My Back Pages - Writing, Recording and Performance

Writing, Recording and Performance

Bob Dylan wrote "My Back Pages" in 1964 as one of the last songs—perhaps the last song—that he composed for his Another Side of Bob Dylan album. It was recorded on June 9, 1964, under the working title of "Ancient Memories", and was the last song to be committed to tape for the album. The song was partly based on the traditional folk song "Young But Growing" and has a mournful melody similar to that of "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll" from Dylan's previous album, The Times They Are a-Changin'. As with the other songs on Another Side, Dylan is the sole musician on "My Back Pages" and plays in a style similar to his previous protest songs, with a sneering, rough-edged voice and a hard-strumming acoustic guitar accompaniment.

In the song's lyrics, Dylan criticizes himself for having been certain that he knew everything and apologizes for his previous political preaching, noting that he has become his own enemy "in the instant that I preach." Dylan questions whether one can really distinguish between right and wrong, and even questions the desirability of the principle of equality. The lyrics also signal Dylan's disillusionment with the 1960s protest movement and his intention to abandon protest songwriting. The song effectively analogizes the protest movement to the establishment it is trying to overturn. One of the song's most famous lines is the refrain:

Ah, but I was so much older then

I'm younger than that now

Music critic Robert Shelton has interpreted this refrain as "an internal dialogue between what he once accepted and now doubts." Shelton also notes that the refrain maps a path from Blakean experience to the innocence of William Wordsworth. The refrain has also been interpreted as Dylan celebrating his "bright, new post-protest future."

Dylan's disenchantment with the protest movement had previously surfaced in a speech he had given in December 1963 when accepting an award from the Emergency Civil Liberties Committee (ECLC) in New York. Author Mike Marqusee has commented that "No song on Another Side distressed Dylan's friends in the movement more than 'My Back Pages' in which he transmutes the rude incoherence of his ECLC rant into the organized density of art. The lilting refrain ... must be one of the most lyrical expressions of political apostasy ever penned. It is a recantation, in every sense of the word."

In an interview with the Sheffield University Paper in May 1965, Dylan explained the change that had occurred in his songwriting over the previous twelve months, noting "The big difference is that the songs I was writing last year ... they were what I call one-dimensional songs, but my new songs I'm trying to make more three-dimensional, you know, there's more symbolism, they're written on more than one level." In late 1965, Dylan commented on the writing of "My Back Pages" specifically during an interview with Margaret Steen for The Toronto Star: "I was in my New York phase then, or at least, I was just coming out of it. I was still keeping the things that are really really real out of my songs, for fear they'd be misunderstood. Now I don't care if they are." As Dylan stated to Nat Hentoff at the time that "My Back Pages" and the other songs on Another Side of Bob Dylan were written, "There aren't any finger pointing songs ... Now a lot of people are doing finger pointing songs. You know, pointing to all the things that are wrong. Me, I don't want to write for people anymore. You know, be a spokesman."

Dylan did not play "My Back Pages" in concert until June 11, 1988, during a performance in Mountain View, California. The arrangement that Dylan used eliminated some of the song's verses and included an electric guitar part performed by session musician G. E. Smith. Since 1988, Dylan has played the song in concert many times in both electric and semi-acoustic versions, and sometimes as an acoustic encore. At the 30th Anniversary Tribute Concert to Dylan at Madison Square Garden in 1992, Dylan performed "My Back Pages" with George Harrison, Eric Clapton, Tom Petty, Neil Young, and Roger McGuinn. This performance, which featured vocals from all six musicians, along with guitar solos by Clapton and Young, was released on The 30th Anniversary Concert Celebration album in 1993.

In addition to its initial appearance on Another Side of Bob Dylan, "My Back Pages" has also appeared on a number of Bob Dylan compilation albums. In the United States and Europe, it appeared on the 1971 album Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Vol. II (aka More Bob Dylan Greatest Hits) and on the 2007 album Dylan. In Australia, the song was included on the 1994 compilation album Greatest Hits Vol. 3.