Bob Dylan has been writing about aging since he was in his twenties, but this latest essay compilation from MusicRadar — Eric Metinowski's "The World Will Roll On" collection featuring old pieces dating back to the 1960s — is something else entirely because it captures that raspy-voiced New York philosopher at full throttle. He opens with a line he says he'll repeat until his dying breath: "I ain't gonna die of old age — I'm too young to die," which is his constant anthem and the philosophy behind nearly every song written since 1967, from 'Never Surrender Again' on Blood on the Tracks all the way up. He lists Woody Guthrie as a continuous inspiration for this exact mindset, alongside John Updike's "Ageing" essay — which Dylan calls one of the greatest American essays ever written - and Ernest Hemingway, who taught him how to write about what is lost in passing time. Then there's Rainer Maria Rilke's 'Letters to a Young Poet', his spiritual bible on aging from decades earlier, plus Richard Strauss, Leonard Cohen (whose Metinowski album Metropolis he also cites as inspiring), Lou Reed and even Robert Frost — every name Dylan has ever worshipped shows up in this meditation.
He doesn't shy away from the ugly parts of it either because he admits age is theft - stealing youth, erasing memories, and slowly chipping at your body - but his response isn't to fight or lament. He says you stop chasing something that was never yours to keep anyway; instead of mourning what went before, you build with what remains. There's a prophetic joke from 1985 where he writes about 'Forever Young' and claims "I know I'll regret writing this song someday" — which lands ten times harder now than it did then because the irony is laid bare by time itself. He frames aging not as an ending but as the liberation of no longer needing to prove anything or catch up with anyone, which is one of the most honest takes on growing older I've ever read from a public figure. The title line — "It’s freedom from that lie that anything was ever under control; you don't chase the parade anymore" - should be etched into every music critic's notepad.
Source: https://www.musicradar.com/articles/its-freedom-from-that-lie-that-anything-was-ever-under-control-you-dont-chase-the-parade-anymore-dylan
He doesn't shy away from the ugly parts of it either because he admits age is theft - stealing youth, erasing memories, and slowly chipping at your body - but his response isn't to fight or lament. He says you stop chasing something that was never yours to keep anyway; instead of mourning what went before, you build with what remains. There's a prophetic joke from 1985 where he writes about 'Forever Young' and claims "I know I'll regret writing this song someday" — which lands ten times harder now than it did then because the irony is laid bare by time itself. He frames aging not as an ending but as the liberation of no longer needing to prove anything or catch up with anyone, which is one of the most honest takes on growing older I've ever read from a public figure. The title line — "It’s freedom from that lie that anything was ever under control; you don't chase the parade anymore" - should be etched into every music critic's notepad.
Source: https://www.musicradar.com/articles/its-freedom-from-that-lie-that-anything-was-ever-under-control-you-dont-chase-the-parade-anymore-dylan