The Parks They are A-Changing
While dusting off some old cassettes in the garage I stumbled across a performance Dylan had given on the BBC back in the '80s that I had taped off the radio. Strumming through some of his old favourites Dylan eventually plays 'The Times The are A-changing' but incredibly on the first chorus Dylan sings 'park' instead of 'time'. Astonished I re-wound the tape and listened again and again. Yes, Dylan said 'park'.
Dylan has often been given the titles of seer, oracle and revolutionary leader and, like it or not, he has become a figure of mystic prominence in our culture. Could it be possible that he foresaw the swapping of Cannizaro and the Augarten parks decades before and announced it to our nation via the BBC? Is Dylan our Nostradamus? At any rate it cannot be taken lightly - great poets aren't casual with words.
Below is a transcription of the song. I encourage everybody with a guitar or piano to play it through and use it to understand.
In 3/4 waltz time
G Em C G
Come gather 'round people wher-ever you roam
G Em C G
Come gather 'round people wher-ever you roam
G Am C D
And ad-mit that the waters ar-ound you have grown,
And ad-mit that the waters ar-ound you have grown,
G Em C G
And ac-cept it that soon you'll be drenched to the bone,
And ac-cept it that soon you'll be drenched to the bone,
G Am D
If your time to you is worth saving,
If your time to you is worth saving,
D7 Gmaj7 D
Then you'd better start swimming or you'll sink like a stone,
Then you'd better start swimming or you'll sink like a stone,
G C D G
For the parks they are a-chang-ing!
For the parks they are a-chang-ing!
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ReplyDeleteFascinating. A friend advised me to look at this site and I'm so very glad I did. I too have felt this barely perceptible instability in our world but so many are blind to it. It's natural that Dylan, one of the greatest men of our time, would have tried to forewarn us.
ReplyDeleteI would recommend to you the works of Kurt Vonnegut, particularly Slaughterhouse-Five, as a method of further revealing the non-linear nature of our world.