My Back Pages - Bob Dylan / Byrds, The (cover-live by Bill Sharkey)

My Back Pages (Bob Dylan, 1964; Byrds, The, 1967). Live cover performance by Bill Sharkey, Home Studio, Hawaii Kai, HI. 2022-03-21. "Keeping the Oldies Alive"

"My Back Pages" is a 1964 Bob Dylan penned song, "a lovely but mournful tune, . . . a coming of age song that expressed doubts about the songwriter’s earlier zeal" (J. Miltimore, fee.org, Jun. 23, 2020); he "criticizes his younger self for his moral arrogance and intellectual naivety" (songfacts.com, 2022). Although his recording did not chart, it was the Byrds' rendition that really introduced the song to the masses and made it onto the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1967 landing at the #30 position (Whitburn, 2013).

Bandcamp Webpage:
https://billsharkey.bandcamp.com
Rumble Channel:
https://rumble.com/c/BillSharkey
Youtube Channel:
https://youtube.com/c/billsharkey

#billsharkey

Lyrics:

Crimson flames tied through my ears
Rollin' high and mighty traps
Countless with fire on flaming roads
Using ideas as my maps
We'll meet on edges, soon, said I
Proud 'neath the 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 flanks of musketeers
Foundationed deep, somehow

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
Existence led by confusion boats
Mutiny from stern to bow

Ah, but I was so much older then
I'm younger than that now

Ah, but I was so much older then,
I'm younger than that now.

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