In an earlier post, I wrote that some songs are prophetic – or at least seem to be. Well, Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-Changin'” is prophecy in any sense of the term. The song was written in the Fall of 1963 and released in January 1964 as the title track of the album of the same name. However, it was not until two years later – in April of 1966 – that Congress adopted a national Daylight Savings Time, and the Uniform Time Act of 1966 was signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson.
Of course, there had been legislation concerning time before that. Time zones, as we know them (Eastern, Central, Mountain, Pacific, etc), had only been created in November of 1883. That was done not by the act of any government, but by the large railroads which needed some uniformity in their schedules across a country (actually, two countries – the United States and Canada) in which the establishment of time was strictly a local matter based on the position of the Sun.
In March 1918, those standard time zones were adopted by the federal government. At the same time, the first official Daylight Savings Time was decreed to begin on March 31, 1918. This was during World War I, and in an effort to conserve fuel, many other countries had instituted Daylight Savings Time in 1916 and 1917. The United States followed along, and observed the Daylight Savings Time for seven moths in 1918 and again in 1919.
When the War ended, so did Daylight Savings Time in this country. However, it was not too many years until there was another war – World War II. During that struggle, a year-round Daylight Savings Time, called “War Time,” was in effect from February 9, 1942 until September 30, 1945.
After the War, there were some states that continued to use Daylight Savings Time, and some did not. Sometimes parts of a state would change the time, and others would not. There were calls for uniformity, but most people resisted the idea that the national government should have the power to tell them what time it was.
Dylan’s song clearly prophesied the eventual federal action, though, as he sang, “Come Senators, Congressmen, please heed the call.” And heed it they, did, enacting the legislation starting Daylight Savings Time on the last Sunday in April of each year, and ending it on the last Sunday of October (though giving states the power to opt out by state law). Clearly, it was a good call by Mr. Dylan.
There have been changes in the implementation over time. In 1974, Daylight Savings Time was in effect from January 6 through October 27; and in 1975, from February 23 through October 26. In each case, the longer period was decreed in the hope that it would result in energy savings. In 1986, new legislation made Daylight Savings Time begin at 2:00 a.m. on the first Sunday in April and end at 2:00 a.m. on the last Sunday of October. Since 2007, the starting date has been 2:00 a.m. on the second Sunday of March, and the ending date 2:00 a.m. on the first Sunday in November.
Wait a minute . . . I have just been informed that “The Times They Are A-Changin'” is not about Daylight Savings Time at all. I don’t know what to do. Tomorrow is the first Sunday in November and I need to change all of our clocks, so there is no time to do more research.
I am just going to pretend that I didn’t get the new information, and move on to the song:
The Times They Are A-Changin’
By Bob Dylan
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You’ll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you
Is worth savin’
Then you better start swimmin’
Or you’ll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin’.Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won’t come again
And don’t speak too soon
For the wheel’s still in spin
And there’s no tellin’ who
That it’s namin’
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin’.
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’.
Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don’t criticize
What you can’t understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin’
Please get out of the new one
If you can’t lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin’.
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’.
Copyright: Special Rider Music
We’re operating on the old time and have decided we will turn the clocks back when we’re darn good and ready, and not before. I expect the time police any day now, but there are extenuating circumstances and I shall be released.
Dylan is indeed a prophet. Sort of. Maybe. In a fashion. To whit:
Verse 1, Global Warming: “…admit that the waters around you have grown, and accept it that soon you’ll be drenched to the bone…”
Verse 2, Outcome of the 2000 Presidential Election: “…the wheel’s still in spin and there’s no tellin’ who that it’s namin’, for the loser now will be later to win…”
Verse 3, Dysfunctional National Legislature, 2008-2015: “…Come senators, congressmen, please heed the call, don’t stand in the doorway, don’t block up the hall…”
Verse 4, The Generation Gap (and Foreshadowing for Verse 5): “…Your sons and your daughters are beyond your command (and) your old road is rapidly agin’…”
Verse 5, The Nature of Time (not so much prophetic as classically philosophical, but many last verses end up this way when the oracle has run out of prophesies and needs to wind up the output and sign off with a certain flavor of unassailable verity): “…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’…”
Maybe Dylan should have called it “The Times are Pretty Much The Same As They’ve Always Been,” or, “The Times They Are a-saming…”
I’m just saming…
Looking at Verse 1 on global warming: It seems that the global warming has gotten worse over the years, just as daylight savings time has been extended. A coincidence; or are we seeing the effect of that extra hour of daylight? What would Dylan say? Would he blame it on the idiot wind, instead?
Now you’ve done it. You’ve released that idea into the wild where it will probably grow another conspiracy theory cult based on apophenia (finding meaning where there is none). They will blame farmers for being the instigating folks behind daylight savings time, curse all scientists for missing the obvious connection between an extra hour of daylight and global warming, and will become convinced that DST and independent farmers must both be removed from the world in favor of sun dials and corporate farms. Monsanto, of course, will fund them. Hope you’re happy now.
speaking of time, I always liked the quote that I attribute to Groucho Marx in one of the Marx Brother’s movies. When told that the workers were striking for shorter hours, he replied, good, I always thought 60 minutes was too long. (Cue snare and cymbal)
Now off to the clocks….
There was another movie – I think Love Happy – in which Groucho talks about Harpo’s monkey going on strike for shorter hours and longer bananas. Have you noticed that it gets dark awfully early if you change the clocks?