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| The Times They Are A-Changin' | 
 enlarge | Artist: Bob Dylan
Label: Sony
Category: Music
List Price: $11.98
Buy New: $6.66
You Save: $5.32 (44%)
New (42) Used (9) from $6.66
Avg. Customer Rating:  34 reviews
Sales Rank: 1443
Format: Original Recording Remastered
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
MPN: 94240
UPC: 827969424025
EAN: 0827969424025
ASIN: B0009MAP9A
Release Date: June 21, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: BRAND NEW, Factory Sealed items direct from the Studios. 30 Day Satisfaction Guarantee. Quick International Airmail!
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| Tracks:
| • | The Times They Are A-Changin' | | • | Ballad of Hollis Brown | | • | With God on Our Side | | • | One Too Many Mornings | | • | North Country Blues | | • | Only a Pawn in Their Game | | • | Boots of Spanish Leather | | • | When the Ship Comes In | | • | The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll | | • | Restless Farewell |
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| Customer Reviews: Read 29 more reviews...
They haven't stopped changing... September 23, 2005
57 out of 58 found this review helpful
As early as his third album Dylan started showing signs of the changeling artist that we know today. And we all know that he kept on changing and changing throughout the years. In fact, for Dylan the times never stopped changing. It remains true today.
Dylan's previous album from 1963, "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan", was funny and rollicking in places. The lighthearted struck a good balance with the morose. 1964 saw a new album with a totally new mood. "The Times They Are A-Changin'" shot wildly to the morose side of the spectrum. It contains mostly down and out stories of tragedy and "world gone wrong" tales. Nothing here inspires laughter or joy. The still very young Dylan weaves lyrics and tunes with the sensibility of one who has "seen it all and is sick of it". Regardless, this album remains one of Dylan's greatest albums, though its darkness may not appeal to everyone.
Dylan does his best Woody Guthrie impersonation on the cover (the photo almost completely mimics an early photo of Guthrie). To get a sense of just how much Dylan looked up to Guthrie, read Dylan's own "Chronicles, Vol. 1". There he speaks about the first time he heard Guthrie's music. He may as well be speaking about the rapture. The experience changed Dylan forever, and had a lasting influence on his music. "The Times Are A-Changin'" represents the pinnacle of that influence. One could almost call it a tribute to Guthrie's legacy (though admittedly Guthrie also had a well developed lighthearted side). Guthrie's own "Dust Bowl Ballads" evokes a similar mood to this album. Both albums take themselves very seriously and succeed incredibly.
This album put Dylan right in the spotlight of the then burgeoning folk-protest music movement. It's not hard to see why with calls to social revolution such as the title song. Many since have appropriated this song to their own ends. But it still remains Dylan's own. He continues to play it on tour in many forms and arrangements. "With God on Our Side" explores the history of the United States and the killing it did under the banner of "God". "One Too Many Mornings" seeps with weariness of life. "Only A Pawn in Their Game" explores power and class: the exploiters and the exploited and those who use people as a mere means to selfish ends. "Boots of Spanish Leather" uses the melody of "Girl From the North Country" to a different end. "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carol" revisits class and exploitation. A rich man gets off with a paltry penalty for killing one of his maids. The closing song, "Restless Farewell", mournfully expresses retribution and acceptance of the world as it is. It's an appropriate close to an album filled with stories about some of the worst life and civilization have to offer.
Following the dismal themes and yearning music of "The Times Are A-Changin'" Dylan turned slighty toward the humorously ridiculous on his next album. He never again made an album as seriously world weary as this one (though some defintely come close). Not only that, this album stands as his folk/protest swan song. In just one more year Dylan would appear with an electric band and get booed for his adventurousness. And then his lyrics started to take on more abstract, opaque, and poetic themes. In short, he soon began to move away and alienate himself from the folk scene. According to "Chronicles, Vol. 1" he had succeeded a little too well with the protest crowd. Some people started referring to him as "saviour". They demanded that he lead them. Dylan simply (and understandably) didn't want the job. So he left his main fan base and a few incredible albums behind him (and soon found a new fan base who listened to his new incredible albums).
"The Times They Are A-Changin'" remains one of the high points of Dylan's early acoustic "phase" that stretched from the beginning of his career to roughly 1965. It's constructed solidly and a theme with an unmistakable undertone runs through it. Whether people agree or disagree with its message in the end it inspires thought about some of the issues that affect all of us even to the present day.
 This Album Still Matters June 29, 2005
11 out of 13 found this review helpful
Despite what you might hear from other reviewers, this album still touches on issues that rule the day even now. The title track is easy to cite, but it really is on tracks like "With God On Our Side" and "Hattie Carroll" that time vindicates best. For all the countlesss albums made by others that were specifically designed to make a strong political statement, none were able to distill the transient issues of the time into bigger principles, and to tie them to basic human issues like this. Racism, political inertia, the economic struggles of the working class are all presented here in stories of their time, but not done in such a way as to be dated by them. It should be recalled that Dylan did his political stuff in the early sixties; several years before the nation went that way en masse. By the time the country became overtly politically charged, Dylan had long moved on, and was singing about Country Pie. To accuse him of milking a trend is a joke. If anything, he was criticized for not jumping back in when the country caught up with him.
The timeless themes here are not just a function of the subject matter, but also a function of the fact that Dylan always tried to use time-tested musical forms to tell the story...the folk songs of Ireland, the blues of the American south, even some of the free-form improv stuff of jazz. He was a student of all types of folk music, and this album shows how astute his observations were. He wanted his musical language to borrow from that which was proven by history, and he did it as well on this album as any.
I also want to suggest this album foreshadows the focus on personal relationships that would come to dominate the bulk of his career. "Spanish Leather" is a story of a love in limbo - and ultimately in vain - that uses universal themes and his unique keen insight on it to great effect. It's greatness is revealed by the fact that the song takes many many listens to reveal its full scope.
The remaster series, in my opinion, are more for the pleasure of audiophiles. Dylan - especially in this era - never really spent a ton of time on the details of recording. His decision to do so never negatively impacted fan's enjoyment of the work. Adding more clarity to it now will do little to impact it positiively. Get this CD so that the source will be as loud in your headphones as the other re-issues. That seems to be the best reason to get it.
New Dylan fans should pick this up with Freewheelin' to get the "protest" era's best stuff. After that, you will find his genius focused upon interpersonal relations, and he never really returns to the political with this intensity. It is important if only for that.
Rage Against the Establishment November 9, 2005
11 out of 12 found this review helpful
My father told me he was disappointed in this record and when I asked why, he said that it wasn't nearly as good as "Freewheelin.'" And there you have the problem with a lot of Dylan fans, Bob is always changing, moving on and it's hard for his fans to keep up. The title song of this album is a raging protest against the establishment, one young people could still be singing today. "Girl from the North Country" is a tender love song that zings straight to your heart. "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll," a ballad that just makes you want to scream, "Why!" My dad was wrong about this record back then, thankfully he knows it now.
Reviewed by Stephanie Sane
 A change indeed, not for the better August 10, 2005
9 out of 23 found this review helpful
I love the music of Bob Dylan more than pretty much anyone I know, which is why the awfulness of "The Times They Are A-Changin'" makes me so sad. Simply put, Dylan could easily do better than this collection of ten dirgelike folk songs.
The album drags at 45 minutes, each song consisting of no more than slow acoustic guitar and Dylan's disengaged mumbling of the mostly-banal lyrics.
I find it hard to believe that this album was entirely Dylan's idea - legend has it that the album was recorded in order to satiate Dylan's more brainless hippie fans who saw him as nothing more than a protest musician; either way, it's a regression from the witty, eloquent heights of his previous album "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan".
It's not that protest songs are bad in and of themselves - after all, Dylan's early career includes some of the very best of all protest songs, both direct and elliptical ("Masters of War"; "Ballad of a Thin Man"). The problem with these is their topicality and the fact that they often refuse to touch on universal values and issues.
And oh, the album's humorlessness. Dylan's music is uproarious and spontaneous at its best: here, one won't crack a smile. The majority of these songs aren't moving in any way: they induce neither righteous anger nor guilt. So what's the point?
All this is not to call the album completely worthless. The title track is a classic of its kind, and easily stands up to the caliber of the rest of Dylan's work. "Only a Pawn In Their Game" features an unorthodox lyrical sentiment about the responsibility of racist murderers. And "Boots of Spanish Leather" is pretty, if not particularly distinguished in light of the love songs Dylan would go on to write in subsequent years.
The album is worth a few listens at least for its stronger moments - but in the long run, "The Times They Are A-Changin'" ranks as a disappointment, easily the worst out of Dylan's first ten albums (yes I do consider "Self-Portrait" a better album, but that's another discussion for another time).
Superb sounding remaster August 29, 2005
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
The audio quality of this CD easily beats the previous champ, the vinyl Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs 1/2 speed master. It mops up the floor with the standard CD issue and discards the filth in the wastebasket. It has nothing to do with being "louder" as one hapless reviewer states. The original CD was pinched, colored, and distressed.
"The Times They Are A-Changin'" is classic Dylan of course and little need be said about the superb quality of the performances and the songs.
This CD also contains a few previously unpublished photos from the recording sessions.
Although the booklet doesn't say so, I believe this was DSD mastered. Steve Berkowitz, also uncredited on this remaster, is in charge of the overall remastering of Dylan's catalog. He deserves a lot of thanks.
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