Tomorrow is election day here in the United States, and one way or another history will be made. We’ll either have our first woman president or only our second president in history to win two nonconsecutive terms. There may be more history made, depending on who is elected, but let’s try to keep things relatively nonpolitical here.
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In honor of this potentially historic election, today’s classic song of the day is Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-Changin’.” Mr. Dylan wrote this one back in the fall of 1963 and made it the title track of his 1964 album, The Times They Are A-Changin’. Dylan said he wanted to write an anthem of change for that moment in time:
“This was definitely a song with a purpose. It was influenced of course by the Irish and Scottish ballads …’Come All Ye Bold Highway Men’, ‘Come All Ye Tender Hearted Maidens’. I wanted to write a big song, with short concise verses that piled up on each other in a hypnotic way. The civil rights movement and the folk music movement were pretty close for a while and allied together at that time.”
“The Times They Are A-Changin'” was definitely a protest song for those times, but its sentiments have echoed through the ages. It seems particularly pertinent today, with change in the air here in the U.S.
I won’t quote all the song’s lyrics, but I particularly like the verse that focuses on the younger generation, of which I used to be part of:
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’
Lots of artists have performed “The Times They Are A-Changin'” over the years. I’m particularly partial to the well-harmonized version performed by the all-star grouping of Carly Simon, James Taylor, Graham Nash, and John Hall during the 1979 No Nukes concerts (and preserved on the accompanying album and film). James and Carly, then recent parents, bring a poignancy to my favorite verse. So that’s your daily bonus video of the day. Enjoy, but take those lyrics to heart—and go out tomorrow and VOTE!
