My Back Pages Lyrics

Crimson flames tied through my ears

Rolling high and mighty traps

Pounced with fire on flaming roads

Using ideas as my maps

"We'll meet on edges, soon," said I

Proud beneath 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 flanks 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 phoney jealousy

To memorizing politics

of ancient history.

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 soldiers 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 sisters fled 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