“The Times They Are a-Changin’,” by Bob Dylan
— Friday, November 4th, 2011 —
A while back I had the opportunity to sit down with Greg Thornbury of Union University to record this week’s episode of “The Cross and the Jukebox,” an episode in which we talk about Bob Dylan’s song, “The Times They Are a-Changin’.”
Dylan, Thornbury says, “does a very good job listening in to where a society or a culture is, and standing alongside of it without representing any one political perspective.” Together we talk about how “The Times They Are a-Changin’” has something of a somber tone, a tone of judgment. We discuss how youth culture revolts against the status quo of the previous generation.
And Thornbury also gives his rationale as to why fans of “classic country music” should listen to Bob Dylan—who, I should add, was a good friend of Johnny Cash.
I am on cloud nine!
I love this session of The Cross and the Jukebox. I am an old folkie and this brought back many thoughts and memories. I lived through the Times are a Changing as a young man in my late teens and early 20’s. I was wrapped up in all the excitement of that day as the World of Music was exploding. Now as a aging man in my mid 60’s I am again experiencing the Times a Changing in my life. Who would have thought time would pass so rapidly. Thanks for this C and the J
Dr. Moore
If you google around, you’ll find an Ed Bradley’s 60-minutes interview with Bob Dylan, where Dylan credits his success and his continuing career to a debt he owes Satan. In that video Dylan affirms that he gave up his soul to achieve commercial success.
@Pamela, I saw that interview and he seemed to make that statement tongue-in-cheek. Plus, he seemed to indicate that “the deal” was with God, not Satan.
Something about the oldies by Bob Dylan has always provoked me to wonder about the 50s and the 60s and what that time was all about in terms of the worldview climate…
Russell:
Times are changin at Shorter College in Rome, Ga for sure; as Al Mohler’s guest column and a companion piece by Pierre Noth in the Rome News Tribune pages attest.
I have submitted a letter there I hope RNT will publish soon where I mention an Inquistion of Samford’s Tom Corts by friends of the late Albert Lee Smith I witnessed in 93, Samford, Mohler’s alma mater.
Sea Change as one letter writer put it. And an opera singer, Shorter educated now with Chicago lyric chorale has weighed in and she is not happy.
As for Bob Dylan one of the more interesting items I have come across on him is a chapter in a recent book that looks exhaustively at Dylan’s version of the Sacred Harp Number the Lone Pilgrim and traces it back to Barton Stone.
Fascinating exploration.
Don’t drop Johnny Cash’s name lightly. I doubt he would be happy with what is going on at Shorter, and Jim Henry’s daughter Kate Campbell and her friends Roseanne Cash and Emmy Lou Harris would be appalled.
I am confident of that.
Not foreign to the teachings of Scripture or thinking on original sin be hard for me to imagine like our mutual acquaintance Vicki Covington any of them would put much stock in current mindset of Southern Seminary.
But I do like what you said about Bob Dylan. His son Sam Dylan once studied my visage on footage of a documentary whose director later became an Oscar nominee.
Sam Dylan and Stephen Fox, both in the credits of a 92 work.