My Back Pages

"My Back Pages"
1967 Dutch picture sleeve.
Single by The Byrds
from the album Younger Than Yesterday
B-side	"Renaissance Fair"
Released	March 13, 1967
Format	7" single
Recorded	December 5–8, 1966, Columbia Studios, Hollywood, CA
Genre	Folk rock
Length	3:08 2:31 (Single edit)
Label	Columbia
Writer(s)	Bob Dylan
Producer(s)	Gary Usher
The Byrds singles chronology
"So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star (1967) "My Back Pages" (1967) "Have You Seen Her Face" (1967)
Music sample "My Back Pages"

"My Back Pages" is a song written by Bob Dylan and included on his 1964 album Another Side of Bob Dylan. It is stylistically similar to his earlier folk protest songs and features Dylan's voice with an acoustic guitar accompaniment. However, its lyrics—in particular the refrain "Ah, but I was so much older then/I'm younger than that now"—have been interpreted as a rejection of Dylan's earlier personal and political idealism, illustrating his growing disillusionment with the 1960's folk protest movement with which he was associated, and his desire to move in a new direction. Although Dylan wrote the song in 1964, he did not perform it live until 1978.

"My Back Pages" has been covered by artists as diverse as Keith Jarrett, the Byrds, the Ramones, the Nice, Steve Earle, and the Hollies. The Byrds' version, initially released on their 1967 album Younger Than Yesterday, was also issued as a single in 1967 and proved to be the band's last Top 40 hit in the U.S.

Bob Dylan wrote "My Back Pages" in 1964 as one of the last songs—perhaps the last song—composed for his Another Side of Bob Dylan album. He recorded it on June 9, 1964, under the working title of "Ancient Memories", the last song 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.