Tag: My Back Pages

I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now

This is my favorite song by the Byrds. I like the Byrds’ arrangement of this great Bob Dylan song. Roger McGuinn’s voice plus Rickenbacker is always a winning combination. Dylan recorded his version in 1964 on his Another Side of Bob Dylan album. I fell for the song because of the line, I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now. Just a great phrase from a catalog that is full of them. 

On the countless Dylan songs that are covered, I will usually like Dylan’s version better…on this one, I prefer the Byrds. The song peaked at #30 on the Billboard 100 in 1967. It’s one of those songs that I so wish I could have written. Even the title is cool because “My Back Pages” is not uttered in the song. 

Bob Dylan helped the Byrds a lot with Mr. Tambourine Man and other songs. The Byrds, in turn, helped widen Bob’s popularity to the new rock audience that was developing, which may not have heard some of these songs as much. 

In 1992 the Bob Dylan 30th Anniversary Concert happened, and my cousin had the complete concert on VHS. He had a satellite, so I didn’t have to wait for it to be released almost a year later. I’ll never forget this song being played with Roger McGuinn sharing the stage with Dylan, Tom Petty, George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Neil Young.

Roger McGuinn: “I don’t try to interpret what Bob meant when he wrote the song. He doesn’t do that, and to do that, you spoil it for people who have a different meaning of the song.”

The song being played at Bob Dylan’s 30th Anniversary concert. Bob Dylan, Roger McGuinn, Neil Young, George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and a bunch more. 

 

My Back Pages

Crimson flames tied through my ears
Rollin’ high and mighty traps
Countless with fire on flaming roads
Using ideas as my maps
We’ll meet on edges, soon, said I
Proud ‘neath heated brow

Ah, but I was so much older then
I’m younger than that now
Half-wracked prejudice leaped forth
Rip down all hate, I screamed
Lies that life is black and white
Spoke from my skull I dreamed
Romantic facts of musketeers
Foundationed deep, somehow
Ah, but I was so much older then
I’m younger than that now

In a soldier’s stance, I aimed my hand
At the mongrel dogs who teach
Fearing not that I’d become my enemy
In the instant that I preach
Sisters fled by confusion boats
Mutiny from stern to bow
Ah, but I was so much older then
I’m younger than that now

Ah, but I was so much older then
I’m younger than that now

My guard stood hard when abstract threats
Too noble to neglect
Deceived me into thinking
I had something to protect
Good and bad, I define these terms
Quite clear, no doubt, somehow
Ah, but I was so much older then
I’m younger than that now