The Neil Young song almost identical to Bob Dylan’s ‘My Back Pages’
In every chapter of his career, Neil Young has crafted some of rock music’s most profound and personal songs. Taking listeners on voyages deep into his life’s long odyssey, the power of his words and music has created many moments that leave a mark on the listener.
While the likes of ‘Ambulance Blues’ and ‘Helpless’ are the two that stand out as the most emotionally affecting, these are just the tip of the iceberg, with Young exploring every facet of his existence, from heartbreak to his early days as an artist in his music. One topic he has brought to life on numerous occasions is the days of the counterculture when the dream of global peace abounded.
However, due to many factors, the verdant promise of the future that the countercultural generation cherished would not come to fruition. Whether it be the Cold War, drugs or the Manson Murders, by the time January 1st, 1970 struck, it had become clear to all that the new decade was not to be the great utopia that was expected only a few years earlier, with the reality a darkly distorted successor to what had come before.
Accordingly, Young’s thoughts on the 1960s are intensely complex. One song he used to make sense of is ‘The Days That Used To Be’ from Ragged Glory. In the track, Young makes his thoughts clear with lines such as “‘Cause there very few of us left my friend / From the days that used to be” and “Seem like such a simple thing to follow one’s own dream / But possessions and concession are not often what they seem / They drag you down and load you down in disguise of security”.
In it, the Canadian musician refers to his younger days in the ’60s as just another idealistic hippie, making art for the love of the craft and not for economic gain or the trappings of fame. Pointing to how things had changed since that heady period, he laments how passion and joy have been superseded by materialism.
Fittingly, for motivation, he looked to Bob Dylan, the ‘Voice of Generation’, whom many of the counterculture looked to for solace and inspiration, to bring it to life. Musically, the song is noted for strikingly resembling the Duluth troubadour’s ‘My Back Pages’ from Another Side of Bob Dylan. The track also has immense countercultural significance, as one of the most important groups of the era, The Byrds, made it their own on 1967’s Younger Than Yesterday.
‘Days That Used To Be’ is so inextricable from Dylan that it was initially titled ‘Letter To Bob’. However, when speaking to Musician in 1991, Young clarified that his peer was only used to represent those of his generation who subscribed to the hippie dream. “Yeah, but it’s about everybody from that generation,” Young explained. “It’s to me as well as everybody else.”
Listen to ‘Days That Used To Be’ below.
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