Music Arcades: Bob Dylan: The Times They are a-Changin'

One day, let's say it was 1985 ±1, you told me how you and Julian A had just rediscovered a forgotten song from The Times They are a-Changin', called When the Ship Comes In. You were dead excited to find again a "beautiful little song" that you'd forgotten. I doubt you used the term "rediscovered". We didn't then. The idea of owning more songs than you could remember was an alien one. Didn't I, via the radio and friends' collections, know many more songs than I could afford to own?

I know …Times… is a Classic and all, but let me get a couple of things off my chest. I just about never listen to this album. Many of the songs on it — not including When the Ship Comes In, I grant you — seem to find me via other collections, TV documentaries and similar channels. They're just in the air. Second, some of those songs have long outlived their welcome. The title track has a certain undeniable timelessness that makes objecting to it seem as futile as objecting to London buses. But With God on our Side? As soon it starts, I just want it to end! Geez, it takes forever to reach a conclusion that is clearly telegraphed from the first few lines. Only a Pawn in their Game and The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll aren't much better. So much repetition and flogging a point incessantly. Don't accuse me of having ADHD. I know it's you, not me, Bob, so would you please just move it along a little quicker?!

The highlights for me are One Too Many Mornings and North Country Blues; not preachy, but songs with real pathos and humanity, beautifully song.