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John ...
of
the Beatles
The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...
attended the Byrds' recording of the song on September1, 1965, at
Columbia's studios on
Sunset Boulevard
Sunset Boulevard is a boulevard in the central and western part of Los Angeles, California, United States, that stretches from the Pacific Coast Highway (California), Pacific Coast Highway in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, Pacific Palisad ...
. Members of the Byrds' later reflected that the presence of the two Beatles prevented them from completing the track effectively.
originally pressed thousands of cover sleeves for the intended single, but the Byrds' manager,
Jim Dickson, asked for the release to be dropped because of the group's dissatisfaction, most vocally expressed by
David Crosby
David Van Cortlandt Crosby (August 14, 1941 – January 18, 2023) was an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He first found fame as a member of the Byrds, with whom he helped pioneer the genres of folk rock and psychedelic music, psych ...
; Dickson originally thought the song would have made a strong single. In a 2004 interview,
Chris Hillman
Christopher Hillman (born December 4, 1944) is an American musician. He was the original bassist of the Byrds. With frequent collaborator Gram Parsons, Hillman was a key figure in the development of country rock, defining the genre through his w ...
stated his dislike for the song, suggesting that "we shouldn't have bothered with that song".
Another version of the song, recorded in June, is a bonus track on the 1996 reissue. "
Turn! Turn! Turn!" ended up becoming the band's third single, reaching number 1 on the U.S.
''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart and number 26 on the
UK Singles Chart.
The Byrds performed the song on the U.S.
television program
A television show, TV program (), or simply a TV show, is the general reference to any content produced for viewing on a television set that is broadcast via Terrestrial television, over-the-air, Satellite television, satellite, and cable te ...
''Hullabaloo'', but it failed to make a long-term impact.
CBS England issued "The Times They Are a-Changin as the lead track of an
EP, along with "
Set You Free This Time", written by
Gene Clark
Harold Eugene Clark (November 17, 1944 – May 24, 1991) was an American singer-songwriter and founding member of the folk rock band the Byrds. He was the Byrds' principal songwriter between 1964 and early 1966, writing most of the band's best ...
, which was moderately successful.
In addition to its appearance on the Byrds' second album, "The Times They Are a-Changin is included on several Byrds
compilations, including ''
The Byrds' Greatest Hits Volume II'', ''
The Very Best of The Byrds'', ''
The Byrds
The Byrds () were an American Rock music, rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1964. The band underwent multiple lineup changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn (known as Jim McGuinn until mid-1967) being the so ...
'', ''
The Essential Byrds'', ''
There Is a Season'', and ''
The Byrds Play Dylan''.
Later history
In January 1984, a young
Steve Jobs
Steven Paul Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) was an American businessman, inventor, and investor best known for co-founding the technology company Apple Inc. Jobs was also the founder of NeXT and chairman and majority shareholder o ...
recited the second verse of "The Times They Are a-Changin in his opening of the 1984 Apple shareholders meeting, where he famously unveiled the
Macintosh
Mac is a brand of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 1984. The name is short for Macintosh (its official name until 1999), a reference to the McIntosh (apple), McIntosh apple. The current product lineup inclu ...
computer for the first time.
The "Dylan Covers Database" listed 436 recordings, including bootlegs, of this song as of October 19, 2009. According to the same database, the song has been recorded in at least 14 other languages, such as Catalán, Czech, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Polish, Serbian, Spanish, and Swedish.
Hip hop group
Public Enemy
Public Enemy is an American Hip-hop, hip hop group formed in Roosevelt, New York, in 1985 by Chuck D and Flavor Flav. The group rose to prominence for their political messages including subjects such as Racism in the United States, American r ...
reference it in their 2007 Dylan tribute song "
Long and Whining Road": "It's been a long and whining road, even though time keeps a-changin' / I'm a bring it all back home".
In 2009, the filmmaker
Michael Moore
Michael Francis Moore is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and author. Moore's work frequently addresses various Social issue, social, political, and economic topics. He first became publicly known for his award-winning debut ...
sang the third verse of the song live on ''
The Jay Leno Show
''The Jay Leno Show'' is an American prime time talk show hosted by Jay Leno that was broadcast by NBC from September 14, 2009, to February 9, 2010. The series was a spiritual successor to his previous late-night talk show ''The Tonight Show wit ...
'' after being told that he had to "earn" a clip from his film ''
Capitalism: A Love Story'' to be shown.
On December 10, 2010, Dylan's hand-written lyrics of the song were sold at auction at
Sotheby's
Sotheby's ( ) is a British-founded multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine art, fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, an ...
, in New York, for $422,500. They were purchased by a
hedge fund
A hedge fund is a Pooling (resource management), pooled investment fund that holds Market liquidity, liquid assets and that makes use of complex trader (finance), trading and risk management techniques to aim to improve investment performance and ...
manager.
The song is included in "The 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll", a permanent exhibit at the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (RRHOF), also simply referred to as the Rock Hall, is a museum and hall of fame located in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States, on the shore of Lake Erie. The museum documents the history of rock music and the ...
.
Billy Bragg
Stephen William Bragg (born 20 December 1957) is an English singer, songwriter, musician, author and political activist. His music blends elements of folk music, punk rock and protest songs, with lyrics that mostly span political or romantic th ...
covered the song but altered the lyrics to make it a protest song dealing with the issues of 2017. Bragg sang lyrics such as "Accept it that soon you'll be drenched to the bone/For the climate is obviously changing," and "But the man in the White House says no one's to blame/For the times, they are a-changing back."
A cover of the song by singer Susan Calloway was used in a commercial for the
2022 Stanley Cup Finals. The commercial featured an edited sequence of handoffs of the
Stanley Cup
The Stanley Cup () is the championship trophy awarded annually to the National Hockey League (NHL) playoff champion. It is the oldest existing trophy to be awarded to a professional sports franchise in North America, and the International Ic ...
between notable former Cup winning players with Calloway's version accompanying.
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (sometimes abbreviated NGDB), also known as the Dirt Band, is an American band founded in Long Beach, California, in 1966. Since 2018, the band has consisted of Jeff Hanna and his son Jaime Hanna, both guitarists and voc ...
covered the song in 2021 with guest vocals from
Jason Isbell
Michael Jason Isbell ( ; born February 1, 1979) is an American singer-songwriter and actor. One of the most celebrated contemporary songwriters in his genre, his lyrics are defined by their raw emotional honesty. Isbell began his career as a me ...
,
Steve Earle,
Rosanne Cash
Rosanne Cash (born May 24, 1955) is an American singer-songwriter and author. She is the eldest daughter of country musician Johnny Cash and his first wife, Vivian Cash.
Although Cash is often classified as a country artist, her music draws f ...
, and
the War and Treaty, for their album ''Dirt Does Dylan''. Proceeds from sales of their version were donated to
Feeding America
Feeding America is a United States–based Nonprofit organization, non-profit organization that is a nationwide network of more than 200 food banks that feed more than 46 million people through food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters, and other c ...
.
Notes
References
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External links
Lyrics at Bob Dylan's official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Times They Are A-Changin', The
1963 songs
1965 singles
Bob Dylan songs
The Byrds songs
Songs written by Bob Dylan
Song recordings produced by Tom Wilson (record producer)
Columbia Records singles
Articles containing video clips
Political songs