The Times They Are A Changin' (!)

"Come senators, congressmen, please heed the call..." Ok, I admit, the title is a cheesy way to steer a little Dylan traffic here.  But now that we know Barack Obama will be our 44th President - and I can finally get back to blogging again - I want to begin with one of the more interesting cultural sidebars of the campaign: yes, the Dylan-Obama connection.

In June of 2008 Dylan told the Times of London:

“Well, you know right now America is in a state of upheaval. Poverty is demoralizing. You can't expect people to have the virtue of purity when they are poor. But we've got this guy out there now who is redefining the nature of politics from the ground up...Barack Obama. He's redefining what a politician is, so we'll have to see how things play out. Am I hopeful? Yes, I'm hopeful that things might change. Some things are going to have to.”

On November 4, 2008, Dylan's second song at his election eve concert at the University of Minnesota (where he studied - briefly - nearly a half century earlier) was 'The Times They Are a Changin'.  He introduced his last encore, 'Blowin' in the Wind', with these words:

"I was born in 1941. That was the year they bombed Pearl Harbor. I've been living in darkness ever since. It looks like things are going to change now."

Oh, yeah...Dylan's son Jesse directed the incredible "Yes We Can" video by will.i.am. And several months ago he won an Emmy Award for it.

Mazal tov, Jesse.