Video and lyrics for Bob Dylan's My Back Pages

I put up the video for this song last month, as performed by Tom Petty, Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Neil Young, Roger McGuinn and Eric Clapton. But I didn't post the lyrics. With Dylan, the lyrics are key. And these lyrics are magnificent. They are probably somewhere up there in Dylan's ten best. . .which puts them, surely, in the top 20 for all rock songs, ever.



So, once again, here is the BobFest video, along with the lyrics.


My Back Pages
by Bob Dylan

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.

Copyright ©1964; renewed 1992 Special Rider Music
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Video of Dylan's My Back Pages - The classic performance at BobFest by Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, George Harrison,Neil Young,Tom Petty,and Roger McGuinn

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