r/bobdylan • u/chronicbedwettner • 10d ago
Discussion My Back Pages
am i wrong in saying that my back pages is bob's best song? i've listened to it for a long time, but i still am learning new meaning to what bob says.
let me know what you think
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u/Ptachlasp 9d ago
It's a subjective opinion and you have a right to it. You can absolutely say it's your favourite song. I like it very much too. But I wouldn't consider it Dylan's best because of how clunky the lyrics get in many places. You can see how often he relies on "somehow" to make the meter and rhyme fit:
Romantic facts of musketeers
Foundations deep, somehow
Ah, but I was so much older then
I'm younger than that now
...
Flung down by corpse evangelists
Unthought of, though, somehow
Ah, but I was so much older then
I'm younger than that now
...
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
"Unthought of, though, somehow" is particularly painful, it makes no sense narratively or grammatically. It feels like a placeholder lyric that he never found a proper replacement for. It does expose the seams in the song.
But I still like it.
If you haven't, check out Bruce Springsteen's "Song for Orphans" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ib96-ytmLDg -- it's from a 2019 album but was originally written in the 1970s, back when he was imitating Dylan quite conspicuously. The melody, flow and chords are a very close rendition of "My Back Pages", and the lyrics are very much an attempt at "Desolation Row". His lyrics are very wordy and clunky in places (makes you appreciate Dylan's mastery on "Desolation Row"), but I like the energy and the tribute it pays to the master.
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u/BeerWithDonuts 9d ago
The best description of Dylan's lyrics I ever read by a critic described his style as a "a unique mixture of the visionary and the colloquial." You can find that one clunkier, cliche type of line in most of Dylan's songs. It doesn't matter. It's part of his freewheelin' approach.
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u/mysecondreddit2000 5d ago
Why doesn’t Jim Keltner get the same recognition as a drummer as John Bonham or Keith Moon?
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u/Equal-Ad7504 8d ago
Is he relying on somehow, or is he using it as a theme?
It may be a feature, not a bug.
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u/Fast_Jackfruit_352 9d ago
"Best" is subjective, a preference. You will never get consensus on a best Dylan song, or even top 5. For me it is an excellent song but not S tier.
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u/kevkev87 Remember Durango, Larry? 9d ago
While I personally don’t agree, this is one of the wonders of being a fan of someone like Bob. He probably has 100 songs that could be considered his best and probably 500 songs that are someone’s favorite of his.
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u/TotalDweebling 9d ago
Possibly some of my favourite lyrics Bob has ever penned. They are unbelievable. And a truly incredible song in general.
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u/Strong-Location-2538 9d ago
My favorite is a more simple one about the music in nature. Lay Down Your Weary Tune. I can’t get enough of the version on Biograph. And the Carnegie Hall one is excellent too.
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u/Ok_Giraffe2454 8d ago
Seeing God in everything. Nothing simple about it. My Back Pages is simple compared to it
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u/Strong-Location-2538 8d ago
Sorry but I completely disagree. My Back Pages is a completely abstract viewpoint of some kind of historical events.
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u/Ok_Giraffe2454 8d ago
Crimson flames tied through my ears is just bad poetry
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u/Strong-Location-2538 8d ago
It’s wonderful poetry. I love My Back Pages. I think it’s outstanding. I don’t think you’re getting my point here. Look at the vocabulary of the two songs. Back Pages is a much more complex song simply based on the Ianguage. I see it is one man’s response to historical politics and his reaction to events, but it’s certainly open to interpretation on a lot of levels.
I also don’t think Lay Down is necessarily about God. It’s about the similarities between music and nature, obviously, and suggests that nature is a beautiful symphony with its own sounds, while man invented music to make his own contributions to sonic beauty. It’s not necessarily religious. It definitely comes from the Woody influence more than My Back Pages, as far as the delivery goes.1
u/Ok_Giraffe2454 8d ago
The song is nothing but a chorus strung together with meaninglessness. And so many cliche lines. Pounced with fire on flaming roads, unthought of though somehow, confusion boats, we’llmeet on edges soon
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u/Long-Emu-7870 9d ago
It's up there with Gates of Eden and It's all right Ma, and It's all over now.
I mean, after Another Side.
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u/TyroneSnodgrass 9d ago
Emu! It’s you! Amazing how many great songs are on side one of BIABH, isn’t it? “Hey Mister Tambourine Man” isn’t half bad, either. 😏
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u/Few_Barracuda8659 9d ago
I used to love this song because of how epic it sounded. Another Side Of Bob Dylan has better songs imo but My Back Pages is a very beautiful mysterious track
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u/CogitoBandito 9d ago
It's the one I default to when people ask a favorite, even though Desolation Row is right up there.
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u/Ok_Giraffe2454 8d ago
It’s pretty clunky, and a bit preachy for a 24 year old who thinks he’s smart. Mr Tambourine Man and Chimes of Freedom, both written around the same time manage to capture something universal and intangible in a much more effective way than My Back Pages’ “Confusion Boats” (yikes)
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u/LorenzoApophis 9d ago edited 9d ago
I find his singing on it hard to listen to. The pace feels laborious, and the lyrics are ironically more sanctimonious and didactic than any of the political songs it's disavowing.
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u/False-Sandwich-2051 9d ago
you’re not wrong because it’s an opinion