Bob Dylan recorded Forever Young in December 1973 and it appeared the following month on the album Planet Waves. One of his best known songs, he released another version in 2023 on the album Shadow Kingdom. Dylan was 32 when he wrote and recorded the song. He was 82 when he recorded it for the second time. It hits differently. I know it did for me listening to it at 72. The original is a song of aspiration and hope for his young ones. Fifty years later he knows how it turned out and it shows in his voice and informs how we react.
Dylan married Sarah Lownds in 1965 and four children were born between 1966 and 1969 (3 boys, one girl), while Bob also adopted his wife's daughter from a prior marriage. He had last toured in 1966, using the excuse of his injuries from a motorcycle accident that fall to stop his hectic recording and touring schedule. While releasing several albums in the following years he only played a couple of one-off concerts and become a mysterious, remote figure.
In his eccentric and revealing autobiography, Chronicles Vol. 1, Dylan describes the reasons for his withdrawal in two passages. The first in a conversation with The Band's Robbie Robertson while driving around Woodstock:
He says to me, 'Where do you think you're gonna take it?" I said, "Take
what?". "You know, the whole music scene." The whole music scene! . .
. No place was far enough away. I don't know what everybody else was
fantasizing about, but what I was fantasizing about was a nine-to-five
existence, a house on a tree-lined block with a white picket fence, pink
roses in the backyard. That would have been nice. That was my deepest
dream.
The second in which he writes of moving several times to avoid the plague of reporters seeking him out:
Even if these reporters had been allowed in the house, what would
they find? A whole lotta stuff - stacking toys, push and pull toys,
child-sized tables and chairs - big empty cardboard boxes - science
kits, puzzles and toy drums.
Whatever the counterculture was, I'd
seen enough of it. I was sick of the way my lyrics had been
extrapolated, their meaning subverted into polemics and that I had been
annointed as the Big Bubba of Rebellion, High Priest of Protest [etc] . .
. What the hell are we talking about? Horrible titles any way you
want to look at it . . . What mattered to me most was getting breathing
room for my family.(1)
The lyrics, written for his young children:
May God bless and keep you always
May your wishes all come true
May you always do for others
And let others do for you
May you build a ladder to the stars
And climb on every rung
May you stay forever young
Forever young, forever young
May you stay forever young.
May you grow up to be righteous
May you grow up to be true
May you always know the truth
And see the lights surrounding you
May you always be courageous
Stand upright and be strong (Chorus)
May your hands always be busy
May your feet always be swift
May you have a strong foundation
When the winds of changes shift
May your heart always be joyful
And may your song always be sung (Chorus)
Bob and Sarah divorced in 1977 (she is now 86 and has never spoken publicly about the marriage). I don't know anything about their children, but son Jacob said in a 2005 interview, "My father said it himself in an interview many years ago: 'Husband and
wife failed, but mother and father didn't.' My ethics are high because
my parents did a great job." (2)
Forever Young also reflects a different viewpoint than that expressed in some of his earliest recordings. From 1962 through 1964 Dylan developed a reputation as a "protest singer", a label he bitterly resented and ultimately rebelled against. Though he is still sometimes called the "voice of his generation", Dylan never spoke publicly about the Vietnam War, either in opposition or support, despite it being the rallying point of protest in the second half of the 60s into the early 70s.
The song that marked that transition was My Back Pages from Another Side of Bob Dylan, released in August 1964, with lyrics acknowledging that issues and life were more complicated than he had previously portrayed.
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
In a soldier's stance, I aimed my hand
At the mongrel dogs who teach
Fearing not I'd become my enemy
In the instant that I preach
My existence led by confusion boats
Mutiny from stern to bow
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
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
Bringing It All Back Home (March 1965) would be his first album containing no songs that could be classified as "protest".
When Dylan sings "may you stay forever young" he circles back to the chorus of My Back Pages, "I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now". In Back Pages, he is saying that he is dropping the posed sophistication of someone pretending to be a wiser and older man in exchange for becoming the young man with still a lot to learn. Ironically, Dylan is wise enough to know he needs to be younger, or perhaps, as young as he actually is, a lesson many of his compatriots failed to learn.
Eight years later, with four young children, when he sings "may you stay forever young" it means always being open to learning and gaining wisdom, not closing themselves off or thinking that they know it all. What Dylan is driving it is revealed in this lyric, "May you have a strong foundation/ When the winds of changes shift". He knows that things change (as does THC), in October 1963 having recorded The Times They Are-a-Changin'. But that powerful anthem contains these lyrics:
And you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'
Your old road is rapidly agin'
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'
The song was written at the time of a great moral crusade, the need to admit black Americans to the full panoply of rights afforded to other American citizens. But moral crusades are few and far between, though many mistake other issues for crusades. In Times They Are-a-Changin', Dylan warns everyone to support the change or be swept away.
Ten years later, a wiser Dylan sings of the importance of a "strong foundation" because all "winds of change" are not necessarily good, each requiring careful evaluation against a moral framework, recognizing it takes great internal moral strength to withstand those winds. Lacking a strong foundation leaves one vulnerable to manipulative charismatic leaders, too easily swayed by peers, public opinion, or media, or blindly willing to follow the lead of credential wielding experts.
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(1) While rereading some of Chronicles in preparation for writing this post I came across another passage which explained something else I've written about - how terrible Dylan was in concert with Tom Petty during the 80s, the only time I've ever seen him perform in person:
I'd been on an eighteen month tour with Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers. It would be my last. I had no connection to any kind of inspiration. . . . Tom was at the top of his game and I was at the bottom of mine. . . My own songs had become strangers to me. I didn't have the skill to touch their raw nerves, couldn't penetrate the surfaces. It wasn't my moment of history anymore. There was a hollow singing in my heart and I couldn't wait to retire and fold the tent. One more big payday with Petty and that would be it for me. I was what they called over the hill. If I wasn't careful I could end up ranting and raving in shouting matches with the wall.
I had written and recorded so many songs, but it wasn't like I was playing many of them. I think I was only up to the task of about twenty or so. The rest were too cryptic, too darkly driven, and I was no longer capable of doing anything radically creative with them. It was like carrying a package of heavy rotten meat. I couldn't understand where they came from. The glow was gone and the match had burned right to the end. I was going through the motions.
(2) Dylan wrote at least two songs about his marriage; Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands from Blonde On Blonde (1966) and Sara from Desire (1977), the latter as his marriage was collapsing, and which includes the lyric "Staying up for days in the Chelsea Hotel/Writing "Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands' for you". Sara is searing and emotionally wrenching. On the other hand, Dylan makes a lot of stuff up, so did he really write Sad Eyed Lady for Sara, or did he make it up as part of his last ditch appeal to his wife?
Billy plays most of his solos with eyes closed.
Lyrics from Mr Tambourine Man with Dylan's handwritten changes inserting "in the jingle-jangle morning). Below is the Cash Box Top 100 for the week in September 1965 when Like A Rolling Stone displaced The Beatles Help! at Numero Uno. The Top Ten also includes another Dylan song, It Ain't Me Babe by The Turtles at 7.
Below: Pete Seeger is often portrayed as strongly objecting to Dylan's turn to electric. Pete's contention is that his objection to Dylan at Newport was that the electric music was so loud it drowned out Dylan's lyrics. This is a 1968 letter from Pete to his father about the recent release of Dylan's album John Wesley Harding. I really like the last paragraph: "Maybe Bob Dylan will be like Picasso, surprising us every few years with a new period. I hope he lives as long." He has done so. If you are in any doubt listen to Oh Mercy (1989), Time Out Of Mind (1997), Love and Theft (2001), and Rough and Rowdy Ways (2020).