However, its lyrics—in particular the refrain "Ah, but I was so much older then/I'm younger than that now"—have been interpreted as a rejection of Dylan's earlier personal and political idealism, illustrating his growing disillusionment with the 1960s folk protest movement with which he was associated, and his desire to move in a new direction.
"My Back Pages" has been covered by artists as diverse as Keith Jarrett, the Byrds, the Ramones, the Nice, Steve Earle, Eric Johnson, and the Hollies.
"[6] Dylan's disenchantment with the protest movement had previously surfaced in a speech he had given in December 1963 when accepting an award from the Emergency Civil Liberties Committee (ECLC) in New York.
[9] Author Mike Marqusee has commented that "No song on Another Side distressed Dylan's friends in the movement more than 'My Back Pages' in which he transmutes the rude incoherence of his ECLC rant into the organized density of art.
"[11] In late 1965, Dylan commented on the writing of "My Back Pages" specifically during an interview with Margaret Steen for The Toronto Star: "I was in my New York phase then, or at least, I was just coming out of it.
The arrangement he used eliminated some of the song's verses and included an electric guitar part performed by G. E. Smith as a member of his newly formed band.
[13] The American rock band the Byrds released a recording of "My Back Pages" on February 6, 1967, as part of their fourth album, Younger Than Yesterday.
[24][28] The song was performed live extensively during the band's later country rock period, often segueing into Jimmy Reed's "Baby What You Want Me to Do".
The song was also performed live by a reformed line-up of the Byrds featuring Roger McGuinn, David Crosby, and Chris Hillman in January 1989.
[29] In 1996, a previously unreleased alternate version of "My Back Pages" (which had been considered for release as a single in 1967) was included as a bonus track on the Columbia/Legacy reissue of Younger Than Yesterday.
[30] The song has been covered by numerous artists, including the Ramones, Po!, America, the Hollies, the Nice, Eric Johnson, the Box Tops, Carl Verheyen, Jackson Browne & Joan Osborne, Marshall Crenshaw, Keith Jarrett, Steve Earle, La Mancha de Rolando, Dick Gaughan, and Anna Nalick.
[13] Austrian singer-songwriter Wolfgang Ambros recorded a version of the song named "Alt und Jung" ("Old and Young").
In 1995, the German rock musician Wolfgang Niedecken recorded a German-language (Kölsch language) cover of the song with the title "Vill Passiert Sickher" for his album Leopardefell.