The Times They Are A-Changin’ is Bob Dylan’s third studio album, released by Columbia in 1964 and produced by Tom Wilson. It was recorded in sessions at Columbia’s Studio A in New York between 6 August and 31 October 1963. Where his first two albums combined original songs with covers, this was the first to hold only original compositions, and Dylan is the only performer credited, on vocals, acoustic guitar and harmonica.
The songs include the title track, which Dylan told an interviewer in 1985 was “a song with a purpose” influenced by Irish and Scottish ballads, and the grim rural story “The Ballad of Hollis Brown,” set on a South Dakota farm. “North Country Blues” is told from the point of view of a miner’s ex-wife after the mining company moves its work abroad. “Only a Pawn in Their Game” refers to the murder of the Mississippi NAACP leader Medgar Evers, and the melody of “Boots of Spanish Leather” was inspired by Martin Carthy’s arrangement of the English folk song “Scarborough Fair.”
The album peaked at No. 20 on the American chart and eventually went gold, and it reached No. 4 in the United Kingdom in 1965.
Tracklist
- 1 The Times They Are A-Changin’ alt version 3:17
- 2 Ballad of Hollis Brown 5:07
- 3 With God on Our Side 7:10
- 4 One Too Many Mornings 2:42
- 5 North Country Blues alt version 4:36
- 6 Only a Pawn in Their Game 3:33
- 7 Boots of Spanish Leather alt version 4:40
- 8 When the Ship Comes In 3:18
- 9 The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll 5:49
- 10 Restless Farewell 5:33
