October 13, 2016

My Back Pages: "Yes, my guard stood hard when abstract threats Too noble to neglect Deceived me into thinking I had something to protect "

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Today... Bob Dylan Awarded Nobel Prize in Literature

30th Anniversary Concert 16.October.1992 || Dylan, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Roger McGuinn, Tom Petty, Eric Clapton....

My Back Pages

Crimson flames tied through my ears
Rollin’ high and mighty traps
Pounced 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

Girls’ faces formed the forward path
From phony jealousy
To memorizing politics
Of ancient history
Flung down by corpse evangelists
Unthought of, though, somehow
Ah, but I was so much older then
I’m younger than that now

A self-ordained professor’s tongue
Too serious to fool
Spouted out that liberty
Is just equality in school
“Equality,” I spoke the word
As if a wedding vow
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
My pathway led by confusion boats
Mutiny from stern to bow
Ah, but I was so much older then
I’m younger than that now

Yes, 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

Posted by gerardvanderleun at October 13, 2016 9:57 AM
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Comments:

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"It is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood." -- Karl Popper N.B.: Comments are moderated and may not appear immediately. Comments that exceed the obscenity or stupidity limits will be either edited or expunged.

More mumbo-jumbo mumbled and jumbled. Deceived into thinking he had something to protect? No wonder decency and adherence to truth are waning, undefended. His rhythms and music are lovely; his lyrics are meaningful in a sad, secular, surrendered way.

Posted by: Howard Nelson at October 13, 2016 9:58 AM

More mumbo-jumbo mumbled and jumbled. Deceived into thinking he had something to protect? No wonder decency and adherence to truth are waning, undefended. His rhythms and music are lovely; his lyrics are meaningful in a sad, secular, useless, surrendered way.

Posted by: Howard Nelson at October 13, 2016 10:00 AM

I must admit I felt a little uneasy
When she bent down to tie the laces of my shoe
Tangled up in blue

Check out Diamonds and Rust for another view of the same picture.

Posted by: ghostsniper at October 13, 2016 10:52 AM

“I’m a Dylan fan, but this is an ill conceived nostalgia award wrenched from the rancid prostates of senile, gibbering hippies,” the Scottish novelist Irvine Welsh wrote on Twitter.

Sheer poetry...

Posted by: Rob De Witt at October 13, 2016 12:11 PM

I hope you had a Very Merry Unbirthday yesterday, Gerard.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5FC6E5Gh4E

May you have many, many more.

Posted by: cond0010 at October 14, 2016 10:22 AM

absolutely great

Posted by: ck at October 14, 2016 11:24 AM

"Well, the moral of the story
The moral of this song,
Is simply that one should never be
Where one does not belong.
So when you see your neighbor carryin' somethin'
Help him with his load
And don't go mistaking Paradise
For that home across the road."

Bob Dylan
The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest

Wrote a paper for a Modern American Poetry class at San Francisco State about Bob Dylan, in '71 or '72, and titled it "Don't Go Mistaking Paradise for That Home Across the Road." My prof, himself a modern American poet only a few years older than me, was somewhat skeptical of my choice to include Dylan amongst the poets. By the end of the semester though, after reading my three assigned papers on Dylan, he agreed.

Though that prof died young of cancer, I think he would've also agreed with the Nobel committee's 2016 award to Bob Dylan.

First heard Dylan in '61. Didn't like him then, but soon got over that.

Posted by: Walt Gottesman at October 14, 2016 3:01 PM

I can't imagine what he thinks of this.

Posted by: pbird at October 15, 2016 10:20 AM