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My Back Pages
"My Back Pages" is a song written by Bob Dylan and included on his 1964 album Another Side of Bob Dylan. It is stylistically similar to his earlier folk protest songs and features Dylan's voice with an acoustic guitar accompaniment. However, its lyrics—in particular the refrain "Ah, but I was so much older then/I'm younger than that now"—have been interpreted as a rejection of Dylan's earlier personal and political idealism, illustrating his growing disillusionment with the 1960s folk protest movement with which he was associated, and his desire to move in a new direction. While Dylan wrote the song in 1964, he did not perform it live until 1988, though his band played a brief instrumental version of it as Dylan took the stage during his 1978 tour.
"My Back Pages" has been covered by artists as diverse as Keith Jarrett, the Byrds, the Ramones, the Nice, Steve Earle, Eric Johnson, and the Hollies. The Byrds' version, initially released on their 1967 album Younger Than Yesterday, was also issued as a single in 1967 and proved to be the band's last Top 40 hit in the U.S.
Bob Dylan wrote "My Back Pages" in 1964 as one of the last songs—perhaps the last song—composed for his Another Side of Bob Dylan album. He recorded it on June 9, 1964, under the working title of "Ancient Memories", the last song committed to tape for the album. The song was partly based on the traditional folk song "Young But Growing" and has a mournful melody similar to that of "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll" from Dylan's previous album, The Times They Are a-Changin'. As with the other songs on Another Side, Dylan is the sole musician on "My Back Pages" and plays in a style similar to his previous protest songs, with a sneering, rough-edged voice and a hard-strumming acoustic guitar accompaniment.
In the song's lyrics, Dylan criticizes himself for having been certain that he knew everything and apologizes for his previous political preaching, noting that he has become his own enemy "in the instant that I preach." Dylan questions whether one can really distinguish between right and wrong, and even questions the desirability of the principle of equality. The lyrics also signal Dylan's disillusionment with the 1960s protest movement and his intention to abandon protest songwriting. The song effectively analogizes the protest movement to the establishment it is trying to overturn, concluding with the refrain:
Ah, but I was so much older then
I'm younger than that now
Music critic Robert Shelton has interpreted this refrain as "an internal dialogue between what he [Dylan] once accepted and now doubts." Shelton also notes that the refrain maps a path from Blakean experience to the innocence of William Wordsworth. The refrain has also been interpreted as Dylan celebrating his "bright, new post-protest future."
Dylan's disenchantment with the protest movement had previously surfaced in a speech he had given in December 1963 when accepting an award from the Emergency Civil Liberties Committee (ECLC) in New York. Author Mike Marqusee has commented that "No song on Another Side distressed Dylan's friends in the movement more than 'My Back Pages' in which he transmutes the rude incoherence of his ECLC rant into the organized density of art. The lilting refrain ... must be one of the most lyrical expressions of political apostasy ever penned. It is a recantation, in every sense of the word."
In an interview with the Sheffield University Paper in May 1965, Dylan explained the change that had occurred in his songwriting over the previous twelve months, noting "The big difference is that the songs I was writing last year ... they were what I call one-dimensional songs, but my new songs I'm trying to make more three-dimensional, you know, there's more symbolism, they're written on more than one level." In late 1965, Dylan commented on the writing of "My Back Pages" specifically during an interview with Margaret Steen for The Toronto Star: "I was in my New York phase then, or at least, I was just coming out of it. I was still keeping the things that are really really real out of my songs, for fear they'd be misunderstood. Now I don't care if they are." As Dylan stated to Nat Hentoff at the time that "My Back Pages" and the other songs on Another Side of Bob Dylan were written, "There aren't any finger pointing songs [here] ... Now a lot of people are doing finger pointing songs. You know, pointing to all the things that are wrong. Me, I don't want to write for people anymore. You know, be a spokesman."
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My Back Pages
"My Back Pages" is a song written by Bob Dylan and included on his 1964 album Another Side of Bob Dylan. It is stylistically similar to his earlier folk protest songs and features Dylan's voice with an acoustic guitar accompaniment. However, its lyrics—in particular the refrain "Ah, but I was so much older then/I'm younger than that now"—have been interpreted as a rejection of Dylan's earlier personal and political idealism, illustrating his growing disillusionment with the 1960s folk protest movement with which he was associated, and his desire to move in a new direction. While Dylan wrote the song in 1964, he did not perform it live until 1988, though his band played a brief instrumental version of it as Dylan took the stage during his 1978 tour.
"My Back Pages" has been covered by artists as diverse as Keith Jarrett, the Byrds, the Ramones, the Nice, Steve Earle, Eric Johnson, and the Hollies. The Byrds' version, initially released on their 1967 album Younger Than Yesterday, was also issued as a single in 1967 and proved to be the band's last Top 40 hit in the U.S.
Bob Dylan wrote "My Back Pages" in 1964 as one of the last songs—perhaps the last song—composed for his Another Side of Bob Dylan album. He recorded it on June 9, 1964, under the working title of "Ancient Memories", the last song committed to tape for the album. The song was partly based on the traditional folk song "Young But Growing" and has a mournful melody similar to that of "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll" from Dylan's previous album, The Times They Are a-Changin'. As with the other songs on Another Side, Dylan is the sole musician on "My Back Pages" and plays in a style similar to his previous protest songs, with a sneering, rough-edged voice and a hard-strumming acoustic guitar accompaniment.
In the song's lyrics, Dylan criticizes himself for having been certain that he knew everything and apologizes for his previous political preaching, noting that he has become his own enemy "in the instant that I preach." Dylan questions whether one can really distinguish between right and wrong, and even questions the desirability of the principle of equality. The lyrics also signal Dylan's disillusionment with the 1960s protest movement and his intention to abandon protest songwriting. The song effectively analogizes the protest movement to the establishment it is trying to overturn, concluding with the refrain:
Ah, but I was so much older then
I'm younger than that now
Music critic Robert Shelton has interpreted this refrain as "an internal dialogue between what he [Dylan] once accepted and now doubts." Shelton also notes that the refrain maps a path from Blakean experience to the innocence of William Wordsworth. The refrain has also been interpreted as Dylan celebrating his "bright, new post-protest future."
Dylan's disenchantment with the protest movement had previously surfaced in a speech he had given in December 1963 when accepting an award from the Emergency Civil Liberties Committee (ECLC) in New York. Author Mike Marqusee has commented that "No song on Another Side distressed Dylan's friends in the movement more than 'My Back Pages' in which he transmutes the rude incoherence of his ECLC rant into the organized density of art. The lilting refrain ... must be one of the most lyrical expressions of political apostasy ever penned. It is a recantation, in every sense of the word."
In an interview with the Sheffield University Paper in May 1965, Dylan explained the change that had occurred in his songwriting over the previous twelve months, noting "The big difference is that the songs I was writing last year ... they were what I call one-dimensional songs, but my new songs I'm trying to make more three-dimensional, you know, there's more symbolism, they're written on more than one level." In late 1965, Dylan commented on the writing of "My Back Pages" specifically during an interview with Margaret Steen for The Toronto Star: "I was in my New York phase then, or at least, I was just coming out of it. I was still keeping the things that are really really real out of my songs, for fear they'd be misunderstood. Now I don't care if they are." As Dylan stated to Nat Hentoff at the time that "My Back Pages" and the other songs on Another Side of Bob Dylan were written, "There aren't any finger pointing songs [here] ... Now a lot of people are doing finger pointing songs. You know, pointing to all the things that are wrong. Me, I don't want to write for people anymore. You know, be a spokesman."