We asked devoted fans of Bob Dylan to dissect and discuss the lyrics that moved them most.
LISA LOEB
Come gather around 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
And if your breath to you is worth saving
Then you better start swimming or you’ll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin’.
— from “The Times They Are A-Changin’ ”
This first stanza of the song is really a call to all of us to understand and come to terms with the fact that things are always changing, and we don’t have control over everything in life. I take that as a reiteration of that classic concept from the serenity prayer that we all know so well, to “accept the things I cannot change.”
This song says to keep an eye on the way things are going. I especially like Dylan’s use of the word “grown” in this verse, the “waters have grown:” it sounds like a development in the status quo. It’s an evolving state we’re in, but not totally dangerous yet. And the suggestion to “start swimming,” makes me feel like we still have a chance to be involved in the direction we’re headed: be a part of it and make some choices.
I think the song is a message about being aware of the world, our communities, and where things are going, but that we have a choice of how to handle it and be involved in that change, hopefully for the positive, even if things aren’t going exactly as we might have planned. It’s funny, the way Dylan sings it, it almost sounds comforting when he gets to the phrase “the times they are a-changin’.” Sentimental, in a sweet way, even though it can be seen as a bit foreboding.
Lisa Loeb is a Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter.
BOB LEFSETZ
Now, each of us has his
own special gift
And you know this was meant to be true
And if you don’t underestimate me
I won’t underestimate you
— from “Dear Landlord”
I always question my judgment of people after hearing this lyric. Dig deep and you’ll find all people are smart, just in a different way. They can teach and help you. Listen …
Music industry veteran Bob Lefsetz writes The Lefsetz Letter (lefsetz.com/wordpress/).
CRAIG TAUBMAN
May you grow up to be righteous
May you grow up to be true
May you always know the truth
And see the lights surrounding you
— from “Forever Young”
There is no denying the power of Dylan’s political and social activist messaging, but it’s his idealistic lyric from “Forever Young” that melts me every time.
Singer-songwriter Craig Taubman is founder of the Pico Union Project.
DANNY MASENG
When you wake up in the mornin’, baby, look inside your mirror
You know I won’t be next to you, you know I won’t be near
I’d just be curious to know if you can see yourself as clear
As someone who has had you on his mind
— from “Mama, You Been on My Mind”
In 1974, I was asked to record six Dylan songs in Hebrew for the Israeli National Broadcasting service. I was given access to four of Israel’s finest lyricists/translators. I chose only love songs in that dismal year after the Yom Kippur War.
I am still as moved today by the dusty clarity of this painful scrap of truth as I was the day I first encountered it.
Singer-composer Danny Maseng is the chazzan and spiritual leader of Makom LA in Los Angeles.
RABBI NAOMI LEVY
Then take me disappearin’ through the smoke rings of my mind
Down the foggy ruins of time, far past the frozen leaves
The haunted, frightened trees, out to the windy beach
Far from the twisted reach of crazy sorrow
Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free
Silhouetted by the sea, circled by the circus sands With all memory and fate driven deep beneath the waves Let me forget about today until tomorrow
— from “Mr. Tambourine Man”
Every time I hear the last verse of “Mr. Tambourine Man,” I am sure it was written through ruach ha-Kadosh, through the same holy trance that the prophets wrote under. It just seems that Dylan is channeling something so sacred here:
He’s saying that each individual mind is also intimately linked to ageless wisdom, and to even every leaf that’s been frozen in time and even beyond that. The way time gives way to something eternal — to a fear we know that even trees can know. And then suddenly we are whisked to a beach that leads even beyond time and beyond fear and beyond all sorrow. And in that state of being, we are given a chance to feel the ecstasy of what it means to be alive and free, taking in a moment of pure beauty.
Now the mind is washed clean of all memory and every care of today is forgotten because the individual and the setting have become one, dancing freely beneath the heavens all lit up before the waves and sands … free!
And still, this freedom isn’t a permanent state; there’s a knowledge that today’s worries will return tomorrow. But that’s all right, let tomorrow come as long as you can experience even this one instant of heaven, here and now.
Rabbi and author Naomi Levy is the founder and spiritual leader of Nashuva.