The Times They Are A-Changin'
by Bob Dylan

From DriftingOrpheus 01/21/2022 20:28 | #279798 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

1964 was a turbulent year for the United States of America. Injustice violated the air with a stench that, at its best, resembled cigar smoke caked into waterlogged, whiskey-stained clothing. At its worst, it conjured the fragrance of rotting corpses piled into black plague mass graves. A societal powder keg was ready to burst, sending shrapnel in the form of violence and revolution across the land. Chronicles of this time in history are aplenty, but Bob Dylan's 'The Times They are A-Changin' occupies a place of poignance and societal relevance as our newest decade commences. The greatest art tends to come rocket-strapped with perennial staying power and universal application. Bob Dylan's third LP effort slides comfortably into those categories and classifications. It touches upon righteous, homely, American ethnocentrism, the painful ineffectiveness of the justice system and selective poverty. Despite Dylan rejecting the label of "Protest Songs", journalists flocked to confine his writing to an ideological box that they could present to the curious and quick-to-judge public. Dylan coyly sat on the fence during interviews which felt more like police interrogations, never confirming or denying anything. Still, the lyricism said more than Dylan ever could, surely illuminating the fact that the poet staunchly sympathized with the plight of the racially suppressed and disenfranchised. The inner shade of Dylan's heart was never in doubt with his position usually reserved for artists of color, those with intentions of questioning the status quo when it came to inequality in the United States. To hear a mid-western, white youth comment on the hypocrisy of American military conquest, the hideousness of white nationalism and imbalanced nature of wealth distribution was refreshing to millions and for thousands more fortunate, feather ruffling. 'The Times They are A-Changin' is concurrently a pinpoint, flaming arrow aimed at the controversial topics of the 1960's and a philosophical thought cloud of ideas and wisdom. All this from a scrawny, Minnesota-born New Yorker who could seemingly wear both hats and walk in all kinds of shoes.

The record greets us with the eternal strums of an acoustic guitar as Dylan's voice, strained and imperfect, a survivor of house fire, arrives with its own visage. The seminal opener chugs along at a fixed tempo, adorned with harmonica bursts that enliven the docile guitar tones. The harmonica, a humble and inexpensive instrument that acted as a trusted companion for many, was Dylan's weapon of choice during his early years. He declares, "Come mothers and fathers throughout the land and don't criticize what you can't understand." His prophetic and anthemic rallying cry has endured for nearly 60 years since it first graced ears. The album turns to a significantly grimmer beast with the introduction of second track, 'Ballad of Hollis Brown', a look at a poverty-stricken farmer in rural South Dakota. Dylan takes his tale of desperation and uses it as an allegory for those struggling with destitution. The metaphors are intentionally fatalistic, but many could view them as exaggerated. Here, Dylan's goal is to establish perspective, not provide a factual retelling. It's merely a painting of despair to be learned from. Dylan sings, "Your brain is a-bleedin' and your legs can’t seem to stand; Your eyes fix on the shotgun that you’re holding in your hand." The expanding wage distribution, in Dylan's estimation, provides a slow death with one alternative. One of Dylan's darkest, yet powerful statements. Next, he confronts an extremely prevalent bias during the middle of the 20th century in the United States. 'With God on Our Side' creates an image of an elitist America, one that can do no wrong and is justified, no matter the bloodshed. Dylan sees toxic patriotism acting as a slow, indoctrinating cancer (another contemporary issue). He wails, "The First World War, boys, it came and it went; The reason for fightin' I never did get but I learned to accept it, accept it with pride; For you don’t count the dead when God’s on your side." The arrogance needed to assume God identifies with a specific country's crusade is elephantine, however, it's a belief typified by the Pledge of Allegiance and by swearing upon a bible. Dylan's character comes to the realization that God's love is reserved for people and not places and that a country is just a plot of land and nothing more. Sadly, it's usually the prize for which fighting is done. The Vietnam War enveloped the decade and Dylan's parable is forever an unheeded warning.

The second half of the record begins with 'Only a Pawn in Their Game', another narration confronting hatred and prejudice, this time by way of propaganda and inculcation. The track examines lower-income, white southerners who are brainwashed into hating their black neighbors with an end goal of sustained oppression. Dylan illustrates this with syntax, "A South politician preaches to the poor white man “You got more than the blacks, don’t complain; You’re better than them, you been born with white skin." The simple instrumentation of 'Pawn' and the stressed rhyme repetition make sure that the message doesn't get clouded beneath the music. However, Dylan doesn't refuse the chance to include a romantic ballad on the LP. 'Boots of Spanish Leather' is a letter-exchanged anecdote of longing and gradual realization. The song is tinted by delicately plucked strings and alternating perspectives that create a gloomy overtone that comes to fruition when the narrator surmises the final fate of his crumbling union across a vast ocean. "I’m sure your mind is a-roamin'; I’m sure your thoughts are not with me but with the country to where you’re goin." The record arrives at an uptick in morale with 'When the Ship Comes In', an affirmative, inspirational testification that the future holds brighter days and that those who engage in tyranny and bigotry will eventually be overcome. Finally, LP centerpiece, 'The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll', draws inspiration from the murder of an African-American barmaid by the wealthy William Zantzinger. The track directs scrutiny at the murderer for devaluing the life of a woman he deemed "lesser than" and the justice system for (mostly) turning a blind eye. Dylan delivers the verdict, "And handed out strongly, for penalty and repentance, William Zanzinger with a six-month sentence." The track is a microcosm of the record's major themes and an unsettling reminder that justice remains imbalanced.

Dylan was just 23 years of age when 'Times' was first pressed, but his incredible perception was decades his senior. The clairvoyance of his prose is even parts astonishing and tragic given that little has changed since his pen first hit the paper. The poetry of these 10 tracks easily sit amongst the scribe's most visceral compositions. The album presents Dylan at perhaps his most uncompromising and forthright, functioning as his final, unabashed protest record. Oddly, the LP is often shunned from the 1960's landmark music rolodex with albums such as 'Highway 61 Revisited', 'Bringing It All Back Home' and even 'The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan' achieving a higher sense of reverence. Strangely enough, its content makes it a contender for his most topical, underrated and pertinent enterprise, both in 1964 and 2021. Dylan's uncanny ability to find the pulse of the given zeitgeist has never been in doubt, as he's strung together lyrical encapsulations at will for 60 years. Here, he weaves sorrow and hope into a homogeneous, digestible whole the likes of which none could reproduce. The power of 'Times' does not lie in division, but in a belief that human morality will win out. It's a beautiful sentiment and an eternal principle. In some ways, we're still waiting.

"And we’ll shout from the bow your days are numbered
And like Pharoah’s tribe they’ll be drowdned in the tide
and like Goliath, they’ll be conquered."

-When the Ship Comes In

Standout Tracks:

1. The Times They are A-Changin'
2. The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
3. When the Ship Comes In

94.4 (Edited)

From Mercury TOP 100 COMMENTER 09/28/2013 20:37 | #87100 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

This was the first album I ever listened to in full by Bob. And "Ballad of Hollis Brown" was the song that fully brought home the power of the man. That song is still perhaps my favorite Dylan songs, certainly top 5. It's so morbid and brutal and lonesome and intensity drips from every word and note. So glorious.

The album as a whole is in many ways just as great as "Freewheelin'". It's a far more dark and serious and grim album than the aforementioned album. It's less varied in style and sound than "Freewheelin'" but almost as condistent. The classics are here in plenty.

And any album that is this great and pure and also influenced Townes Van Zandt, is one of the all-time greats as far as I am concerned.

97/100

Bob's third album, and if there was ever a record in Dylan's career that deserved the protest album tag, this was it. This was Bob giving them what they wanted. The ills of society were what mattered here, and Dylan gives us it in droves, or at lest ten songs. It's a heavy album in terms of his lyrics, and though I really like the record, it's certainly not one of Dylan's most enjoyable long players. The title track off course is timeless, one of his best. I also like, when the ship comes in, which is of lighter tone than most everything else here. The lonesome death of Hattie Carroll, is one of the few protest songs from Dylan actually based on a true story. With God on our side, is one of his best from this period, and there are three nice ballads, one too many mornings, boots of Spanish leather, and, restless farewell, which is possibly Bob saying goodbye to protest music. It's a very good album overall, just not one for the Christmas party.

This is a step up from "The Freewhelin", but also a sign of things to come. "Hollis Brown", "Only a Pawn in their game" "With God on our side" And the title track, all great Dylan songs. (Edited)

This album is under-rated on this site. The title track is an anthem for a generation. "Ballad of Hollis Brown" is brilliant and haunting - masterful story-telling - a throw-back to the death ballads from many years before. "With God On Our Side" is fabulous lyrically and the last verse just blows the roof off. "Only A Pawn In Their Game" - such an interesting perspective. "Boots Of Spanish Leather" is easy to overlook among all the "social observation stuff" on the album but is again a great example of folk/story-telling. "When The Ship Comes In" has such brilliant imagery - may be a bit derivative but is a wonderful song. "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll" is at a level of lyricism that few have ever reached.