Things Have Changed

I am amazed that no one has made any connection to this being the coda to "Times they are a-changing". He mentions "time" and change" in the chorus! "I used to care, but things have changed" that's Past tense! As line goes in 'Times - "don't criticize What you can't understand, Your sons and your daughters Are beyond your command. Your old road is Rapidly agin'." He's become what he was singing about in 1965!

"I'm only passing through" I believe this is a reference to Thornton Wilder's play "Our Town". The play has a lot to do with the realisation of life while you are living it, and whether or not people are capable of doing this. We are all just passing through, and we will all be gone.

Great song, lots of references to what life is really about. Also, can anyone tell me what life's about?

I cant believe im only the second person to post on this song... its such a good song, things do change, and you just have to learn to roll with them "i use to care, but things have changed" SUCH A GOOD DYLAN SONG

even for Bob Dylan the words here sound very mature - this is the voice of experience talking. if you look at the "Standing on the gallows with my head in a noose" line then the whole song could be what it seems - a long list of realisations coming to a person who really should be in no position to be thinking clearly (taking either the gallows meaning or the death of his mother)

A guy I was pretty close with "sent" this to me after a fight (could be permanent, here, I don't know). I think, he just got tired of "considering life." I think Dylan is literal in his chorus: "People are crazy and times are strange" because the 70's drug culture was just that...completely unpredictable behavior. But I think he's expressing his feeling of being trapped in that culture: "I'm locked in tight, I'm out of range; I used to care, but things have changed" and his subsequent "checking out" of reality. Now, why my guy chose this song to express his own feelings of sadness or loss or anger...well, the last lines, lol. "I hurt easy, I just don't show it; you can hurt someone and not even know it...I'm in love with a woman who don't even appeal to me." Dylan has said in that same verse that he's gonna get low down and gonna fly high: he's going to "lay low," withdraw emotionally, in other words, then fly high, stay stoned. Damn, I just don't like Dylan, lol. It's my guy's favorite, too.

Life's about the stuff Dylan sang about in his 1979-1981 albums. Folks say he renounced the ideas in those albums. Far from it. In the late 1980's he said those albums "laid down the law" for all of his work to follow (Rolling Stone Issue 394). This song is no acception. It's about a God-fearing man living in a time when "people are crazy and times are strange." He knows that the world's false value system is futile and that one day "the world will explode". But he's not trying to get away from the world as much as he's trying to get far away from himself (i.e. his sinful nature). No matter what he does to amuse himself he knows that it will do little to cast away his fears and struggles. When he was a new Christian, he sought to change people's hearts through overt evangelism. Now, after decades of being ridiculed and lied about, things are different. "I used to care, but things have changed."

...Anyway, that's my two bits.

"who are mr. jinx and ms. lucy?" -benjyedwards, oh and this songs is about (to me) life and Dylan, like H.D. Thoreau said "Things don't change we do", how he felt around the time he was writting this song....maybe he wasn't digging the vibe of the times and instead of singing about the "masters of war"--(the freewheelin')....he was gong to "change his way of thinking"--(slow train coming)..it's to much work maybe... "a worried man with a worried mind" to keep on keepin' on..(love, drugs, people, emotions,war, etc..) and quite frankly he's throwing all that out the window, not necessarily withdrawing into solitude, but being aware of things and how they change and it really isn't a big deal to him anymore.."I used to care but, things have changed", maybe it's a simple song with great meaning. maybe...Dylan wrote it on a whim and you have all these "crazy" critics I don't know, Dylan is a great musician... this song is great, and one day maybe Mr. Dylan wiill give us his 2 bits on some of his works, and maybe he already has...and some of us don't even know it. peace

There's a woman on my lap and she's drinking champagne Got white skin, got assassin's eyes I'm looking up into the sapphire tinted skies

i think this passage refers to the beauty of this woman and how she has the characteristics that a man seeks (white skin could mean pale, mysterious; assassins eyes cold or possionate), and yet the fact that he is 'looking up into the saphire tinted skies' almost suggests he is ignoring her due to his feelings of acedia, (e.g 'i used to care, but things have changed')

Great song...

I think the jitterbug rag is referring to the cut-out number from the Wizard of Oz, and it fits perfectly - learning to dance to something that will never be seen, will never amount to anything

I have this mental image of the well dressed man dancing through the various scenes he sets, not really a part of them, unable (or unwilling) to change his direction

I find it interesting that the line "The next 60 seconds...." is sung with exactly 60 seconds left in the song. Its really one of his best, if not ever then certainly of the last 2 decades.