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"The Times They Are a-Changin" is a song written by Bob Dylan and released on his 1964 album of the same name. In 2004, this song was #59 on Rolling Stone's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

Dylan's friend, Tony Glover, recalls visiting Dylan's apartment in September 1963, where he saw a number of song manuscripts and poems lying on a table. "The Times They Are-a Changin'" had yet to be recorded, but Glover saw its early manuscript. After reading the words "come senators, congressmen, please heed the call", Glover reportedly asked Dylan: "What is this shit, man?", to which Dylan responded, "Well, you know, it seems to be what the people like to hear".

A protest song, it is often viewed as a reflection of the generation gap and of the political divide 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 a-Changin'] as a statement... It's a feeling."

The song was used at the end of The Wonder Years episode #67 and has been confirmed to be used overt the opening credits of the upcoming Watchmen film.

Cover versions

The song has been covered by many other people, most notably Joan Baez, The Seekers, The Byrds,Marc Bolan , Peter Paul and Mary, Phil Collins, Simon and Garfunkel, and Nina Simone (on 1969s To Love Somebody), and recently by Blackmore's Night and Les Fradkin.

Keb' Mo' covered this song in his 2004 album "Peace . . . Back by Popular Demand". This version of the song was used in episode 8, season 5 of Boston Legal.

The Beach Boys recorded a cover of the song for their 1965 album Beach Boys' Party!. The Byrds also recorded a cover of the song for their 1965 album Turn! Turn! Turn!.

Bruce Springsteen covered this song, with Dylan in attendance, in a concert to honor the artist at The Kennedy Center.¹

Burl Ives covered the song on his 1968 album The Times They Are A-Changin', named after Dylan's song.

Billy Joel was another famous artist who covered this song, the track can be found on the album My Lives.

John Mellencamp made a home-video recording of the song on a web-cam on September 2, 2008 and put it up on his website the next day as a statement about the possible change the 2008 Presidential Election could bring to America.

Damien Leith also covered this song for his 2008 album Catch the Wind: Songs of a Generation.

Me First and the Gimme Gimmes covered the song in their EP Turn Japanese.

A Whisper in the Noise covered this song for the movie "Lady In The Water".

References

External links

• Lyrics at official Bob Dylan site

Wikipedia content modification information:

• This page was last modified on 25 November 2008, at 20:46.

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