Bob Dylan's "Things Have Changed"

We have a cd of the "Wonder Boys" soundtrack in the car. Bob Dylan's "Things Have Changed" rolls over the final credits of the film and appears on the soundtrack album. Sometimes, when I'm alone in the car, perhaps while taking one of my drives along PCH up to Ventura or across Mullholland through the Santa Monica Mountains, or both on the same day, one direction north and the opposite on the return trip, I'll put this song on repeat and let the poetry send my mind wandering. The best poetry does that. It helps you explore yourself. It points you in different directions you might not have thought about. You reflect on your past and create hopes for your future. Sometimes, if you want to, you can exchange meta-narratives for reality.

The first You Tube clip presents the studio version of the song that appears on the soundtrack album. The second clip presents a live performance of the same song by Bob Dylan at the Academy Awards. Watch how a master musician can manipulate his own work to make it something new and different.

Things Have Changed
by
Bob Dylan

A worried man with a worried mind
No one in front of me and nothing behind
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'm well dressed, waiting on the last train

Standing on the gallows with my head in a noose
Any minute now I'm expecting all hell to break loose

People are crazy and times are strange
I'm locked in tight, I'm out of range
I used to care, but things have changed

This place ain't doing me any good
I'm in the wrong town, I should be in Hollywood
Just for a second there I thought I saw something move
Gonna take dancing lessons do the jitterbug rag
Ain't no shortcuts, gonna dress in drag
Only a fool in here would think he's got anything to prove

Lot of water under the bridge, Lot of other stuff too
Don't get up gentlemen, I'm only passing through

People are crazy and times are strange
I'm locked in tight, I'm out of range
I used to care, but things have changed

I've been walking forty miles of bad road
If the bible is right, the world will explode
I've been trying to get as far away from myself as I can
Some things are too hot to touch
The human mind can only stand so much
You can't win with a losing hand

Feel like falling in love with the first woman I meet
Putting her in a wheel barrow and wheeling her down the street

People are crazy and times are strange
I'm locked in tight, I'm out of range
I used to care, but things have changed

I hurt easy, I just don't show it
You can hurt someone and not even know it
The next sixty seconds could be like an eternity
Gonna get low down, gonna fly high
All the truth in the world adds up to one big lie
I'm in love with a woman who don't even appeal to me

Mr. Jinx and Miss Lucy, they jumped in the lake
I'm not that eager to make a mistake

People are crazy and times are strange
I'm locked in tight, I'm out of range
I used to care, but things have changed

Copyright ©1999 Special Rider Music