
One of the windows on our house is being replaced. The windows which had been removed needed to be discarded. I decided to place one of these window panes in front of the Dylan portrait I’d done and created a new background… on the glass in the foreground. It seemed the perfect reflection of Dylan’s multidimensional ambiguity, reversing foregrounds and backgrounds to provide a new way of looking at reality.





Following these lyrics are two YouTube videos of Dylan performing the same song, first as recorded in 1964 for Dylan’s Another Side, and then a 1998 recording of Dylan live in Toronto. Enjoy!
MY BACK PAGES
Crimson flames tied through my ears
Rollin' high and mighty traps
Pounced with fire on flaming roads
Using ideas as my maps
"We'll meet on edges, soon," said I
Proud 'neath 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 facts of musketeers
Foundationed deep, somehow.
Ah, but I was so much older then,
I'm younger than that now.
Girls' faces formed the forward path
From phony jealousy
To memorizing politics
Of ancient history
Flung down by corpse evangelists
Flung down by corpse evangelists
Unthought of, though, somehow.
Ah, but I was so much older then,
I'm younger than that now.
A self-ordained professor's tongue
Too serious to fool
Spouted out that liberty
Is just equality in school
"Equality," I spoke the word
As if a wedding vow.
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
My pathway led by confusion boats
Mutiny from stern to bow.
Ah, but I was so much older then,
I'm younger than that now.
Yes, 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.
2 comments:
Just blurfing around I saw your painting of Dylan and I liked it immediately. I wasn't sure about the 'poem' story because I felt something may have been said about it before, which I'd missed.
But I hope I bump into you in cyberspace again one day!
Thanks for the visit. I like the word blurfing.... will have to use it in a sentence today.
Every picture tells a story, and some many. Be well. Till we meet again.
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