Published on Tuesday, October 29, 2002 in The Nation's On-Line Beat
Bob Dylan, Dick Cheney and Paul Wellstone
by John Nichols
Most Americans had no idea where Eveleth, Minnesota, was until they
saw the maps showing where Senator Paul Wellstone, his wife and daugher,
three staffers and two pilots perished in a plane crash Friday.
Not so Bob Dylan.
A native of Hibbing, a city just 30 miles from Eveleth, the songwriter
grew up on the northern Minnesota Iron Range where Wellstone was a populist
hero to the Steelworkers and other trade unionists who continue to dominate
the region's politics.
On Saturday night, at a concert in Denver, Dylan made a rare reference
to a contemporary political figure. The singer, who is not known for talking
much at his concerts, dedicated a song to Wellstone.
"This is for a great man and a great senator from Minnesota," Dylan
said. The crowd cheered as songwriter began playing one of his most
political songs, 1964's "The Times They Are A'Changin'."
That song includes the lines:
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'"
Complete article: http://www.commondreams.org/views02/1029-02.htm
How about these lines of the song, which the above article doesn't
quote:
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'
