Bruce Springsteen – The Times They Are A-Changin’ Review

Honorary ceremonies are a time not just to give thanks to an artist, but to butcher and cover their work. Bruce Springsteen does a hell of a job covering Bob Dylan’s The Times They Are A-Changin’, thankfully. Our ears are saved by The Boss and his steady cover of this classic track. Dylan looks moved by it, though he always had the stern and severe look imprinted on his face around this time. But these cover works do not always sound off so well. There are plenty of moments in history, be it honours of Paul McCartney or Bono, where an artist too big for their boots suggests a contemporary edge, a new flicker of light or genre change, to their work. Springsteen gets it right. He introduces The Times They Are A-Changin’ as a song which catalogues a yearning for change. It still sounds that way.  

Courage is the key to this. That is what many may forget about the songs from Dylan. Not just him, of course, but consider the raw emotion and mystique surrounding it. It still stands today. Few can say they have music of this type. Of this importance. To move the greats, those artists who are following in the footsteps of these monumental moments in music history is still staggering. Springsteen puts The Times They Are A-Changin’ through as few changes as possible. Lit by a spotlight on a darkened stage, a full black suit and a guitar to match, this is the best way to pay tribute to the greats. As simply as possible. No flowery additions or extra arrangements. But Springsteen gets the point of The Times They Are A-Changin’, a song so strong it could be delivered as speech and still hold power.  

Springsteen does not do that here, of course. He finds a steady tempo on that acoustic guitar and elongates a few words here or there. Nothing major. Harmonica change-ups are heard towards the end of what is, in all, a staggering performance. Absolute silence throughout from the crowd. Transfixed as we can be on this Dylan cover so many years after the ceremony, capturing the immediate reaction to Springsteen’s work here is left to the cameraman. A quick wave from Dylan at the end just about cements it. This is as much an honour for Dylan as it is for Springsteen. Not because The Boss gets to cover one of the greats, playing a famed song to the man who wrote it, but because it is a chance for him to reflect on a major influence. To present this love letter live on stage is an incredible experience.  

Years later, Springsteen would write of Dylan being one of the first truthful musical encounters. His youth is adorned with opportunities to learn from an artist and the constant fight, the righteousness which still presents itself, even if slightly so now, in Dylan’s work. The Times They Are A-Changin’ has no new message or meaning with Springsteen leading it. That is the point. It is a song with an unchanged yet preserved importance. A message of hope and change which still lingers in one of the finest songs of protest, of desire, there is. Springsteen does not need to add anything but his unique vocal style. The rest takes care of itself in one of the biggest crossovers of protest music history.