Song of the Day 12/12: Bob Dylan, “Things Have Changed”

It was 20 years ago that the film “Wonder Boys,” based on Michael Chabon’s novel, was released, with this then-new song anchoring the soundtrack, and things remain crazy and times remain strange.

The movie bombed, but Dylan won an Oscar for the song, and performed it on the telecast via satellite link from Sydney, Australia, where he was on tour. In his acceptance speech, Dylan thanked “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.”

Why Dylan wanted to write a song for the film remains obscure, but director Curtis Hanson leaped at the opportunity. “I learned that Dylan might be interested in contributing an original song. … 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 [an aging boy-wonder novelist in a mid-life crisis, played by Michael Douglas] and where he was in life, emotionally and creatively. Weeks later a CD arrived in the mail.” Hanson also directed a video for the song, which intercuts Dylan into scenes with the film’s stars. The lyrics contain references to the film, along with allusions to Shelley (“sapphire-tinted skies) and Duane Eddy (“forty miles of bad road”).

The song was cut on a one-day break in the never-ending tour in 1999. According to Dylan’s drummer at the time, David Kemper, “We were touring and had a day off in New York. Bob said, ‘Tomorrow let’s go into the studio. I got a song I want to record.’ We went in and played ‘Things Have Changed’ with only an engineer. We did two takes. The first was a New Orleans thing. The second was what you hear. So in about five hours we learned it recorded it, mixed it.”

It has been widely noted that “Things Have Changed” bears a more than passing similarity to a song released in 1999, Marty Stuart’s “Observations of a Crow.” When asked about it by American Songwriter magazine, Stuart said, “”Well, actually, one night, Bob and I hung out. I took him to my warehouse to see all the country music treasures I have. Bob said, ‘Hey, I like that “Crow” song. I might borrow something out of that someday.’ I said, ‘Well, I probably borrowed it from you in the first place. Go ahead.'”