Joan Osborne My Back Pages Lyrics

My Back Pages Lyrics

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, 
'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
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.