1964Released
3:12

Did You Know?

Interesting facts and trivia about The Times They Are A-Changin'. By Songfacts®.

A call to action, "The Times They Are A-Changin'" became an anthem for frustrated youth. It summed up the anti-establishment feelings of people who would later be known as hippies. Many of the lyrics are based on the Civil Rights movement in the US.

In the liner notes of this album Biograph, Dylan wrote: "I wanted to write a big song, some kind of theme song, with short, concise verses that piled up on each other in a hypnotic way. This is definitely a song with a purpose. I knew exactly what I wanted to say and who I wanted to say it to."

Dylan recorded this song in October 1963. He first performed the song at a Carnegie Hall concert on October 26 that year, using it as his opening number. On November 22, 1963, United States president John F. Kennedy was assassinated, which made this song even more poignant. This also presented a quandary for Dylan, who had to decide if he would keep playing the song; he found it odd when audiences would erupt in applause after hearing it, and wondered exactly what they were clapping for. Dylan kept the song in his sets. It was issued on the album of the same name on January 13, 1964.

Top Listeners

Song Analysis

Key, BPM (tempo) and time signature of The Times They Are A-Changin'.
GKey
MajorMode
3/4Time Signature
172BPM

Album

The album The Times They Are A-Changin' is released on.

Released By

The record label that has released The Times They Are A-Changin'.
Columbia
Originally released 1964. All rights reserved by Columbia Records, a division of Sony Music Entertainment

See your Spotify stats (with number of plays and minutes listened) and discover new music.

Music data, artist images, album covers, and song previews are provided by Spotify. Spotify is a trademark of Spotify AB.

5.8MArtists
73.5MSongs
12.3MAlbums
6.3KGenres
2.5MLabels
493KPlaylists