Billy Bragg has written new lyrics for Bob Dylan’s The Times They Are a Changing to reflect the current times.
With the new title The Times They Are A Changing Back, the song references a number of current events in America based on Bragg’s reflections on the inauguration.
Bragg wrote of the song:
At 5 pm on Friday, at the moment Donald Trump became President of the United States, Joe Henry and I were beginning our sound check in Salisbury. Joe began mournfully strumming Dylan’s classic ‘The Times They Are A Changing’ and, listening to him from the wings, I ruefully thought that it seems more like the times are changing back to how they were in the 1950s.
Checking into my hotel, I saw clips from Trump’s inaugural speech on the evening news and, 30 minutes later when I stepped out the shower, I had these lyrics in my head. I played the song that night in City Hall and it went down a storm. A night off in York has given me an opportunity to film a performance in my room.
