My Back Pages

[Wonk]

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.

http://www.bobdylan.com/songs/backpages.html

[Coventina]

1. Amen

The song says it all.

[Iverson]

2. yay!

At the moment, all I'll add is this:

"How many times can a man turn his head
And pretend that he just doesn't see?"

:toast:

[Wonk]

17. The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind,

The answer is blowin' in the wind.

(still)

[bigtree]

3. Good Guys/Bad Guys Cheer

Let's hear it for the good guys Hooray! Hip hip hooray!
Let's hear it for the bad guys Boo! Boo for the bad guys!
Let's hear it for the good guys Hooray!
Let's hear it for the bad guys Boo!
Let's hear it for the good guys Hooray!
Let's hear it for the bad guys Boo!

Good guys Hooray!
Bad guys Boo!
Good Hooray!
Bad Boo!
Good Hooray!
Bad

Get stoned, get stoned, get stoned, Get stoned, get stoned, get stoned ...

-Country Joe McDonald :hippie:

[Feanorcurufinwe]

4. One of my favorites

[greatauntoftriplets]

5. And I will add that "The Times They Are a-Changin".

Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'.
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside
And it is ragin'.
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin'.
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'.

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin'.
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'.

[Zomby Woof]

7. the irony here

Dylan wrote 'My Back Pages' on the album after 'The Times-They-Changin'' specifically as a self-commentary on the earnest sanctimony his youthful zeal gave that song and some of his other early protest work. 40 years out, 'My Back Pages' has aged MUCH better than the youthful sermon of 'Times-Changing'.

I love both songs, but understand fully why he distanced himself from 'Times-Changing'. To drive the point home, he sold it to a Canadian accounting firm a few years ago to use in an ad, and he DESPISES the selling of songs for ads.

[greatauntoftriplets]

8. I am older than you.

For me, it is still an anthem of the 1960s. And all the shit that was going down then.

[Zomby Woof]

9. But Dylan is older than both of us

And I used him as the source of my information, being that he authored it and all. I consider his opinion of his own work the only one superior to my own (of course I think everyone should hold their opinions in equally high regard).

That is why I mentioned I still like the song even as I understand why it doesn't hold up as well. I was 21 (his age when he wrote the song) too, and 21 year olds of ANY decade often carry an inflated sense of world-weariness and self-righteousness that is unearned. So waving your age over mine doesn't make for an effective rebuttal. I can be more objective, unburdended by the baggage of the 60's and all the sentimental longings that can bring.

[greatauntoftriplets]

10. Zomby, I saw my friends killed and maimed in Vietnam.

It is something that I will never get over. You are damned lucky to have escaped the baggage of the 1960s. I have not -- and my flashbacks have nothing to do with drugs. Just the memories of the dead.

[Zomby Woof]

11. My Dad is a Vietnam vet

I am sorry for the losses of your friends. There was much pain and suffering in that era that still holds a firm grip on the national psyche (witness the current campaigns). As for me, I grew up with the consequences of that war in ways I will not delve into on a public board.

Everybody's got a mountain to climb.

Peace.

[G_j]

12. I find this fascinating

and love reading Dylan's comments on just about anything. However keep in my mind that there are very few people (if any) who have been as guarded and as cryptic as Dylan. He has a consistent record of distancing himself from his work. He's made comments that certain songs are about "nothing" when it's obvious that is not the case. As rule he has hated being pinned down.
I generally take his comments on his own work with a grain of salt, but I still love reading anything he has to say.

having said that, A song like "Times they are a Changing" has a life of it's own, as any song does. It's out of his hands now and still has a deep and significant life and meaning for many.

[Zomby Woof]

14. you are absolutely correct

Songs in general are organic, and immortal in his case. We should all allow ourselves to let the songs be what we want them to be, to each of us.

One thing he loathes is the overanalysis of his work, even though he provides plenty of raw material for the analysis. :-)

Guilty as charged.

[G_j]

16. there is no doubt

that the song has a naivete and strident idealism to it, but then again that makes it perfect, for that's exactly what the mood was at the time. Things tending to be circular, songs come around and shine out more brightly from time to time. Especially Dylan songs. I love the recording of him singing "even the president of the United States sometimes has to stand naked" during the Watergate period. The crowd went wild. Let's hope that cycle comes 'round again!

[Zomby Woof]

18. how about...

"The vice-president's gone mad!" from "Clothesline Saga"? :-)

[oasis]

6. "Deceived me into thinking I had something to protect" (eom)

[Wonk]

13. The covers of this book are too far apart.

Oh, wait, no, that's another thread I'm thinking of...

[nightperson]

15. This is my favorite Dylan song these days:

http://www.bobdylan.com/songs/shipcomes.html. Too positive? C'mon, doesn't "they'll pinch themselves and squeal?/And they'll know that it's for real" make you think of certain porcine opponents? :headbang: :spank: :thumbsup: