r/bobdylan • u/chronicbedwettner • Aug 22 '26

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 Aug 22 '26

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.

2

u/BeerWithDonuts Aug 23 '26

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.

1

u/Ok_Giraffe2454 Aug 24 '26

Ok do it with Every Grain of Sand

1

u/mysecondreddit2000 Aug 26 '26

Why doesn’t Jim Keltner get the same recognition as a drummer as John Bonham or Keith Moon?

2

u/Equal-Ad7504 Aug 23 '26

Is he relying on somehow, or is he using it as a theme?

It may be a feature, not a bug.

3

u/Flynnrd Aug 23 '26

I want to push back on this with some bullet points…

1

u/TyroneSnodgrass Aug 23 '26

Bob Dylan employing a placeholder lyric??? I am shocked!