My Back Pages by Bob Dylan (cover)

[Glennwillow]

When I posted my cover of the Byrds' "Mr Tambourine Man" Kyle76 asked if I might consider doing "My Back Pages." So I decided to give it a try.

I played it in the Byrds' key of E, but the song is fairly high to sing, hanging around a whole lot of high E notes. The harmony goes up to high G#. I kept tripping over the words and having to start over, so I kind of sung myself hoarse before I got a reasonable take.

I play this song with my acoustic Guild F-512 12-string, but at about 1:50 in the song I bring in my Rickenbacker electric 12-string to play the Roger McGuinn solo that was in the Byrds' 1967 recording. I am really singing the vocal harmonies the Byrds used here; I do not use or possess any harmony processing boxes or computer processors. As hard as I tried to pronounce the words using reasonably good diction, the words are still quite hard to understand so I am listing them below along with the chords I used.

My Back Pages
Bob Dylan

E Esus4

[Verse 1]
E C#m G#m
Crimson flames tied through my ears
A B E
Rollin' high and mighty trapped
E C#m G#m
Pounced with fire on flaming roads
A B
Using ideas as my maps
C#m G#m
"We'll meet on edges, soon," said I
A B
Proud 'neath heated brow.
E A E
Ah, but I was so much older then,
A B E
I'm younger than that now.

[Verse 2]
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 flanks of musketeers
Foundations deep, somehow.
Ah, but I was so much older then,
I'm younger than that now.

[Verse 5]
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
Sisters fled by confusion boats
Mutiny from stern to bow.
Ah, but I was so much older then,
I'm younger than that now.

[Electric 12-string Solo]

Ah, but I was so much older then,
I'm younger than that now.

[Verse 6]
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.

Thanks for listening -- I hope people like this...

- Glenn

[Carmel Cedar]

Awesome - Glenn, you rocked it ! Glad to hear the Rick 12 out again (did you sneak in one extra chord with it at the very end? tried to suss that out...) You also seem very comfortable with that Guild these days, what a great addition to your song-making stable.

Thanks for brightening up the evening with this song!

WOW! Seriously --- WOW! This is just awesome. A challenging song from both a singing and playing standpoint, but this is great. Love the 360/12 lead part, and those harmonies are super impressive!

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by Carmel Cedar

Awesome - Glenn, you rocked it ! Glad to hear the Rick 12 out again (did you sneak in one extra chord with it at the very end? tried to suss that out...) You also seem very comfortable with that Guild these days, what a great addition to your song-making stable.

Thanks for brightening up the evening with this song!

Hi Carmel Cedar!

I am so pleased that you like this! Yes, the addition of the drums and the bass and that electric 12-string do tend to move the song a little to the "rock" side of the "Folk-Rock" spectrum. I'm glad you don't mind!

Regarding the use of the Rickenbacker 360 12-string, I used it only for the guitar solo about 2/3rds of the way through the song. I did not use it anywhere else. I was tempted to, but I found that I liked the rhythm sound of the acoustic Guild 12-string, so I decided not to mess it up.

I am comfortable with that Guild 12-string. This song being in the key of E is a little harder to play on the 12-string with a bunch of barre chords. So I had to practice this a bit before I had the stamina to get through all those verses with all those barre chords. I cheated on some of the A and B chords and left some open strings where I could get away with it.

I am so pleased that you like this! Thanks so very much for taking the time to comment here!

- Glenn

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by Willie Voltaire

WOW! Seriously --- WOW! This is just awesome. A challenging song from both a singing and playing standpoint, but this is great. Love the 360/12 lead part, and those harmonies are super impressive!

Hi Willie!

Well, you flatter me! But on the flip side of that, I am extremely happy that you like this! It was a challenging song both vocally and in terms of playing it with all those barre chords. You could see in the video how I had to keep my eyes on the fretboard fairly often, especially going to that C#m chord. I did not want to play that as a Cm chord!!! (A mistake I made while working up to this video! )

And I really was happy that I could get a decent sound down for the Rickenbacker 360-12. I had to experiment around until I found an amp sound -- really a fairly bright country clean sound -- that sounded like the sound Roger McGuinn recorded back in 1967. I have had that guitar solo in my head since way back in 1967, and now I finally got a chance to play it!!! Silly, I suppose, but it was fun!

Regarding the sung harmony part, thank you again! I am pretty sure that David Crosby did most of the Byrds harmony, and fortunately, he is really a baritone, like me. So in general his harmonies are within my reach, even at my age of 71. () So I have been lucky with the Byrds harmony. I am not quite as good singing Art Garfunkel's harmonies, though, because he was a real tenor and had a considerably higher upper range than I have. But that is for another song!

Thank you Willie! I am so pleased that you like how this came out!

- Glenn

[Kyle76]

Great job! That lead sounded spot on! You use the same progression as I do. Makes me wish for a 12-string! Thanks for taking it on. A lot of words, yes, but not as many as “Tangled Up in Blue,” which I also learned recently.

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by Kyle76

Great job! That lead sounded spot on! You use the same progression as I do. Makes me wish for a 12-string! Thanks for taking it on. A lot of words, yes, but not as many as “Tangled Up in Blue,” which I also learned recently.

Hi Kyle,

I'm glad you thought this came out okay! Thanks for listening and taking the time to comment!

Regarding song lyrics, some people really have a good mind for remembering words, others for remembering music. I tend to be the latter and really have to work at remembering song lyrics. You might be a whole lot better with lyrics than I am! I wish I were better at it, but at least when making a video a person gets to start over until he gets it right!

Thanks for your comments Kyle!

- Glenn

[Gitfiddlemann]

Originally Posted by Glennwillow

Thanks for listening -- I hope people like this...

- Glenn

Glenn, you're too humble.
That was sensational. One of my favorite Dylan tunes, but I seem to be always listening to the Byrds' version.
Your production of it too, with all the instruments incl. the iconic Rickenbacker, and the harmonies.
Really, really good, and inspirational!.
Thanks so much for sharing this one.

[62&climbing]

That was just ridiculous. And how fast did you crank that out?? My God man. So.... you're taking requests huh?

With you and your harmonizing abilities, bass playing, 12 stringing, Judy Blue Eyes Suite should be posted by this evening. And if you need a refresher, there is an "old" group on Youtube called Fossils and Foxes that do a nice job of it.

Awesome Glen.

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by AndreF

Glenn, you're too humble.
That was sensational. One of my favorite Dylan tunes, but I seem to be always listening to the Byrds' version.
Your production of it too, with all the instruments incl. the iconic Rickenbacker, and the harmonies.
Really, really good, and inspirational!.
Thanks so much for sharing this one.

Hi Andre!

Well, your generous and supportive comments really made my day! Thank you very much! I am so glad that you like this!

And I, too, find that I listen to the Byrds version of this song! I really like their sound, their harmonies, the sound of the Rickenbacker 12-string. Dylan's songs seemed to come alive with the Byrds.

Thanks so much for listening and taking the time to comment!

- Glenn

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by 62&climbing

That was just ridiculous. And how fast did you crank that out?? My God man. So.... you're taking requests huh?

With you and your harmonizing abilities, bass playing, 12 stringing, Judy Blue Eyes Suite should be posted by this evening. And if you need a refresher, there is an "old" group on Youtube called Fossils and Foxes that do a nice job of it.

Awesome Glen.

Hi '62'!

Thanks so much for your comments! I had a little time over the last couple of days, and once I started playing "My Back Pages," I thought, I should just do this now while I am motivated! You know, when things start to fall in place with a song, you think, let's DO THIS!

I guess it does seem a little ridiculous!

I would love to do "Suite Judy Blue Eyes." But that would take some time, if I could ever get there. But who knows... Maybe I should mess around with that and see how it goes.

Thanks for listening and commenting and providing encouragement! It's great appreciated!

- Glenn

[MrEd]

Stellar as always. Thanks for sharing Glenn.

Mike

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by MrEd

Stellar as always. Thanks for sharing Glenn.

Mike

Hi Mike!

Thank you! And thanks for listening and taking the time to comment! I hope all is well for you!

- Glenn

[Karel]

Bravo, Glenn, you have exelled yourself again

[digman52]

That is my favorite of your videos so far, well done !

Being a mostly 12 string player, I have performing Mr. Spaceman, and Feel a Whole Lot Better for years. I need to work up and add this to my songbook.

Thanks for posting these, and all the time you put into the mixing and production. It's a really professional product !