The Times They Are A-Changin' lyrics by Bob Dylan, 4 meanings. The Times They Are A-Changin' explained, official 2024 song lyrics | LyricsMode.com
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Bob Dylan – The Times They Are A-Changin' lyrics
Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall

For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside
And it is ragin'
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'
.

Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin'
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'.

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin'
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'.
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Lyrics taken from /lyrics/b/bob_dylan/the_times_they_are_a_changin.html

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Songwriters: Bob Dylan
The Times They Are A-Changin' lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

The Times They Are A-Changin' meanings

  • m
    + 4
    MadeInTheGhetto
    I think its about the change that hippie movement was attempting to bring about. He was urging people(politicians, parents, the media) to not judge the ideals of the youth.
    Some people(the media, parents) saw the hippies as troublemakers and were fearful of how big this counter-culture was growing. The government saw them as socialist-pacifists that were becoming the biggest cultural phenomenon ever and feared they could become a threat to oppressive capitalist society and states such as the us and uk; much like the British saw meetings of revolutionaries during pre-revolution America as a threat to British control over the colonies.
    Dylan begging for people not to fear the change.
    Add your reply
  • d
    + 3
    DGG
    It is about the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Pub.L. 88–352, 78 Stat. 241, enacted July 2, 1964) is a landmark piece of civil rights legislation in the United States that outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. It ended unequal application of voter registration requirements and racial segregation in schools, at the workplace and by facilities that served the general public (known as "public accommodations").
    He's calling on the Senators and Congressmen to not stand in the way of this landmark legislation.
    "Come senators, congressmen
    Please heed the call
    Don't stand in the doorway
    Don't block up the hall"
    Add your reply
  • r
    + 2
    Raji Tailor
    This song predates (or was, at least, at the beginning of) the hippie movement - written around '64 or 5. But Dylan was a visionary/poet. He ran with the East Coast radical singers and songwriters of his time. He was in an on again, off again relationship with Joan Baez and may even Predate his time at" Big Pink" - a shared house and recording studio in upstate New York.
    Add your reply
  • U
    + 2
    Unregistered
    The times today are similar. In the sixties there was a war which was only defending the wealth of the wealthy. The draft was rigged so by policy the sons of the poor were the first to be called. Now, the poor has to go in order to have an income. Back then the movement made the government eliminate the law of the draft. The youth was united in purpose even the children of the wealthy had a sense of morality. Not so today. The children of the wealthy has adopted the greediness and lack of love of their wealthy parents. So, the song is only for those who understand what it is to have love of fellow man and love of country disregarding the love of money. There was more benevolence in the sixties than today. What is great about today is that there is power in numbers. 20% controls 93% of the financial wealth by policies that distribute the wealth of the country obscenely unfairly. The bottom 80% shares only 7% of the wealth. But they are still 80% of the population and that is a big number. And they are waking up. The government have no power this time because we have allowed wealth to have more. Abraham lincoln's prophesy came true.
    "i see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. .. Corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the republic is destroyed. "
    -- you. S. President abraham lincoln, nov. 21, 1864.
    (letter to col. William F. Elkins).
    Add your reply
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    • m
      + 4
      MadeInTheGhetto
      I think its about the change that hippie movement was attempting to bring about. He was urging... Read more →
    • d
      + 3
      DGG
      It is about the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Pub.L. 88–352,... Read more →

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