On Bob Dylan’s “Forever Young”
by Jeffrey Rubin, PhD
Welcome to From Insults to Respect.
Recently, upon turning 75, I was reflecting upon how my remaining days have become fewer and fewer. Accompanying these thoughts were some pretty bluesy feelings. Suddenly, the Spotify music streaming I was listening to, Bob Dylan’s “Planet Waves” album began to play, “Forever Young.” “Oh, to be young again,” I thought.
The first few lyrics of the song go:
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
The line, “May you always do for others…” hit me pretty hard. I always prided myself as carrying my own weight. When I retired as a psychologist, I decided to continue to make contributions to others by writing a blog, completely financially free, that seeks to offer help for people who want to improve how they get along with others and themselves. The first few years of this, I was writing a blog post every week. Now, I struggle to get one out monthly, my energy slipping. I moaned at the thought of this.
Feeling this way, I wondered if others felt the emotional impact of the song as I have. I notice that on Spotify, most of the songs on the album have one or two million plays. “Forever Young” in contrast, has over 34 million. Impressive. I then went to Wikipedia to see if there is a writeup on the song, and indeed there is. I found that Bob had written the song as a lullaby for his eldest son, Jesse, who was a youngster at the time. I was a bit surprised by this, because my initial interpretation of the song was that Bob, himself, was expressing his own struggles with feelings of growing older.
With this insight, I decided to ask my son, Jack, who has a young daughter, what thoughts and emotions the song brings up for him. He replied:
“When I hear “Forever Young” while thinking about my 5-year old daughter, I think about the beautiful freedom and lightness in her laugh and her smile. She experiences so much genuine joy. I know a big part of that is that the world she knows so far is one of safety and love. She hasn’t yet learned about war and violence and greed, and many of the really hard things people face in this world. So when I hear the refrain of “may you stay forever young” I think of a wish for her to have the resilience to keep her big heartedness and her playfulness and the wonderful twinkle in her eye even as she grows up and becomes more aware of all the heavy things in life. And I feel a commitment in myself to do all I can to be there for her and remind her that she is loved even as she faces the challenges of her life.”
Nice! I very much can respect those feelings. Somehow I’m having a harder time respecting some of mine about getting older. As I listen to the song’s final verse, it expresses hope that,
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
May you stay forever young
Forever young, forever young
May you stay forever young.
Here, again, I find there some words that have me struggling with my emotions. The lines about “May your feet always be swift” hit me like a walloping club. In my youth, after work I would run two miles, sprinting the last quarter mile, which left me feeling so full of life. Now, I still manage to cover two miles, but it’s a walk, and the last quarter mile has me looking forward to finishing it up so I can lay down on my bed for a while until I can get enough energy to resume the rest of my day.
Oh, the winds of change have come upon me, and my heart has not always remained joyful. Though there are periods of joy–a beautiful day with family and friends, the delight of spending time with my lovely granddaughter, the recognition of the fantastic loving relationship I have with my wife–I am still seeking to adjust to this change. I’ve felt for a long time that we can learn to respect ourselves despite not always being joyful. I’m thinking melancholy in life can be useful in some ways, deepening one’s perspectives. Although this is my accepted understanding in most of life’s challenges, with this new experience related to getting older, my recent limitations are still hard on me. If you are having similar experiences, perhaps you will find some comfort knowing you are not alone.
My Best,
Jeff
Dr. Rubin. Your beautiful post brought tears to my eyes. One of your best as we walk life’s road and try to keep the wolf from the door..
Thanks John. Your sharing your reaction to the post and kind words are very much appreciated.
Well said.
Hey Jeff,
Think I responded earlier but will respond again to this article.
I, too, thought this song was more about growing older and the changes that brings. Knowing Dylan wrote this for his son brings a whole new perspective for me as well as I think about my own son, Ethan, and the wonderful memories I have of him as a little boy, now that’s he’s 27 years old. The innocence of his childhood included being happy with what he had. We lived in a modest split level house in a very well-to-do neighborhood near Princeton, NJ. He loved our house and our block, and would invite friends to play all the time. But, at the age of 12, he started to visit s hoop friends in the neighborhood, and they all lived in “McMansions” and suddenly Ethan felt ashamed if our house. He stopped invited friends over. He took pictures of these huge houses and told friends that he lived in them. He would attend parties where these homes had a theatre in their basement and be so depressed that we didn’t have a home theatre in our basement. It was a “rude awakening” and made a huge impact on him. In college, he decided to go into Finance as a major with the goal of getting a high powered job in the financial industry and become “rich” so he could finally get the house he wouldn’t be ashamed of.my wife and I are a social worker and teacher, respectively, and tried hard to instill strong values of being proud of who you are, respecting and appreciating the world around us and be thankful for what we have. However, the urge to “fit in” to this affluent lifestyle and have the material things outweighed the less material values we tried to instill in him. He is working for the financial industry and making very good money, lives in NYC and spends a lot of money on material things so he can keep up with his peers that came from wealthy families. He’s still caught up In this mindset, and probably always will. So, “Forever Young” is a reminder to me of a simpler time where the appreciation for what you had made you “rich”. My hope is that he will teach that value yo his own children one day and it will help him to reevaluate his own priorities. Of course, he’s a wonderful person with the biggest heart, but we miss the innocence he once had and the unfettered appreciation he had for what he already had.
Hi Bobby Schweitzer,
Thanks for chiming in on this post. Your desire for your son to adjust some of his priorities is understandable to me. At age 27, his priorities certainly can still shift in your desired directions. In the meantime, I sense he has many wonderful qualities that will brighten your life for years to come.
My Best,
Jeff