Songs about getting really old? - 1

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: EBarnacle
Date: 03 Jun 07 - 10:44 PM

How'd we get this far without mentioning the Dutchman?

re: Seeger's "How do I know my youth is all spent?..." I once asked him how come the melody is so similar to Officer Krempke's chorus in Bernstein's West Side Story. He commented that they are probably both descended from Fair Harvard.

Subject: Lyr Add: YESTERDAY WHEN I WAS YOUNG
From: Bugsy
Date: 03 Jun 07 - 10:31 PM

For a song about growing old, you can't (IMO) go past

Yesterday When I Was Young

Yesterday when I was young
the taste of life was sweet as rain upon my tongue.
I teased at life as if it were a foolish game,
the way the evening breeze may tease a candle flame.
The thousand dreams I dreamed,
the splendid things I planned
I always built alas on weak and shifting sand.
I lived by night and shunned the naked light of the day
and only now I see how the years ran away.

Yesterday when I was young so
many drinking songs were waiting to be sung,
so many wayward pleasures lay in store for me
and so much pain my dazzled eyes refused to see.

I ran so fast that time and youth at last ran out,
I never stopped to think what life was all about
and every conversation I can now recall
concerned itself with me and nothing else at all.

Yesterday the moon was blue
and every crazy day brought something new to do.
I used my magic age as if itwere a wand
and never saw the waste and emptiness beyond.

The game of love I played with arrogance and pride
and every flame I lit too quickly quickly died.
The friends I made all seemed somehow to drift away
and only I am left on stage to end the play.

There are so many songs in me that won't be sung,
I feel the bitter taste of tears upon my tongue.
The time has come for me to pay for yesterday when I was young.

CHeers


Bugsy
adyedinthewoolaznavourfan.

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: Joe_F
Date: 03 Jun 07 - 08:47 PM

Stan Rogers, "Sailor's Rest"
Tom Lehrer, "When You Are Old and Gray"

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: GUEST,meself
Date: 03 Jun 07 - 07:51 PM

Think I mentioned this on another thread once ... Sonny Boy Williamson II has a song called "Too Old to Think". Not one of his cheerier numbers ...

Subject: Lyr Add: OLD FRIENDS (Mary McCaslin)
From: Stewart
Date: 03 Jun 07 - 07:42 PM

OLD FRIENDS -- Mary McCaslin

I saw an old friend the other day, in San Francisco, by the bay.
It took me back to only yesterday, the years somehow let slip away.
We laughed and talked about the days gone by, and brushed a tear away with a sigh.
We promised not to let it be this long, like the old refrain from an old, old song.

Chorus:
Remember old friends we've made along the way.
The gifts they've given stay with us every day.

Looking back it makes me wonder, where we've gone and how long we'll stay.
I know the road brings rain and thunder, but for the journey, what will we pay?
I often think the time get crazier as this old world goes 'round and 'round,
But just the memory makes it easier, as the highway goes up and down.

Lately word's been coming back to me, there's a few I will no longer see.
Their faces will be seen no more along the road, there'll be a few less hands to hold.
But for the ones whose journey's ended, though they started so much the same.
In the hearts of those befriended, burns a candle with a silver flame.


A very late answer to Barbara's request 20 Dec 05
And a sound clip HERE .
One of my favorite songs by Mary.

Cheers, S. in Seattle

Subject: Lyr Add: MISTS OF TIME
From: Ebbie
Date: 03 Jun 07 - 05:27 PM

Guest/Lumpyhand, I have a song about Alzheimers- or some kind of dementia:

Mists of Time

I remember
I once had a family
And I know that I was happy then
For I can see their bright little faces
But I don't know where or when

            Memories lost in the mists of time
            I don't know much anymore
            The years, the days, the hours
            All run together
            Memories lost in the mists of time

Yesterday
Or was it just this morning?
They gathered 'round my rocking chair
I recall the scent of many candles
But I knew nobody there.


I like Jesse Winchester's 'We'll Never be this Young Again'.
And the new? song: Bed by the Window

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: Big Jim from Jackson
Date: 02 Jun 07 - 11:12 PM

Australia's John Williamson does a song called "Wrinkles" that I really like.
The Kossoy Sisters have a song "An Old Love Song" that is wonderfully funny.

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: GUEST,meself
Date: 02 Jun 07 - 11:01 PM

I think we should pause for a moment to remember all those who were really old back when this thread started ...

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: GUEST,lumpyhand
Date: 02 Jun 07 - 10:07 PM

...but perhaps the saddest song of all is My Mom by Chocolate Genius - it is on Itunes or Google it - it was also on Spinner's recent list of the top 25 Most Exquisitly Sad Songs:

"And five times exactly no more or no less
She says how you been eating boy?
I say okay I guess
In this room where she made me each day she grows weak
She flips on the Golden Girls and the first tear hits my cheek"

...for anyone whoever had a parent, friend or relative die of Alzheimer's (for me my mother)this song hits you right in the emotional gut - check it out - hope you like it.

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: ossonflags
Date: 21 Dec 05 - 07:47 AM

"200 year old alchoholic"

Subject: Lyr Add: TOO OLD TO DIE YOUNG (Murray Grand)
From: C-flat
Date: 20 Dec 05 - 03:51 PM

TOO OLD TO DIE YOUNG
Murray Grand

       Gmaj9                               Gm7
Let me run in front of trucks, smash the mirrors on my walls,
       Gmaj9         Am7    Bm7            Cmaj7    Bm7
Let me puff away and choke, sniff a little coke, and have myself a
E9
ball.
          Am7          D9         G
What the hell! I'm too old to die young.


Let me walk against the lights. Let me drive while I am drunk.
Let me be a little hip, take a little trip, and try a little junk.
After all, I'm too old to die young.

Cm7                              F9
Let me pick up strangers in the street,
Bm7                   E9
Sleep with ev'ryone I meet,                         (middle)
Am7                      D7-9   
Sleep in dives along the docks,
    Eb9+11
vodka on the rocks

Let me stay a little stoned
who's to know and who's to care
let me take another trip, be a little hip, breathe polluted air
What the hell, when your spring has been sprung,
after all I'm too old to die young.

Let me sing away all my blues, fall in pot-holes if I choose
When people say I'm a sight, they're probably right!       (middle)


Let my face begin to fall
let it wrinkle like a prune
well I know my liver's gone, when I'm lying on the floor of some saloon
Give me speed, give me hash,
let me fly, let me crash,
drop the bomb on my head,
not a word will be said,
not a moan, not a sigh,
as I kiss my assets goodbye,
after all I'm too old to die young.


C-flat

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From:
Date: 20 Dec 05 - 02:44 AM

Hi,
I'm hoping someone has the lyrics to Mary McCaslin's Old Friends. I heard it sung as a tribute to a friend recently and can't find the words.    Thanks, Barbara

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: GUEST,eileen
Date: 03 Apr 04 - 05:29 AM

Also surprised to see (unless I missed it) When You and I Were Young Maggie..particularly the version that mentions "the creaking old mill".

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From:
Date: 02 Apr 04 - 11:04 PM

Any suggestions for a birthday party of 3 folks turning 40, 50 and 60 all at the same time (roughly)???

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 16 Feb 02 - 06:36 AM

At 97 posts (98 now) this is a bit long for many people to load - so I've put up a part 2, and suggest people continue posting there rather than here.

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: Genie
Date: 16 Feb 02 - 05:51 AM

Years From Now
Where've You Been?
Love, Me
Old Love
A Daisy A Day

Subject: Lyr Add: 75 SEPTEMBERS^^
From: Ribbit
Date: 01 Jan 01 - 05:40 PM

Peter Paul, and Mary have a great song "75 Septembers" written by Cheryl Wheeler.

Inthe year of the yellow cab
In the shadow of the great world war
The third child grandma had
Came into the world
On a rolling farm in Maryland
When Wilson was the president
And summer blew her goodbyes through the trees

A child of changing times
Growing up between the wars
The Fords rolled of the lines
The bars all closed their doors
And I imagine you back then
With snap brim hat and farmer's tan
Where the horses drew their wagons through the fields

Chorus
Now the fields are all four lanes
And the moon's not just a name
Are you more amazed at how things change
Or how they stay the same
And do sit here on this porch and wonder
How the time flies by
Or does it seem to barely creep along
With 75 septembers come and gone

Were the fields all gold and fawn
Was the spring house dark and cool
Did the rooster crow at dawn
When they got you up for school
And would you tell me once again
The tales of grandma's hired men
And how they drove the dirt road to town

Repeat chorus

Reminds me a lot of the way my dad grew up.
Thom

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: R!
Date: 01 Jan 01 - 03:58 PM

There's an old music hall song called My Old Dutch. The singer is remembering his wife when she was a dark haired, fresh cheeked girl of eighteen. Don't remember anything but the chorus:

We've been together now for forty years And it doesn't seem a day too much For there ain't a lady living in this land As I'd swop for me dear old Dutch.

Sentimental but sweet. Dutch = Duchess of Fife = wife.

Rowana

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: rangeroger
Date: 01 Jan 01 - 02:01 PM

Tom Rush does a great version of Murray McLauchlan's "The Old Man's Song".

The Chet Atkins song that jamesjim was looking for back in July, is "I Still Can't Say Goodbye". It is on the CD Chet Atkins,C.G.P.(certified guitar player).

rr

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: Lanfranc
Date: 01 Jan 01 - 01:52 PM

Correction - Home from the Forest is in the DT

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: Lanfranc
Date: 01 Jan 01 - 01:44 PM

Can't believe I missed this thread on it's previous iterations, but still, here's my Euro 0.02 worth!

"Old Man" by Randy Newman, recorded by Art Garfunkel among others. It's about a younger man bidding farewell to a dying older man, perhaps his father. Very sad, but a brilliant song.

"Home from the Forest" by Gordon Lightfoot, which I have always reckoned to be the equal of "Streets of London".

"Josephine, for better or for worse" by Dave Cousins of the Strawbs may not be another "Chanson des vieux amants", but handles the same sentiments more simply.

"Bronco Bill's Lament" by Don McLean fits the category.

I don't believe any of the above are in the DT, if anyone's interested, I could remedy this.

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: Peter T.
Date: 01 Jan 01 - 01:33 PM

I was a lot younger when this thread began (cue for a song!!!!)yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: kendall
Date: 01 Jan 01 - 01:30 PM

Nancy King - "Weave and Spin" is the song - "Aragon Mill"

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: Amergin
Date: 01 Jan 01 - 01:17 PM

I imagine that Kat could write her own songs about getting really old....

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: jaze
Date: 01 Jan 01 - 01:10 PM

Lover's Return--recorded by The Carter Family/Linda and Emmylou and also Kate Wolf

Old Friends by Mary McCaslin

Subject: Lyr Add: VERONICA (Elvis Costello)
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 18 Jul 00 - 06:23 PM

VERONICA

Is it all in that pretty little head of yours?
What goes on in that place in the dark?
Well I used to know a girl and I would have sworn that her name was Veronica
Well she used to have a carefree mind of her own and a delicate look in her eye
These days I'm afraid she's not even sure if her name is Veronica

CHORUS: Do you suppose, that waiting hands on eyes,
Veronica has gone to hide?
And all the time she laughs at those who shout her name and steal her clothes
Veronica
Veronica

Did the days drag by? Did the favours wane?
Did he roam down the town all the time?
Will you wake from your dream, with a wolf at the door, reaching out for Veronica
Well it was all of sixty-five years ago
When the world was the street where she lived
And a young man sailed on a ship in the sea
With a picture of Veronica

On the "Empress of India"
And as she closed her eyes upon the world and picked upon the bones of last week's news
She spoke his name out loud again

Chorus

Veronica sits in her favourite chair and she sits very quiet and still
And they call her a name that they never get right and if they don't then nobody else will
But she used to have a carefree mind of her own, with a devilish look in her eye
Saying "You can call me anything you like, but my name is Veronica"

Chorus

Elvis Costello wrote this song about his aunt.

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: GUEST,Nancy King
Date: 18 Jul 00 - 05:42 PM

There's a dandy labor song called "Too old to work and too young to die." I have a record of it somewhere--Pete Seeger, maybe? Nancy

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: SINSULL
Date: 18 Jul 00 - 04:25 PM

"When Your Old Wedding Ring Was New."

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: TheOldMole
Date: 18 Jul 00 - 01:56 PM

The Bard of Armagh

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: Mbo
Date: 18 Jul 00 - 01:43 PM

"Just No Time At All" from the musical Pippin by Stephen Schwartz.

--Mbo

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: The Shambles
Date: 18 Jul 00 - 01:39 PM

Autumn Gold. A link to The Mudcat Songbook.

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Jul 00 - 05:32 AM

A favorite of mine is Ralph McTell's song Naomi. It's in the forum here

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: Mbo
Date: 18 Jul 00 - 12:34 AM

Queen also does a cool skiffle/vaudeville type songs called "Good Company" about getting older. A funny song, with ukelele and elecric guitars imitating a Dixieland jazz band!

--Mbo

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: JamesJim
Date: 18 Jul 00 - 12:30 AM

I am trying to remember a song written by Chet Atkins, about 7 or 8 years ago. It was about the memory of his father. I simply could not listen to him sing it without crying. Somewhere, I have a tape and I'm ashamed to admit that although I once learned it (it moved me so), it is now lost in the fuzzy files of my memory. This surely is a sign of age. Please help me remember it.

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: bob jr
Date: 18 Jul 00 - 12:02 AM

there is also a great song about being old by The Band, called rockin' chair

oh to be home again
back in old virginny
with my very best friend
they call him ragtime willie
would be nice just to see them folks?
listen once again to the stale old jokes
that big rockin chair won't go nowhere

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: GUEST,Arkie
Date: 17 Jul 00 - 10:06 PM

Bryan Bower's recorded "The Hollywood Hotel" about a grandmother in a rest home and "Old Lovers" which is on the positive side. Phil Ochs' "Flower Lady" is also a touching piece, assuming the flower lady is old. There is the western classic "I'd Like to Be in Texas (When They Roundup in the Spring)."

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: Mbo
Date: 17 Jul 00 - 09:44 PM

Hah! What about "My Generation" by The Who? Or "These Are The Days of Our Lives" by Queen?

--Mbo

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: reggie miles
Date: 17 Jul 00 - 09:39 PM

Here's one I don't believe anyone's mentioned yet, "You're Gonna Look Just Like A Monkey When You Get Old". I have a copy of this by The Siegel/Schwall Band.

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 17 Jul 00 - 08:39 PM

Robert Lee, I'm glad I looked through the thread. I was in a hurry, and was about to commit the sin of adding to it without having seen if anyone had already put in what I was about to do, and Lo and Behold, you had already referred, though in incomplete form, to "Get Up And Go," which is one of my great favorites.

I sing this all the time, and am glad to know that you like it too.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: SINSULL
Date: 17 Jul 00 - 11:46 AM

The Everly Bros. did "Rocking Alone in an Old Rocking Chair" The Gay Nineties Classic "Will You Love Me In December As You Do In May?"

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: celticblues5
Date: 16 Jul 00 - 10:24 PM

The Jacques Brel song is in the Judy Collins songbook. It's a beautiful piece just as an instrumental, too.

I guess I always thought the naughty version of "John Anderson, My Jo" was the original and that the bowdlerized (sp?) version came later! ;-)

I can't believe no one's mentioned (unless I've missed it) "Maids, When You're Young, Never Wed an Old Man." It's in the DT.

Subject: LYR ADD: Look up for "When this old hat"
From: Jeri
Date: 16 Jul 00 - 09:43 PM

Refresh for song collection.

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: Nonie Rider
Date: 26 Nov 97 - 01:21 PM

Of course, if you want silly rather than touching, there's "Old Blevins" by the Austin Lounge Lizards: guy has a fight with his woman, goes into a bar, and is earnestly confronted by Old Blevins, who has some words of wisdom for him:

And he said "Bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla In San Francisco
"Bla bla bla In 1963
"Bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla I don't remember"
And that is what Old Blevins said to me.

After several verses of this (with some silly insertion lines including "Bla bla bla Had no effect on me" and "Bla bla bla bla bla Mistakes were made"), the younger guy has indeed found the wisdom he was seeking, and goes back to make up with his woman so that he doesn't end up a lonely old fool in a bar muttering "Bla bla" to strangers.

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: Bill Wood
Date: 24 Nov 97 - 10:07 PM

Bruce Philip's "old woman" in the Goodnight Loving Trail is the cook on the cattle drive; He has another great song about aging -- All Used up -- I can post lyrics if they're not available.

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: Jaxon
Date: 24 Nov 97 - 04:05 PM

The Clancy Brithers recorded "The 2,000 Year Old Alcoholic". Top That!

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: Bert
Date: 24 Nov 97 - 03:55 PM

There's that great song by Utah Phillips. "The Goodnight Trail & the Loving Trail"
...and the Old Woman's lonesome tonight...

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: rastrelnikov
Date: 23 Nov 97 - 03:17 AM

I think one of my favourite songs on this topic is Clear Away in the Morning by Gordon Bok. It's in the DT.

One of the great lines is when the singer tries to describe a woman he knew Nancy, oh my Nancy But he knows he can't put it in words. He just repeats Nancy, oh my Nancy. Not only is the poor fellow to old to work a sailing ship anymore, he can't even relate his experiences, just the memories of the emotions.

It's on the first Makem and Clancy album, I believe.

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: mim
Date: 22 Nov 97 - 10:42 PM

'Freewheelin' Now' by Jim Reid on the CD of the same name. It's not about really old, only 50, but it's a definitely positive outlook.

And nobody's mentioned Maurice Chevalier singing "I'm glad I'm not young anymore."

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: Rob Derrick
Date: 10 Nov 97 - 03:26 PM

On the Makem&Clancy concert album, they do one called

The 200 Year-Old Alcoholic

about a _very_ old man.

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: Kate
Date: 04 Nov 97 - 07:07 PM

One of my favorites is Jimmy Buffet's "The Captain and the Kid." Also, Simon and Garfunkel's "Bookends."

I suppose the protagonists in "Hobo's Lullaby" and "Mr. Bojangles" (both are in the database) are not all that old chronologically, but I'm inclined to include them anyway, since they seem to have lived too long for the demands of the open road.