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TopTenREVIEWS presents the reviews for The Times They Are A-Changin'

The Times They Are A-Changin' album image

The Times They Are A-Changin'

by Bob Dylan

ALBUM RANKINGS:

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  • of 455,637
    2,313
  • of 5,308
    190
  • of 234
    24
Ratings and rankings are based on all available critic reviews and awards.
Overall Rating: 3.1939 The Times They Are A-Changin' is ranked overall as 3.1939 out of 4 stars
Avg. Critic Score: 3.6750 The Times They Are A-Changin' has an avg. critic score of 3.6750 out of 4 stars

The Times They Are A-Changin' Lyrics

Lyrics
Disc
Track
Title
 
  • 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'.
 
  • Hollis Brown
  • He lived on the outside of town
  • Hollis Brown
  • He lived on the outside of town
  • With his wife and five children
  • And his cabin brokin' down.
  • You looked for work and money
  • And you walked a rugged mile
  • You looked for work and money
  • And you walked a rugged mile
  • Your children are so hungry
  • That they don't know how to smile.
  • Your baby's eyes look crazy
  • They're a-tuggin' at your sleeve
  • Your baby's eyes look crazy
  • They're a-tuggin' at your sleeve
  • You walk the floor and wonder why
  • With every breath you breathe.
  • The rats have got your flour
  • Bad blood it got your mare
  • The rats have got your flour
  • Bad blood it got your mare
  • If there's anyone that knows
  • Is there anyone that cares ?
  • You prayed to the Lord above
  • Oh please send you a friend
  • You prayed to the Lord above
  • Oh please send you a friend
  • Your empty pocket tell you
  • That you ain't a-got no friend.
  • Your babies are crying louder now
  • It's pounding on your brain
  • Your babies are crying louder now
  • It's pounding on your brain
  • Your wife's screams are stabbin' you
  • Like the dirty drivin' rain.
  • Your grass is turning black
  • There's no water in your well
  • Your grass is turning black
  • There's no water in your well
  • Your spent your last lone dollar
  • On seven shotgun shels.
  • Way out in the wilderness
  • A cold coyote calls
  • Way out in the wilderness
  • A cold coyote calls
  • Your eyes fix on the shortgun
  • That's hangin' on the wall.
  • Your brain is a-bleedin'
  • And your legs can't seem to stand
  • Your brain is a-bleedin'
  • And your legs can't seem to stand
  • Your eyes fix on the shortgun
  • That you're holdin' in your hand.
  • There's seven breezes a-blowin'
  • All around the cabin door
  • There's seven breezes a-blowin'
  • All around the cabin door
  • Seven shots ring out
  • Like the ocean's pounding roar.
  • There's seven people dead
  • On a south Dakota farm
  • There's seven people dead
  • On a south Dakota farm
  • Somewhere in the distance
  • There's seven new people born.
 
  • Oh my name it is nothin'
  • My age it means less
  • The country I come from
  • Is called the Midwest
  • I's taught and brought up there
  • The laws to abide
  • And the land that I live in
  • Has God on its side.
  • Oh the history books tell it
  • They tell it so well
  • The cavalries charged
  • The Indians fell
  • The cavalries charged
  • The Indians died
  • Oh the country was young
  • With God on its side.
  • The Spanish-American
  • War had its day
  • And the Civil War too
  • Was soon laid away
  • And the names of the heroes
  • I's made to memorize
  • With guns on their hands
  • And God on their side.
  • The First World War, boys
  • It came and it went
  • The reason for fighting
  • 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.
  • When the Second World War
  • Came to an end
  • We forgave the Germans
  • And then we were friends
  • Though they murdered six million
  • In the ovens they fried
  • The Germans now too
  • Have God on their side.
  • I've learned to hate Russians
  • All through my whole life
  • If another war comes
  • It's them we must fight
  • To hate them and fear them
  • To run and to hide
  • And accept it all bravely
  • With God on my side.
  • But now we got weapons
  • Of the chemical dust
  • If fire them we're forced to
  • Then fire them we must
  • One push of the button
  • And a shot the world wide
  • And you never ask questions
  • When God's on your side.
  • In a many dark hour
  • I've been thinkin' about this
  • That Jesus Christ
  • Was betrayed by a kiss
  • But I can't think for you
  • You'll have to decide
  • Whether Judas Iscariot
  • Had God on his side.
  • So now as I'm leavin'
  • I'm weary as Hell
  • The confusion I'm feelin'
  • Ain't no tongue can tell
  • The words fill my head
  • And fall to the floor
  • If God's on our side
  • He'll stop the next war.
 
  • Come gather 'round friends
  • And I'll tell you a tale
  • Of when the red iron pits ran empty
  • But the cardboard filled windows
  • And old men on the benches
  • Tell you now that the whole town is empty.
  • In the north end of town
  • My own children are grown
  • But I was raised on the other
  • In the wee hours of youth
  • May mother took sick
  • And I was brought up by my brother.
  • The iron ore poured
  • As the years passed the door
  • The drag lines an' the shovels they was a-humming
  • 'Til one day my brother
  • Failed to come home
  • The same as my father before him.
  • Well a long winter's wait
  • From the window I watched
  • My friends they couldn't have been kinder
  • And my schooling was cut
  • As I quit in the spring
  • To marry John Thomas, a miner.
  • Oh the years passed again
  • And the givin' was good
  • With the lunch bucket filled every season
  • What with three babies born
  • The work was cut down
  • To a half a day's shift with no reason.
  • Then the shaft was soon shut
  • And more work was cut
  • And the fire in the air, it felt frozen
  • 'Til a man come to speak
  • And he said in one week
  • That number eleven was closin'.
  • They complained in the East
  • They are playing too high
  • They say that your ore ain't worth digging
  • That it's much cheaper down
  • In the South American towns
  • Where the miners work almost for nothing.
  • So the mining gates locked
  • And the red iron rotted
  • And the room smelted heavy from drinking
  • Where the sad silent song
  • Made the hour twice as long
  • As I waited for the sun to go sinking.
  • I lived by the window
  • As he talked to himself
  • This silence of tongues it was building
  • Then one morning's wake
  • The bed it was bare
  • And I's left alone with three children.
  • The summer is gone
  • The ground's turning cold
  • The stores one by one they're a-foldin'
  • My children will go
  • As soon they grow
  • Well there ain't nothing here now to hold them.
 
  • A bullet from the back of a bush took Medgar Evers' blood
  • A finger fired the trigger to his name
  • A handle hid out in the dark
  • A hand set the spark
  • Two eyes took the aim
  • Behind a man's brain
  • But he can't be blamed
  • He's only a pawn in their game.
  • A South politician preaches to the poor white man
  • "You got more than blacks, don't complain
  • You're better than them, you been born with white skin" they explain
  • And the Negro's name
  • Is used it is plain
  • For the politician's gain
  • As he rises to fame
  • And the poor white remains
  • On the caboose of the train
  • But it ain't him to blame
  • He's only a pawn in their game.
  • The deputy sheriffs, the soldiers, the governors get paid
  • And the marshals and cops get the same
  • But the poor white man's used in the hands of them all like a tool
  • He's taught in his school
  • From the start by the rule
  • That the laws are with him
  • To protect his white skin
  • To keep up his hate
  • So he never thinks straight
  • 'Bout the shape that he's in
  • But it ain't him to blame
  • He's only a pawn in their game.
  • From the powerty shacks, he looks from the cracks to the tracks
  • And the hoof beats pound in his brain
  • And he's taught how to walk in a pack
  • Shoot in the back
  • With his fist in a clinch
  • To hang and to lynch
  • To hide 'neath the hood
  • To kill with no pain
  • Like a dog on a chain
  • He ain't got no name
  • But it ain't him to blame
  • He's only a pawn in their game.
  • Today, Medgar Evers was buried from the bullet he caught
  • They lowered him down as a king
  • But when the shadowy sun sets on the one
  • That fired the gun
  • He'll see by his grave
  • On the stone that remains
  • Carved next to his name
  • His epitaph plain:
  • Only a pawn in their game.

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