Bob Dylan - The Times They Are A-Changin
- FaceOff - עימות חזיתי
- 3 days ago
- 4 min read
Written By: Moti Kupfer
Release date - 13.01.1964
“How many roads must a man walk down before you call him a man?”
In May 1963, this authentic cry burst into the world through "Blowin' in the Wind", a protest song by Bob Dylan that became the voice of a generation. The song introduced a new kind of revolutionary to the public a revolutionary of words a civil rights activist a white musician and a Jew by origin who refused to accept that there was only one way to see the world.
Dylan was perceived as far more than a songwriter. He intuitively understood the anxieties of America’s new young generation the Cuban Missile Crisis the fear of nuclear weapons that could destroy the world and the deep uncertainty about the future.
A few months later as Dylan became a central figure in the civil rights movement his protest songs grew sharper in tone. Where earlier his writing approached these issues with tolerance and cautious optimism his third album The Times They Are A-Changin', released on January 13 1964 presents a far more cynical and sophisticated political worldview.
On this album Dylan sings with wit and venom. He is no longer willing to be forgiving toward the forces in the Western world that enable racism and poverty. For a moment Dylan sees himself as a man trying to save America from itself holding up an unflattering mirror that forces the nation to confront reality and change its ways.
This third album by Bob Dylan is one of the rare moments in his catalog written primarily for and about other people. These are not his own personal experiences being documented here but the lives and injustices surrounding him.
The title track "The Times They Are A-Changin'" opens the album with a melody driven by motion and urgency aiming to change the world for the better. It serves as a stark and direct introduction to the album’s critical atmosphere. Dylan later recalled writing it as a deliberate attempt to create an anthem of change the sense that times are shifting like generations fading in and out more a feeling than a scientifically proven claim.
In "Ballad of Hollis Brown", Dylan tells a bleak rural story of a South Dakota farmer who murders his starving family and then takes his own life driven by crushing poverty.
On the third track "With God on Our Side", Dylan dissects the role of God in human history moving from the genocide of Native Americans through the American Civil War World War I World War II the Holocaust and even the betrayal of Jesus by Judas Iscariot.
Almost everyone has experienced the disappointment of a relationship a breakup or a hope that never fully materialized ending too soon and leaving a bitter aftertaste. Dylan distills that feeling into the 158 seconds of "One Too Many Mornings". Virginia Minnesota is a small town near Hibbing part of the Mesabi Iron Range once dominated by open pit mining. In 1917 the entire town of Hibbing was moved two kilometers south to allow mining beneath it. During World War I World War II and the Korean War the economy flourished as demand for iron surged. By the mid 1950s however the richest ore deposits were gone and the region collapsed into decline. Dylan born in 1941 was deeply familiar with the trauma this caused even though his own family was not directly affected.
Against this backdrop "North Country Blues" addresses the despair of the mining worker and Dylan clearly identifies with the miner’s suffering.
In "Only a Pawn in Their Game", Dylan portrays poor and powerless white Americans as pawns in the hands of politicians and the wealthy who when it suits them incite the poor white man to murder Black Americans. The song refers directly to the assassination of civil rights activist Medgar Evers.
This line continues in "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll", which recounts the killing of 51 year old barmaid Hattie Carroll by wealthy young William Devereux “Billy” Zantzinger and the shockingly light sentence of six months in jail. The real incident occurred on February 9 1963 at a ball held at the Emerson Hotel in Baltimore Maryland. Dylan’s song strongly implies though never explicitly states that Carroll was Black and Zantzinger white. The song suggests Zantzinger beat Carroll to death with his cane. After Carroll died the following morning Zantzinger was charged with manslaughter but this was reduced after it was revealed that Carroll suffered from hardened arteries an enlarged heart and high blood pressure and likely died from a cerebral hemorrhage caused by the stress of Zantzinger’s verbal and physical abuse rather than the assault itself.
In August 1963 Dylan was involved in an incident with a hotel clerk who refused him entry to his room after judging his appearance and suspecting he was unfit. Dylan’s partner at the time singer Joan Baez intervened and vouched for his character. Dylan later wrote "When the Ship Comes In" in response also drawing inspiration from "Pirate Jenny" by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill.
About three weeks after recording for the album concluded John Fitzgerald Kennedy was assassinated. Dylan was devastated seeing Kennedy as a genuine hope for change. His death felt like a crushing hammer blow to Dylan’s aspirations of reshaping America.
Seen from today’s perspective more than six decades after its release “The Times They Are A-Changin’” reveals a political landscape far wider yet far more deceptive than before. Information flows freely yet trust is harder to place. These songs remain a sincere and deeply inspiring act from a Dylan who no longer exists. Fans first truly began listening to what Dylan had to say because of this album. It is a shame that those who shape our daily reality still rarely stop to absorb the messages of old Bob.
For Listening: Spotify, Apple Music
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