The Times They Are A-Changin' Lyrics

"Words and music Bob Dylan
Released on The Times They Are A-Changin' (1964), Greatest Hits (1967) and Biograph (1985), in alternate versions on Bootleg Series 1-3 (1991) and Love and Theft (limited edition, 2001), and live on At Budokan (1978) and Unplugged (1995)
Tabbed by Eyolf Østrem


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Chords: 

G     320022
D2/c  x30230
G/b   x20030
The Bootleg Series version is the same as below, only played at the piano, and with pianistic instead of guitaristic chords in the descent at the end.
The Unplugged version is also the same as below, only with a capo on the 2nd fret.


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     G             Em
Come gather 'round people
    C        G
Wherever you roam
      G            Em
And admit that the waters
 C              D
Around you have grown
      G            Em
And accept it that soon
          C               G
You'll be drenched to the bone.
        G       Am
If your time to you
         D
Is worth savin'
         D            D2/c
Then you better start swimmin'
          G/b         D/a
Or you'll sink like a stone
        G     C          D   G
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'.

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Budokan version
Capo 5th fret (sounding key F major)

     C             Em
Come gather 'round people
    F        C
Wherever you roam
      C            Em
And admit that the waters
 F              G
Around you have grown
      C            Em
And accept it that soon
          F               C
You'll be drenched to the bone.
        C       Em
If your time to you
         G
Is worth savin'
         G
Then you better start swimmin'

Or you'll sink like a stone
        C                G   C
For the times they are a-changin'.

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Alternate studio version (Oct 1963)
Released as a bonus track on the limited edition of ""Love and Theft"" (2001).
This version combines two well-known Dylan features, the G-G6-G7 figure and the high capo position, in a song that's usually played in G.

Capo 5th fret (sounding key F major)

The ""G-G6-G7"" figure in its two versions:

  G       G6    G7                  G   G6  G7
  :   .   .     :   .   .           :   .   .