Bob Dylan / Robert Hunter / 5:25
Musicians: Bob Dylan: vocals, organ; Mike Campbell: guitar; David Hidalgo: accordion; Donnie Herron: guitar (?); Tony Garnier: bass; George G. Receli: drums / Recording Studio: Dave’s Room, Hollywood, California: October 2008 / Producer: Jack Frost (Bob Dylan) / Sound Engineer: David Bianco
After listening to “Ain’t No God in Mexico” by Billy Joe Shaver, Bob Dylan wrote the lyrics of “I Feel a Change Comin’ On.” In the penultimate verse, he even sings “I’m listening to Billy Joe Shaver / And I’m reading James Joyce / Some people they tell me / I got the blood of the land in my voice.” The name of James Joyce was just a Celtic touch, as Dylan told Douglas Brinkley: “Tying Billy Joe with James Joyce. I think subliminally or astrologically those two names just wanted to be combined.”166 The narrator is “[l]ooking far off into the East” and he “feel[s] a change coming on.” What change is he referring to? Dylan and Hunter leave the listener to decide. Each refrain ends, “And the fourth part of the day is already gone,” which may be a reference to the book of Nehemiah (9:1–3), “The book of the law of the Lord their God was read for one-fourth of the day, and for another fourth they confessed and did obeisance to the Lord their God.”
“I Feel a Change Comin’ On” is an excellent slow rock song with an irresistible groove, provided by the talented George G. Receli and Tony Garnier. The accordion again brings a Cajun tone so important to Dylan. Mike Campbell performs two magnificent solos (3:21 and 4:56). The songwriter plays organ and provides an excellent vocal performance with “the blood of the land in his voice,” as he himself says in his lyrics.