Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Tom Petty, Roger McGuinn...
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
"And they talk about Negroes, and they talk about black and white.
And they talk about colors of red and blue and yellow. Man, I just don't see any colors at all when I look out. I don't see any colors at all and if people have taught through the years to look at colors - I've read history books, I've never seen one history book that tells how anybody feels. I've found facts about our history, I've found out what people know about what goes on but I never found anything about anybody feels about anything happens. It's all just plain facts. And it don't help me one little bit to look back." - - Bob Dylan accepting the Tom Paine Award from the National Emergency Civil Liberties Committee in 1963
Bob Dylan wrote "My Back Pages" nearly 50 years ago in 1964
as one of the last songs — perhaps the last song—that he composed for his Another Side of Bob Dylan album.[1] It was recorded on June 9, 1964, under the working title of "Ancient Memories", and was the last song to be committed to tape for the album.
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.[9] 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." .... Dylan did not play "My Back Pages" in concert until June 11, 1988. - - La Wik
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
My Back Pages | The Official Bob Dylan Site
Posted by gerardvanderleun at September 28, 2013 9:06 AM
The Left has always hated being told to grow-up.
Posted by: Patvann at September 28, 2013 11:28 AMWhenever I think of myself before my "right" turn, I hear the lyric "I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now."
Posted by: M*A at September 28, 2013 5:39 PMHe is a great song writer and poet, but I don't agree with his political views. Further along in that acceptance speech he said things like: "... like my first idol - used to have an idol, Woody Guthrie ..." and something with which I have problems: "... which I have to be to be honest, I just got to be, as I got to admit that the man who shot President Kennedy, Lee Oswald, I don't know exactly where —what he thought he was doing, but I got to admit honestly that I too - I saw some of myself in him ..."
Yikes. Throughout his life Woody Guthrie was associated with United States Communist groups. And what's up with Bob identifying with a presidential assassin?
I was taken by his music back in the day, a lot of us were. We were young and rebellious and didn't trust anyone over thirty. Many of us have become more conservative with the passing of years. I find it ironic that we have come around again to fighting "The Man". What was anti-American back then has become patriotic. I dunno, maybe another Grassy Knoll but ixnay on the communism.
Posted by: chasmatic at September 28, 2013 8:39 PM"I find it ironic that we have come around again to fighting "The Man"."
I find it entirely un-ironic.
The 'free thinkers' who took the fight to the old line liberals were nothing of the sort. It was always pure will to power, and now that they have the power they have proven themselves far, far worse than those they opposed.
Quote MLK and they offer nothing more than eye rolls, empty scoffing, and epithet.
What more proof do you need?
Posted by: ThomasD at September 30, 2013 1:24 PM
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