"Don't look back. Something might be gaining on you"

Bob Dylan and Bobby Neuwirth
Backstage "Don't Look Back" Tour 1965

 Dont Look Back, without an apostrophe in the first word, was the original title of the documentary of Bob Dylan's 1965 concert tour in the United Kingdom by filmmaker D. A. Pennebaker.  Pennebaker, who wrote and directed  the film's has said that he decided to punctuate the title this way because he "was trying to simplify the language".  It has often been assumed that the absence of the apostrophe in the documentary's title was a typographical error and has been corrected to Don't Look Back. In the DVD release of the film,  Pennebaker states that the title came from a Satchel Paige quote: "Don't look back. Something might be gaining on you".  Dylan shared this view.

The title also appears as a line in  "She Belongs To Me" a song from his 1965 album, Bringing It All Back Home.

She's got everything she needs

she's an artis, she don't look back

Pennebaker has stated that when deciding on a title for the film, he knew Dylan was against using a song lyric, but he was not aware that "don't look back" was a line in one of Dylan's songs.

In 1980, "don't look back" was used again in the song "Pressing On" from the album Saved.

Shake the dust off your feet

don't look back 

My best guess is that this live recording is from Toronto Canada on 4.20.1980.  It begins with about 3 minutes of raving adulation from the audience which crescendos and peaks when Dylan appears on stage.  

Satchel Paige and First Wife, Janet Howard, 1941

 Photo of Paige by George Silk for LIFE Magazine 1948

"It is estimated that Leroy "Satchel" Paige was born on July 7, 1906. The mere idea that his birthday is an estimate provides perfect evidence to the mystery that was Satchel Paige. In 1965, 60 years after Paige's supposed birthday, he took the mound for the last time, throwing three shutout innings for the Kansas City Athletics."  Satchel Paige Official Page

RITES OF SPRING:
The First Life of Leroy Satchel PaigeK. Curtis Lyle
Downtown Atlantis 

1.

I arrive in a plain brown package

Careful, do not disturb me with rips
Cuts that tear my face into ribbons

Instead, unfold my front with tender mercy
Rush the win lines of both hands
Along the soft leather of my skin

Make me the friend you dearly need

2.
The first life of Leroy Satchel Paige

This natural oath is who I am

They made me rubber at the core
And rolled me in bands of string

Inside I yield to shape and code
Outside the field is under my control

My will is born against this road

3.
I am a white pony who leaves
Your hand in a flash of light
Sets down the batter in the storied
Blink of an eye; his theory will
Try to move one wisdom muscle, but
Reflex betrays him at the usual speed

He drops his bat and thanks me

4.
I am so black and saint famous
That my praise name has become please
Cease and desist; they now call me
Arrow of dread, scythe of the soul
One who destroys the ball player’s church
The Perch of America; grace and fatal
Vitality rolls up in my gourd vine

5.
For awhile you all look like pillars
Of salt; stand stone still for hours
And call out my name shaking pain
From elbows to tips of the fingers

Are you frauds waiting in the dust?
Biting the silence with two broken wings?

I know you took your three swings!

6.
When I came down into the city
A giant with red teeth told me
I could never combine my ancient weeping
Sense of night time with the drummer
Making the daily weather report; the sport
Had moved past me, like a bullet
Pierced my name, put out my fire

7.

I was a pitch; used to sprint
Halfway to the plate, crack a smile,
Take a break, recoup rites of spring
I knew I had missed the train
By a mile; the day dream stopped
At the tracks; some small voice said,
“Don’t look back, they’re gaining on you.”