"Changing of the Guards" is a song written by Bob Dylan, released in 1978 as a single and as the first track on his album Street-Legal.

[3] Record World said it has only "a touch of the customary Dylan sound" and that "the beat is decidedly rock" and it has "big background vocals.

[5] Critic Paul Williams praised both the music ("The rhythm and melody are original and powerful; and Dylan’s use of the back-up singers to echo his words at strategic moments throughout each verse is a marvelous device, effective and haunting") as well as the lyrics ("the storytelling structure of the song, mixing political and romantic intrigue, rich imagery, and fascinating setting, singer slipping neatly between first and third person narrative, seems more than adequate to deliver on the promise").

[6] Dylan acknowledged the lyrical ambiguity in a 1978 interview, commenting: "It means something different every time I sing it.

[8] Hip hop group Public Enemy referenced the song's title in their 2007 Dylan tribute song "Long and Whining Road": "From basement tapes, beyond them dollars and cents / Changing of the guards spent, now where the hell the majors went?