What does the lyrics of the song the times they are a changin' mean?

Answer 1

It's a Ballad written by Bob Dylan in 1963 about the changing face of American society, and calling upon everybody across the country to face up to it and get involved.

The early 1960s saw the beginning of the convulsive upheavals in politics and society that were to last for another two decades- old prejudices and assumptions were being questioned, the old traditional American way of life was being swept away by youth counter-culture, the Civil Rights Movement and radical new political convictions, and the rebellion against 'old America' that began in the '50s with rock & roll was by now blossoming into a full-blown rejection of bigotries, injustices and discrimination that had existed for decades. Nothing like it had been seen since the American Civil War a Century earlier. The song is a call for people to join the social revolution and acknowledge that the way things had been up until then could not go on- it likens the changes to a tidal flood that will sweep away the old order, encourages the young to participate, their parents to recognise the changes and adapt to them, and for politicians to play their part in helping to usher in a new, fairer, more just society.

Above all, it underlines the inevitabilty of the changes, and says that people everywhere have no choice but to embrace them or be left out in the cold, whoever they might be.