Bob Dylan came out of the gate writing with certainty and fervor about the issues of the day. The authority that he wielded in his songs caused his diehard fans to start hanging on his every word. Some accepted them as absolute truth without questioning them. But Dylan refused to fall for his own hype. He eventually started to hedge his bets, realizing that even some of his former songs could have been more righteous than exactly right. It’s with that spirit he wrote his classic song “My Back Pages”. A lyric or two in this Bob Dylan classic challenges the righteousness of youth.
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Turning the “Pages”
The whole “voice of a generation” deal never made Bob Dylan feel all that comfortable. That, combined with his natural aversion to repeating himself, almost guaranteed that the protest singer portion of his career would be a relatively short one.
Another Side Of Bob Dylan represented a key transitional point in his career. The album, released in 1964, still presented him with mostly just acoustic guitar, voice, and (sometimes) harmonica. In other words, he hadn’t yet gone electric.
But Dylan was still changing his artistic approach in subtle ways, even though it wasn’t quite as momentous as when he plugged in his guitar. For one, the album mostly steers clear of issue-related material. “Chimes Of Freedom” comes closest, but that’s more a general lament than a specific diatribe.
In addition to that, Dylan leans further into his irreverent side on the album. Even some of the songs about romance are rendered with tongue firmly planted in cheek. He sounded less like the voice of a generation at times and more like an impish prankster.
“My Back Pages”, one of Dylan’s best-loved songs, kind of explains the reason for the transformation. The young songwriter had come to the realization that it’s rare to find an issue that doesn’t have more nuance than can be explored in a song, even songs as profound as he was writing. And a noncommittal stance could make more sense than jumping haphazardly to defend one side.
Exploring the Lyrics of “My Back Pages”
As if to emphasize the narrator’s realization that he was perhaps too serious in past days, Dylan plays fast and loose with the English language throughout “My Back Pages”. Words like “foundationed” and phrases like “confusion boats” come naturally flowing. Seemingly nonsensical sentences like the opening lines (“Crimson flames tied through my ears / Rolling high and mighty traps”) reveal deep truths.
Through it all, Dylan explains how he changed from a self-serious stance-taker to a laid-back shoulder-shrugger. Once, he was a firebrand.
“’Rip down all hate,’ I screamed / Lies that life is black and white / Spoke from my skull I dreamed.”
Dylan revels in absurdity and dark humor throughout the song. He doesn’t want to be one of the “corpse evangelists” spouting edicts and truisms. And he worries about being viewed as hypocritical if he gives any advice.
“Fearing not I’d become my enemy / In the instance that I preach”.
Perhaps Dylan sensed that his wacky language and syntax might make the song a bit hard to grasp. He made sure to orient us by giving us a chorus for the ages: “Ah, but I was so much older then / I’m younger than that now.”
In other words, this old soul has wised up by lightening up.
The Byrds covered “My Back Pages” and turned it into a folk-rock gem. Many others have done a wonderful job taking on the song. But Dylan’s original stands apart. He sounds somewhat like an old fogey as he bellows it out, adding even more irony to a song already dripping with it. This 60-year-old chestnut of a song continues to seem fresh, as if heeding the advice it gave to the world.
Photo by Stanley Bielecki/ASP/Getty Images
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