Don’t criticize what you can’t understand


Until I publish a longer piece later this week, I thought letting all enjoy the beautiful words and voice of Bob Dylan would certainly make sense. This song comes from the 60s, has been an anthem during every change, and still remains very relevant. There’s not a single line I can dislike in this song- each of them has the capacity to put to shame, the myriad of opinion pieces riddling our press everyday- written by pansophic middle-aged men with a halo around their heads. And then it’s musical and much less boring too 🙂

Here’s a video I like the most, of Dylan performing the song, the words are further down. Videos with studio-recorded sound are available elsewhere on the net, including in this link.

The Times They Are A-Changin’

Come gather ’round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You’ll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you is worth savin’
Then you better start swimmin’ or you’ll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin’

Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won’t come again
And don’t speak too soon
For the wheel’s still in spin
And there’s no tellin’ who that it’s namin’
For the loser now will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin’

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don’t stand in the doorway
Don’t block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There’s a battle outside and it is ragin’
It’ll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin’

Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don’t criticize
What you can’t understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is rapidly agin’
Please get out of the new one if you can’t lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin’

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is rapidly fadin’
And the first one now will later be last
For the times they are a-changin’

Copyright © 1963, 1964 by Warner Bros. Inc.; renewed 1991, 1992 by Special Rider Music


Taken from bobdylan.com