Things Have Changed
"Things Have Changed" is a song from the film Wonder Boys, written and performed by Bob Dylan[1] and released as a single on May 1, 2000, that won both the Academy Award for Best Original Song[2] and the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song.[3] It was also anthologized on the compilation albums The Essential Bob Dylan in 2000,[4] The Best of Bob Dylan in 2005[5] and Dylan in 2007.[6]
Not to be confused with Things Have Changed (Mattafix song)."Things Have Changed"
"Blind Willie McTell" (Live)
May 1, 2000
May or July 1999
- 3:37 (radio edit)
- 5:09 (video version)
- 5:25 (full-length version)
Bob Dylan
Brian Hiatt, writing in Rolling Stone, where the song placed first on a 2020 list of "The 25 Best Bob Dylan Songs of the 21st Century", saw it as a stylistic about-face from 1997's Daniel Lanois-produced Time Out of Mind and the beginning of an important new chapter in Dylan's career: "The effortless feel of the playful-yet-ominous, hard-grooving, utterly dazzling 'Things Have Changed' was an early indication of the renewed friskiness of Dylan’s 21st-century work — and the vividly live-in-the studio creations he would achieve as his own producer, with the help of engineer Chris Shaw".[7]
Themes[edit]
Clinton Heylin has written that "Things Have Changed" demonstrates a close knowledge of the film Wonder Boys, for which it was written. The lyrics make reference to "dancing lessons", "the jitterbug rag" and dressing "in drag", all of which feature in the plot of the film.[10]
Curtis Hanson, the director of Wonder Boys, has recalled: "I learned that Dylan might be interested in contributing an original song… So when I came back from filming in Pittsburgh, Bob came by the editing room to see some rough cut footage. I told him the story and introduced him to the characters. We talked about Grady Tripp and where he was in life, emotionally and creatively. Weeks later a CD arrived in the mail".[10]
Dylan critic Kees de Graaf places "Things Have Changed" in the context of the Biblical teaching Dylan encountered when he studied with the Vineyard Fellowship in the late 1970s. For de Graaf, the sense that "the world may come to an end at any moment" pervades the song. De Graaf notes the images of "the last train", "all hell may break loose", "standing on the gallows with my head in a noose", all contributing to a sense of impending Armageddon: "the last battle of the end times when all powers from hell will explode in one final outburst of violence".[13]
Dylan critic Michael Gray has commented on the wide range of cultural resources in the song's lyrics, describing it as unique in the way it synthesises the worlds of Percy Bysshe Shelley and Duane Eddy.[14]
Gray sees Dylan's line "I'm looking up into the sapphire-tinted skies" as an allusion to Shelley's phrase "sapphire-tinted skies" in line 71 of "Written among the Euganean Hills, North Italy".[15] "Forty Miles of Bad Road" was a 1959 instrumental hit for Duane Eddy.
According to Gray, Eddy's producer Lee Hazlewood heard one Texan say to another, "Your girl has a face like forty miles of bad road", and immediately recognised the remark's potential as a song title.
Reception[edit]
2001 Academy Award[edit]
On March 25, 2001, at the 73rd Academy Awards, "Things Have Changed" was awarded Best Original Song.[2] At the time, Dylan was touring Australia. He and his band performed the song in a segment recorded in Sydney, that was inserted into the Academy Awards broadcast via a satellite link.[16]
In his awards speech, broadcast from Sydney, Dylan said: "I want to thank the members of the Academy who were bold enough to give me this award for this song, which obviously is a song that doesn't pussyfoot around nor turn a blind eye to human nature".[16]
Commercial use[edit]
On February 2, 2014, an arrangement of "Things Have Changed" was used in a commercial for the Chrysler 200, aired during Super Bowl XLVIII.[25] Dylan narrated and starred in the commercial, saying "When it's made here, it's made with the one thing you can't import from anywhere else—American pride ... So let Germany brew your beer, let Switzerland make your watch, let Asia assemble your phone. We will build your car".[26]
Live performances[edit]
As of December 8, 2019, the date of its most recent outing, Dylan has performed the song 1,060 times. This makes it his ninth most frequently performed live song ever and the only Dylan song since the 1970s on the list of his top 10 most performed songs.[27] A live version from Portsmouth, England was included on the live album Live 1961–2000: Thirty-Nine Years of Great Concert Performances. Dylan also made a surprise televised appearance to perform the song at the American Film Institute Awards 2009 where Wonder Boys star Michael Douglas received the Lifetime Achievement award.[28][29] The last performance of the song (to date) took place at The Anthem in Washington, D.C., on December 8, 2019.[30]
Cover versions[edit]
"Things Have Changed" has been covered by many artists. Among the very first was country singer Waylon Jennings who made it a staple of his final live shows in 2000 and 2001.[31] Other notable versions include those by Barb Jungr on her 2002 album Every Grain of Sand: Barb Jungr Sings Bob Dylan, The Persuasions on their 2010 album Knockin' on Bob's Door, Curtis Stigers on his 2012 album Let's Go Out Tonight and Bettye LaVette on her 2018 album Things Have Changed, which takes its name from the song. Both Margo Price and Adia Victoria also have performed the song live in arrangements inspired by LaVette's.[32][33]
In popular culture[edit]
Filmmaker David Lynch quoted the song in his daily "weather report" on November 18, 2020: "This morning I woke up thinking of the line, 'People are crazy and times are strange', this line from the song 'Things Have Changed' by the great Bob Dylan".[34] Lynch referenced the song for a second time on his June 1, 2021, weather report: "Today I was thinking about Bob Dylan and his song 'Things Have Changed'".[35]