The times they are a-changin remembered on 9/11

Carol Forsloff -It was a different time, but a time that keeps going, those days when people worried about what might happen next, as Dylan's anthem described a turbulent period, just as music has done during events like war and targeted attacks.  

 


"The Times They Are A-Changin' "shared a message, through words and music assembled in Bob Dylan's presentation of America in protest and war.  It was used as a theme for "The Watchmen" trailer and is sometimes played during overviews of protest in America.  But the message is forgotten at the same time, because it is a summary of something that is within man's history, endogenous within it, of a condition that never seems to end.

It was the 1960's.  Dylan was the folk song hero of masses of young people, with his dark scowl, lanky frame and sombre clothing.  Jeans had not yet become fashion for the every folk,  so Dylan's attire spoke of defiance of traditions.  His image and his song spoke of changing ways, changing attitudes and a brave new world ahead.

The unexpected in the 1960's had come in torrents that kept folks wondering always about tomorrow.  Tomorrow would come and bring some other event that would bring media response that the country had been changed in some significant way.  But the country kept marching on past the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, integration and the violence that came with it, the assassination of Martin Luther King, the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, the Vietnamese War, the Watergate break-in during the Nixon Presidency and the resulting impeachment proceedings and more. 

Again, as commentators tell us, the times they are a-changin.'  They point to 9/11 as having changed the country.    They tell it was a watershed event that brought disbelief, shock and awe, bringing us out of complacency and a simpler time.  The song by Dylan faded in the dust and flames of burning buildings as people watched the World Trade Towers bend and break, explode and fall. 

Dylan's song speaks of the times they are a changin' but its message remains a narrative of man's condition of change and survival through and past them.  It's message is remembered on 9/11, a  day of remembrance and reflection.