#The byrds my back pages plus

Both achieving fame at an early age, at the start of the 1960s. Stashed in a closet somewhere, I’ve got some pages I once wrote about the parallels in the lives of the two, Dylan and Ali: born within a few months of each other on either side of the US’s entry into WWII with the attack on Pearl Harbor. The only other popular figure I recall feeling that way about is Muhammad Ali. Truth be told, I’m not a gung-ho Dylan fan in the sense of liking more than half of what he’s put out.įor me, Dylan feels like family - he’s been there for as long as I can remember. One thing’s for sure: regardless of his voice or his playing or his later, unmemorable songs, Dylan was one of the greatest songwriters of our time This is a splendid live performance, and it’s clear that everyone’s having fun and enjoying jamming with the other greats. You may have trouble with Roger McGuinn, but Tom Petty is easier. Dylan’s voice is unmistakable, of course, and if you want to test yourself, close your eyes and guess who’s singing or playing. I hadn’t looked at the participants, but when Clapton soloed, bending notes right and left, I thought to myself, “Damn! That’s Eric Clapton.” And then I identified several voices, the easiest being the plaintive whine of Neil Young, and then Young’s guitar solo, too. So when I got into the shower, I took my laptop into the bathroom and blasted this song on high volume. I found this on YouTube and hadn’t heard it. Since then he’s played it publicly many times, and one of them was this performance at the Bob Dylan 30th Anniversary Concert (celebrating three decades since his first album) in 1992. (It took me decades longer.) One sign of that is although Dylan recorded the song in 1964, the first time he performed it in public was in 1988. (Yes, I know there’s no accounting for taste, and your mileage may vary.)Īt any rate, by 1964, when this song was released, Dylan was apparently already disillusioned with the Sixties’ “we’re gonna change the world” mentality. I like the early Dylan, up to “Nashville Skyline”, and some individual songs since then, but as for the later Dylan, well, meh. Truth be told, I’m not a gung-ho Dylan fan in the sense of liking more than half of what he’s put out. I guess that refrain refers to the faux wisdom of the young and the adoption of the Socratic “I am not sure of anything” stand of the old. I always paused at the refrain, “Ah, but I was so much older then I’m younger than that now,” but never listened to the words that closely or read the lyrics. A notable use is the music journalism collection Rock’s Backpages.Until I read a bit about the history of “My Back Pages”, written by Bob Dylan, I hadn’t realized that it was about abandoning one’s youthful ideals. The phrase “back pages” never shows up in the lyrics, but it became a favorite saying amongst music writers, who used the term to describe an archive, either literal or figurative. He doesn’t do that, and to do that, you spoil it for people who have a different meaning of the song.” In his Songfacts interview, Roger McGuinn of The Byrds said: “I don’t try to interpret what Bob meant when he wrote the song.

As a single it stalled at #30 in 1967, but its reputation as a rock classic has grown through the years.

McGuinn also does a classic 12-string Rickenbacker solo and Van Dyke Parks fills things out with a soft but essential organ part. Leader Roger McGuinn cut out two of the more abstract verses and fashioned a chorus where there really wasn’t one, utilizing David Crosby’s harmony singing. The song peaked at #30 in the Billboard 100 in 1967.Īlready skilled at turning acoustic Dylan folk tunes into melodic, electric folk-rockers, the Byrds struck gold when they decided to take this somewhat nondescript Dylan tune from 1964 and electrify it for their fourth album. On the countless Dylan songs that are covered, I will usually like Dylan’s version better…on this one I prefer the Byrds. I fell for the song because of the line, I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now.

Dylan recorded his version in 1964 on his Another Side of Bob Dylan album.

#The byrds my back pages plus

Roger McGuinn’s voice plus Rickenbacker is always a winning combination. I like the Byrds arrangement of this great Bob Dylan song.