Track Listing

1. Times They Are A-Changin'
2. Ballad of Hollis Brown
3. With God on Our Side
4. One Too Many Mornings
5. North Country Blues
6. Only a Pawn in Their Game
7. Boots of Spanish Leather
8. When the Ship Comes In
9. Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
10. Restless Farewell

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #90292 in Music
• Released on: 1990-10-25
• Number of discs: 1

Album Description
The Times They Are A-Changin', the third album featured in our ongoing campaign to restore Bob Dylan's legacy on vinyl, is also the third album Dylan recorded for Columbia. Released in February 1964, the incisive title track quickly became an anthem for all those seeking social justice, and served as the soundtrack for an entire generation. This Sundazed edition is an exact reproduction of the rare original 1964 mono album, featuring the original "11 Outlined Epitaphs" insert and all-analog mastering from the absolute original source tapes.

Amazon.com
One of the darkest of Dylan albums, Times is the work of a 22-year-old who sounds no less sick of it all than the ailing 55-year-old who made Time out of Mind. There's a place here for rousing protests such as the title track and "When the Ship Comes In," but those songs are outnumbered by the equally powerful, drainingly pessimistic likes of "Only a Pawn in Their Game," "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll," and "The Ballad of Hollis Brown." It's as if Dylan had to deliver his grimmest topical material before moving on to Another Side's liberation and laughs. --Rickey Wright

Customer Reviews

essential Bob Dylan
Bob Dylans The Times They Are A-Changing is what I would call a stepping stone into the full body of his work. Through this album, people unfimilair with Dylans music will get an idea of how politically important he is. In the song "WITH GOD ON OUR SIDE" Dylan examines the irony surrounding the strong belief in God most Americans have and the war-monger mantality this country embodys. "ONLY A PAWN IN THEIR GAME" illuminates the problems surrounding political power and race. "the south politician preeches to the poor white man.. You got more than the blacks ,dont complain.....you're better than them, you've been born with white skin, he explanes... and the negros name is used at his pain, for the politicians gain, as he rises to fame, and the poor white remains on the caboose of the trains, but it aint him to blame, he's only a pawn in their game".........."the poor white man is used in the hands of them all like a tool, he's taught in his schools,from the start by the rules, 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 aint him to blame, he's only a pawn in thier game" Knowing that this album was put out in 65' shows just how foward thinking Dylan is. Buy this albus and digest every word, You'll be a better person for it. other great Dylan albums: Desire, Blood on the Tracks, Another side of Bob Dylan, and Bring it all back home.

Dylan protesting and talking of love
This right here folks is the successor to Dylan's highly acclaimed Freewheelin' and Dylan didn't take great a step down with this one. Though not as timeless as The Freewhellin' nor as consistant, it does compile dark folk songs that certainly rank among Dylan's best from his early days. Like the mystical numbers of Freewheelin', The Times They Are A-Changin' contains songs that simply blow the listener away time after time with their truth, emotion, love and despair. The first notable one being 'One Too Many Mornings', a story of a man who reflects on the many days behind him and his lost fellings. The simple guitar and harmonica here work beautifully at creating a most intimate setting for the tale. The second song that stands out (IMO) is 'Boots of Spanish Leather', a song about a girl who leaves her man. I absolutely love this song. It just sounds so darling but ironically is so tragic. It, in fact, reminds me of 'Girl From the North Country' on The Freewhellin' because their guitar parts sound similar (not to mention the love loss). A third highlight is the epic 'Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll' which investigates the murder of Hattie Carroll taking a third person point of view on the disgrace that it all was. I'msure that I am not the first to say this but this song is an absolutely perfect recording of vocal and pace and purpose. There is so much heart, so much hate, so much disgrace done impeccably. Other notable tracks include everything else on side two and of course the title track. To be honest though, I must concur with what others have expressed, 'With God On Our Side' at times does indeed drag a little too long. I also should offer that 'The Ballad of Hollis Brown' and 'North Country Blues' may suffer a little in the melody categories though they still are important parts to this album.

To sumorize these thoughts- you would be foolish to read this review and decide not to buy this record. One of Dylan's more personal, it offers brilliant love and protest songs that will no doubt affect you.

A Great Work...
"The Times They Are A-Changin'" is Bob Dylan's dark 1964 all-acoustic folk protest album that has gone down in history. The opening title track explains it all- the times were changing. Pop culture took a huge revolution in the early-mid sixties. The record carries an assortment of dark parables ("Hollis Brown", "North Country Blues", "Hattie Carroll"), well-told histories ("With God On Our Side"), and two love songs to break the mood, the lovely "Boots of Spanish Leather" (the same melody as "Girl of North Country"), and "One Too Many Mornings" a beautiful ballad sung so gently that you begin to wonder if Dylan was afraid that he was being too painful with his sharp criticism of the society. "Only A Pawn In Their Game" is one of Dylan's best and the best songs ever written, a phenominal anti-racial tale which introduced me to my public nickname, Medgar Evers- (I'm a caucasion who's never been fired at; I just liked the name, and it's from one of my favourite songs). And "When The Ship Comes In" is a jaunty folk song about the coming of Christ, also very well-written. Now this must seem to be a bunch of nonsense to you if you don't know the album or songs. But buy it; it's worth it. The amazing music of the Greatest Solo Artist of Rock and Roll lives on!

"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."