‘Things Have Changed’: behind the song that won Bob Dylan an Oscar
Throughout his illustrious career, Bob Dylan has garnered many awards in different fields. As a musician, winning a Grammy might be the apex of all awards that you could possibly get for your achievements, and with ten wins from 38 nominations, Dylan has certainly been a dominant force at the annual celebration of musical excellence. In addition to this, Dylan has also earned himself a Golden Globe award, the Pulitzer Prize, and even a Nobel Prize in Literature for his outstanding career achievements.
However, one decoration that eluded his trophy cabinet for many years was an Academy Award, and given his success at other awards ceremonies, it was surprising that the singer-songwriter failed even to gain a single nomination for many years. It wasn’t through lack of contributing to the world of film, with him having written the soundtrack for Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid in 1973, and his collaboration with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers on the track ‘Band of the Hand’ for the theme tune to the 1986 film of the same name.
Despite the brilliance of these two efforts, it wasn’t until 2000 that he would receive his first Academy Award nomination when he contributed the song ‘Things Have Changed’ for the soundtrack to the Curtis Hanson film Wonder Boys. While the film received three nominations in all, with it being given a nod for ‘Best Editing’ and ‘Best Adapted Screenplay’, it was in the ‘Best Original Song’ category where Wonder Boys claimed the award, giving Dylan his first and only Oscar win from his one and only nomination.
It arguably came during a time when his stock as an artist was dwindling, but the song comes across as vintage Dylan. Touching on the central themes of the film in the lyrics, ‘Things Have Changed’ is as typically poetic as you might expect from Dylan and saw him really dive into the world that central character Grady Tripp was living in.
Hanson said of getting Dylan to contribute the song that he had learned that he might be interested long before he had him on board. “When I came back from filming in Pittsburgh,” Hanson recalled, “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 and where he was in life, emotionally and creatively. Weeks later, a CD arrived in the mail.”
When it came to receiving the award, Dylan was not present at the awards ceremony to pick up the award in person but did send over a performance of the song for the ceremony from Sydney, where he was on tour at the time. Speaking via video link, he said in his acceptance speech: “I want to thank 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.”
Some might say that this recognition was long overdue, but this award saw Dylan finally add the elusive Academy Award to his long list of achievements. He’d seen off stiff competition from Björk for her song ‘I’ve Seen It All’ from Dancer In The Dark and from academy favourites Sting and Randy Newman and had rightfully gained himself a place in the Oscars history books.
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