When Bob Dylan stopped writing overt protest songs, many of his fans threw up their hands in disgust at this change in focus. But when you think about it, why would he continue in that vein, when with the 1964 album The Times They Are a-Changin’ he had pretty much mastered the genre?
Dylan also wrote some devastating songs of love and loss on the album, pointing the way to the material on which he’d focus for his follow-up Another Side of Bob Dylan. Choosing five songs out of the 10 classics on The Times They Are a-Changin’ is tough for sure, but we took the initiative to give it a try.
5. “Only a Pawn in Their Game”
The insight that Dylan showed at such a tender age (he was only 22 when this album was released)—his ability to look past the surface and see through to the heart of an issue—is on full display in this song. It would have been easy for Dylan to write the song as a tribute to the slain civil rights leader Medgar Evers. Instead, he explores the conditions that would put the thought in someone’s addled brain to shoot and kill Evers in the first place. He does it all with a stranglehold on the language that allows him to unroll the entire sad tableau for us in ruthlessly efficient fashion.
4. “When the Ship Comes In”
Dylan manages to do something quite impressive here, taking a revenge setup out of Brecht and turning it into a triumphant song for the righteous. To do that, he makes sure he doesn’t leave out any of the nautical details, to the point where one wonders if he had been a sailor in another life. His control over the metaphor is stunning, as he never loses sight of trying to tell a bigger story here than one of a ship’s return. His aw-shucks syntax (And the words that are used / For to get the ship confused) is his way of giving modesty to such a massive songwriting achievement.
3. “The Times They Are a-Changin’”
Because people didn’t think too much about albums at the time, we tend to overlook just how well Dylan structured those early protest records. With the title track here, he not only creates a brilliant song on an individual basis, but he also comes away with something that unites everything else that comes on the record. The songs on the album speak of change, be it political or personal, and the upheaval that inevitably accompanies it. With “The Times They Are a-Changin’,” Dylan both warns his listeners and gives them comfort, all in observation of the good and bad transformations always in effect.
2. “Boots of Spanish Leather”
Songs of heartbreak were always part and parcel of popular music. But Dylan was one of the first who felt like he was writing these songs because he needed to unburden his soul, rather than because he was ticking off a box that was expected of him. You can certainly marvel at “Boots of Spanish Leather” from a technical standpoint, how he sets up the song as a tale of dueling correspondence before one set of letters disappears. But you can also just focus on the sweet sadness of the words and the way Dylan’s vocal captures every nuance of their emotional sway.
1. “The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll”
That current cliché about some folks playing 4D chess while others are playing checkers? It certainly applies to Dylan as a songwriter in 1964, when the rest of the music world hadn’t yet realized you didn’t have to base your lyrics on what other songs had done in the past. Look at all that “The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll” accomplishes. On the one hand, it’s an incredible summation of one particular miscarriage of justice. And yet it also manages to lay bare the widespread racial inequality that was a secret only to those who chose to ignore all the evidence right in front of their faces.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.
Photo by Shutterstock
Local News
Comments / 0