Songs about getting older?

Subject: Songs about getting older?
From: Peter T.
Date: 06 Oct 97 - 11:40 AM

I was recently at a birthday party for someone who had reached the grand old age of 55, and someone else perked up and said, "I think growing old is great -- especially compared to my first 40 years -- does anyone else have anything to say about how wonderful it is to grow old?" This was followed by a grim silence, followed in turn by various references to a bit more wisdom, less concern about small details (or less about the big picture), who are these children masquerading as policemen, etc. It set me to wondering about songs about getting older (or being old), ranging from the sentimental ("WHEN YOU AND I WERE YOUNG, MAGGIE") to the wistful ("September Song"), and half-remembered songs about cracking ice for Grandpa's piles. Actually, now that I think of it, I suspect there is a divide between songs about growing somewhat older (past your 40s), and getting really old (pick your date), when things get really tough. Maybe I'll try two threads, and see if there are any takers. For this one, does anyone have any good songs about getting somewhat older? Yours, Peter

[Many song titles in this thread have been converted to links by a Mudelf.]

Subject: Lyr Add: MY OLD DUTCH
From: Bert
Date: 06 Oct 97 - 12:08 PM

Here's an old Cockney song.

My Old Dutch

Now I've got a gal, she's a regular out and outer
She's a dear old pal and I'll tell you all about her
It's many years since first we met,
Her hair was long and black as jet
It's whiter now but she don't fret, not my old gal

We've been together now for forty years and it don't seem a day too much
for there ain't a lady living in the land that I'd swap for my Dear Old Dutch.
No there ain't a lady living in the land that I'd swap for my Dear Old Dutch.

[A more complete version is posted here.]

Subject: RE: Songs about getting older?
From: Akiba
Date: 06 Oct 97 - 12:43 PM

Peter,

How about "THE ASH GROVE" (which comes to mind because I posted a variant version to the Guy's Song Circle yesterday)? "BELIEVE ME, IF ALL THOSE ENDEARING YOUNG CHARMS" certainly fits the bill. In a darker mood, what about "CARRICKFERGUS" and its sisters and its cousins and its aunts, like the many variants of "The Water Is Wide"?

This isn't a folk song, but what about Chevalier's "I REMEMBER IT WELL" from Gigi? Or, from Carousel, "When The Children Are Asleep" -- ( "We'll think what fun that we had, / And be glad that it all came true; / You'll still hear me say that / The best dream I know is you!")

I'll be 62 in a month, so I can tell you one thing for sure about getting older: it beats ALL HECK out of the alternative! I'll keep thinking about this one, and get back to you. There may be a lot more out there than immediately springs to mind. By the way, do you know why it takes us "alter kochers" so much longer to retrieve things from memory? (Nod to Dick.) Because of the size of the database.

L'Chaim

Subject: RE: Songs about getting older?
From: Peter T.
Date: 06 Oct 97 - 04:47 PM

Dear Bert and Akiba, Good songs, hadn't occurred to me. "When the Children Are Asleep" -- one of my favourites, in spite of the ominous context. Someone mentioned today, "The Second Time Around" -- older but wiser! Yours, Peter

Subject: RE: Songs about getting older?
From: Bert
Date: 06 Oct 97 - 05:09 PM

Jimmie Rodgers did one about "Daddy dear old Daddy" [DADDY AND HOME] . I'll see if I can find the words for you.

Subject: RE: Songs about getting older?
From:
Date: 06 Oct 97 - 05:31 PM

What about John Prine's "HELLO IN THERE"?

Subject: RE: Songs about getting older?
From: PattyG
Date: 06 Oct 97 - 10:26 PM

Ever hear of one that was sung by Roberta Sherwood called, "I'm Staying Young".....while everyone around me is growing old..... (from "Take Me Along", I believe.) Kinda nice and pensive.

Subject: RE: Songs about getting older?
From: Shula
Date: 07 Oct 97 - 03:55 AM

Dear Peter,

Since you mention "The Second Time Around" and Akiba has put me in mind of songs from musicals, what about "The Sadder-But-Wiser Girl" from "The Music Man"?

Like the two threads. "Growing Older" truly differs thematically from "Growing Old."

BTW, "When The Children Are Asleep" is a fav. of ours, too. We have a repetoire of responsive duets, -- lots of fun. Think I'll go launch a thread on the subject, -- see what else is out there.

Fine concept, here.

Ta,

Shula

Subject: RE: Songs about getting older?
From: Shula
Date: 07 Oct 97 - 03:57 AM

Durn! "repertoire" Sorry. (Hope Max gets personal editing capability going before I lose all my self-respect!)

Shula

Subject: RE: Songs about getting older?
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 07 Oct 97 - 03:14 PM

As I pointed out in another thread on aging, a search for @age or @aging (or, better yet @ag*) got me 99 hits. A reasonable start.

Subject: Lyr Add: A WORLD OF TIME (Bob Clayton)
From: Songster Bob
Date: 07 Oct 97 - 04:16 PM

I searched Digitrad and found that my own "World of Time" hasn't yet been entered, but it's one of my favorite aging songs. I'll try a cut-and-paste of the lyrics here:

A World of Time
(Bob Clayton)

When I was young and in my prime,
It seemed my world was made of time.
Long years have passed, without a doubt,
As I let a world of time go running out.

Chorus:
All the things that I would do,
If I had time to be with you
To make up for the hours and the days
I let a world of time slip away.

When I was young, it seemed to me
There wasn't a thing I couldn't be.
Sad experience lets me know
How you lose your illusions when you grow.

Chorus

I don't know how I could have been so dumb!
I wasted my youth on being young.
As if that were quite enough to be.
They say wisdom comes with age, and is not free.

Chorus

If I had met you in a younger day,
It might have been different; who's to say?
But since I didn't, if you'll care,
A world of time together we can share.

Chorus


Copyright © 1991, Bob Clayton, Silver Spring, MD

The tune is reminiscent of "WHEN YOU AND I WERE YOUNG, MAGGIE" on the chorus, but it's impossible to truly annotate it here. Someday, there'll be a recording of it and a bunch of my other songs. I have a songbook available, but it's not the same as hearing 'em.

Bob Clayton

Subject: RE: Songs about getting older?
From: Nonie Rider
Date: 07 Oct 97 - 04:39 PM

Wal now, I'm only almost-forty (another couple of weeks), so I'm not in a position to judge the older years, but believe me, I wouldn't take under-thirty again for anything. And as for eighteen--ugh!!! No, I'm looking forward to post-menopause and hoping for a long cronehood.

But songs, now:

Stan Rogers' "Lies," about an aging ranch wife looking in her mirror, is probably the most compassionate song I've heard in my life.

On the rowdier side, filker/folker Michael Longcor's got a wonderful one about "I can't party as hearty as I partied/When I partied at 21." Chorus goes something like:

Well, I've drunk with Jose Cuervo,
Had a dance with Irish Rose;
Went two-out-of-three with old Jack D
And I think he broke my nose.

(And as a last line, after all the drinking memories, he adds in a suggestive voice: "But there's one or two things I do a whole lot better/Than when I was 21!")

And is it CSN&Y or EL&P who did "Wasted on the Way?"

So much time to make up, everywhere you turn,
Time we have wasted on the way,
So much water moving underneath the bridge;
Let the water come and carry us away.

--Nonie

Subject: RE: Songs about getting older?
From: Bert
Date: 07 Oct 97 - 05:10 PM

What about Tom Paxton's "NOT TONIGHT, MARIE"

Song title converted to link. --JoeClone, 20-Mar-02.

Subject: RE: Songs about getting older?
From: Shula
Date: 07 Oct 97 - 05:22 PM

Dear Peter,

We-e-ellllll now, sonny-boy, y've shore dun set th' woods t' fahre wi' thet'un 'bout gittin' RILLY O'D, s' seein's i' t'aint 's crowded 'roun 'bout t'ese hyar parts, Ah speks Ah'll jes' hatter put mah two sens in this'un, cuz jedgin' bah th' stuff wot's in t'other'un, whar y' puts it's needah yere no' dar!

Obliquely, at least: "My Father Always Promised Us" (That We Would Live In France). "Chanson Des Vieux Amants," mentioned in SAGRO, -- Um Hum! BTW, wonder if it could be old enough for La Piaf?

Naptime,

Emergent Crone, AKA Shula

Subject: RE: Songs about getting older?
From: Shula
Date: 08 Oct 97 - 03:57 AM

Dear Peter,

See verse three of "EILEEN AROON;" it's in the DT all right, but not @ag*.:

3. Youth must in time decay,
Eileen Aroon.
Beauty must fade away,
Eileen Aroon.
Castles are sacked in war;
Chieftains are scattered far;
Truth is a fixed star,
Eileen Aroon.

Shula

Subject: Lyr Add: GETTING OLDER (Alan Foster)
From: Alan of Australia
Date: 08 Oct 97 - 04:56 AM

G'day,
Here's another one:-

GETTING OLDER
(Alan Foster)

My mid-life crisis is setting in
As I try to control my double chin
And iron out my wrinkled skin
And I know I'm getting older.

They told me life begins at fifty
The age when all is neat and nifty
But the look in their eye was sharp and shifty
And they know I'm getting older.

I can run as fast as I ever ran
And to chase young women is my plan
But they know I'm just a harmless old man
'Cause they see I'm getting older.

My memory keeps on getting worse
It's just another little curse
Now what was the subject of this verse?
I must be getting older.

When your hair falls out and your eyesight goes
And the only thing you've got that grows
Is your waistline so it hides your toes
You know you're getting older.

I'll end this rhyme before I ruin it
Before you all start misconstruin' it
But as long as I can keep on doin' it*
I don't mind getting older.

*i.e. getting older.

Cheers,
Alan

Subject: RE: Songs about getting older?
From: Shula
Date: 08 Oct 97 - 06:12 AM

Dear Alan,

Good stuff there. Hope you're in the DT.

Shula

P.S. If I asked, very, very sweetly, would you write just one leetle beety ol' verse to sum up, or finish off, as the case may be, the jig for "THE OLD SAILOR"? It might get others going. Thank you most humbly. S.

Subject: RE: Songs about getting older?
From: Justin Kodner
Date: 08 Oct 97 - 09:48 AM

There are so many. I agree about Stan Rogers' "Lies" and Prine's "HELLO IN THERE", and Paxton's "NOT TONIGHT, MARIE", but I'm surprised no one mentioned Steve Goodman's "THE DUTCHMAN". How about "MY GET UP AND GO HAS GOT UP AND WENT", Lee Hayes. Did you know that in his last years, after his legs had to be amputated (diabetes) he used to answer the phone, "Lee Hayes here...more or less"?

Subject: RE: Songs about getting older?
From: Peter T.
Date: 08 Oct 97 - 09:50 AM

Gee, original songs. Re: Chanson des Vieux Amants, I am reasonably sure that Edith Piaf didn't sing it. It is a Brel tune. There is a somewhat mangled version (though beautifully sung as ever) by Judy Collins on her old Wildflowers album. Yours, Peter P. S. The rockabilly singer Ronnie Hawkins was once interviewed on the subject of becoming an aging rocker, and at one point (to the female interviewer) he said, "I'm not as good as I once was, but I'm as good once as I ever was".

Subject: RE: Songs about getting older?
From: TomG
Date: 09 Oct 97 - 03:10 PM

See my message under this same heading also of today's date re "Younger than Spring" and "Once Upon a Time"

Subject: Lyr Add: TIMES AIN'T NOW NOTHING LIKE THEY USED TO
From: Jon W.
Date: 10 Oct 97 - 07:28 PM

Here's a rarely heard blues song, recorded by Richard "Rabbit" Brown in 1927. I like the first three verses best myself but you can pick and choose your favorites.

TIMES AIN'T NOW NOTHING LIKE THEY USED TO BE

Times ain't now nothing like they used to be (2x)
And I'm telling you all the truth, oh take it from me

I done seen better days, but I'm putting up with these (2x)
I would have a much better time but these girls now are so hard to please.

'Cause I was born in the country, she thinks I'm easy to rule (2x)
She try to hitch me to a wagon, she wanna drive me like a mule.

You know I bought the groceries, and I pay the rent (2x)
She try to make me wash her clothes but I got good common sense.

I say if you don't want me, why don't you tell me so (2x)
(?)... here like a man that ain't got nowhere to go.

I've been givin' you sugar for sugar, let you get salt for salt (2x)
And if you can't get along with me, well it's your own fault.

How do you want me to love you, you keep a-treatin' me mean (2x)
You're my daily thought, and my nightly dream

Sometime I think that you too sweet to die (2x)
And another time I think, you oughtta be buried alive.

This is on the album "Blues of the Western States" on Yazoo Records.

Subject: RE: Songs about getting older?
From: Robert Lee
Date: 11 Oct 97 - 02:37 AM

"WHEN I GROW TOO OLD TO DREAM" is a very beautiful song that was a particular favourite of my grandmother's. But more about contemplating old age than actually about getting older.

Subject: RE: Songs about getting older?
From: Peter T.
Date: 11 Oct 97 - 12:44 PM

Dear Jon, Don't know anything about "Rabbit Brown", so must get the album -- the lyrics intrigue. Was he a Texan? Yours, Peter

Subject: RE: Songs about getting older?
From: Jon W.
Date: 13 Oct 97 - 03:59 PM

Peter,

"Rabbit" was from New Orleans, rowed a boat on Lake Ponchartrain for tourists, and sang to entertain them I suppose. I think this was his only recording, but not sure. The album has quite a bit of good blues on it, from artists from Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana (places west of the Delta). I would recommend it if you can stand Yazoo's faithful reproduction of the sound of well used 78's.

Subject: Lyr Add: WHEN I GROW TOO OLD TO DREAM
From: PattyG
Date: 13 Oct 97 - 10:13 PM

Oh! "When I Grow Too Old To Dream"!! What a *wonderful* old song!
(To me, this is a funeral song, though:)

WHEN I GROW TOO OLD TO DREAM
Words, Oscar Hammerstein II; music, Sigmund Romberg; ©1934.
As recorded by Nelson Eddy, 1935.

VERSE: We have been gay,
Going our way.
Life has been beautiful; we have been young.
After you've gone,
Life will go on
Like an old song we have sung.

CHORUS: When I grow too old to dream, I'll have you to remember.
When I grow too old to dream, your love will live in my heart.
So kiss me, my sweet, and so let us part,
And when I grow too old to dream, that kiss will live in my heart.

Subject: RE: Songs about getting older?
From: The Fenian
Date: 14 Oct 97 - 01:59 PM

How about THE 200-YEAR-OLD ALCOHOLICby Tommy Makem. That's a pretty cool song.

Subject: RE: Songs about getting older?
From: GUEST,Betsychicago
Date: 04 Feb 01 - 10:23 AM

Minor correction: Steve Goodman was the best known singer of "THE DUTCHMAN," but it was written (and is often performed so movingly that I cry!) by Michael Smith, one of the country's most underrated singer-songwriters.

Subject: RE: Songs about getting older?
From: Deckman
Date: 04 Feb 01 - 10:40 AM

This is a great topic. These days I perform a lot at nursing homes, that way I've got a captive audience.(I just take their walkers away). My favorite is David Mallett's "Light At The End Of The Tunnel." By the way, I'm so old now that it takes me all night to do what I used to do all night! (no charge!) CHEERS, Bob Nelson

Subject: RE: Songs about getting older?
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 04 Feb 01 - 11:12 AM

If you like the melancholy, try "BAY OF FUNDY" by Gordon Bok.
"..When you run your Easting down, Don't go down to Fundy Bay, She'll wear your time away." and "Dont mind the wind and cold, Just don't like this growing old, Cape Sable's horn blows all night long, Wonder Why,.."

Subject: RE: Songs about getting older?
From: jaze
Date: 04 Feb 01 - 11:46 AM

Mary Chapin Carpenter's version of "Grow Old With Me" is beautiful. Wasn't that written by John Lennon?

Subject: RE: Songs about getting older?
From: The Shambles
Date: 04 Feb 01 - 02:13 PM

Autumn Gold. To be found in The Mudcat Songbook.

Subject: RE: Songs about getting older?
From: Ebbie
Date: 04 Feb 01 - 02:36 PM

I love Shel Silverstein's 'We'll Never Be This Young Again". And of course, 'Time'.

eb

Subject: RE: Songs about getting older?
From: fat B****rd
Date: 04 Feb 01 - 03:09 PM

"The Way You Look Tonight", Tom Waits' "Martha", Crash Test Dummies "Afternoons and Coffeespoons" and Mose Allison "Was" (When Is Becomes Was). Not depressing, just lovely.

Subject: Lyr Add: ALL USED UP (Utah Phillips)
From: GUEST,Martin Rich
Date: 04 Feb 01 - 03:27 PM

This one sung by Roy Bailey. Bruce "Utah" Phillips is from Spokane.

ALL USED UP
Utah Phillips
As recorded by Utah Phillips on "The Telling Takes Me Home" (1997)

        G
  I spent my whole life making somebody rich.
    C                                D7
  I busted my ass for that son of a bitch,
           G        D7           C       G
  And he left me to die like a dog in a ditch,
                  D7      G
  And told me I'm all used up.

He used up my labor; he used up my time.
He plundered my body and squandered my mind,
And gave me a pension of handouts and wine,
And told me I'm all used up.

My kids are in hock to a god you call work,
Slaving their lives out for some other jerk,
And my youngest in Frisco just made shipping clerk.
And he don't know I'm all used up.

The young people reaching for power and gold
Don't have respect for anything old.
For pennies, they're bought and for promises sold.
Someday they'll all be used up.

They use up the oil; they use up the trees.
They use up the air and they use up the sea.
Well, how about you, friend, and how about me?
What's left when we're all used up?

I'll finish my life in this crummy hotel.
It's lousy with bugs and, my god, what a smell!
But my plumbing still works and I'm clear as a bell.
Don't tell me I'm all used up.

Outside my window, the world passes by,
Gives me a handout and spits in my eye.
And no one can tell me 'cause no one knows why
I'm living but I'm all used up.

Sometimes in my dreams, I sit by a tree.
My life is a book of how things used to be.
And kids gather round and they listen to me.
And they don't think I'm all used up.

And there's songs and there's laughter and things I can do,
And all that I've learned I can give back to you.
I'd give my last breath just to make it come true.
No, I'm not all used up.

They use up the oil and they use up the trees.
They use up the air and they use up the sea.
Well, how about you, friend, and how about me?
What's left when we're all used up?

Subject: RE: Songs about getting older?
From: Mark Clark
Date: 04 Feb 01 - 03:53 PM

Joe Glazer wrote a song that I can't seem to find anywhere just now. Maybe someone can help. The refrain goes:

Too old to work, too old to work,
Too old to work and too young to die,
Who'll take care of you, how'll you get by,
When you're too old to work and you're too young to die.

I think Pete Seeger sings this one and Utah Phillips too.

      - Mark

Subject: RE: Songs about getting older?
From: kytrad (Jean Ritchie)
Date: 04 Feb 01 - 04:05 PM

I did one for my Mom & Dad's 60th Wedding Anniversary some years ago, called, "Still I Love Him." If you don't mind mild sentimentality, it may be on digitrad. It's been recorded but only on a cassette, "Jean Ritchie Concert." As I just celebrated my own 50th Anniversary, and only a beginner on computer, haven't learnt how to give you a tune yet (but I will!)...if you're at all interested, I'll see that you find it.

Subject: RE: Songs about getting older?
From: GUEST,Willa
Date: 04 Feb 01 - 04:22 PM

How about "THE FOLKS WHO LIVE ON THE HILL?"
Some day, we'll sit and look at that same old view,
Just we two; Darby and Joan,
Who used to be Jack and Jill.
And we'll be pleased to be called,
What we have always been called –
The folk who live on the hill.

"Side by Side"
When they've all had their troubles and parted,
We’ll be the same as we started,
Traveling our road,
Sharing our load,
Side by side.

"SILVER THREADS AMONG THE GOLD"
But my darling you will be, will be,
Always young and fair to me.

HTML line breaks added. --JoeClone, 20-Mar-02.

Subject: RE: Songs about getting older?
From: reggie miles
Date: 04 Feb 01 - 05:32 PM

My friend Robert "Oneman" Johnson wrote one called "I'm Gettin' Thick In The Middle, Gettin' Thin On Top".

Subject: Lyr Add: GEORDIE BLACK
From: bill\sables
Date: 04 Feb 01 - 06:11 PM

GEORDIE BLACK

Ma name is Geordie Black, aa'm getting very aad.
Aav'e hewed tons of coal in me time,
An' when aa wes just a lad, aa could either put or hew.
Oot the others aa could aalways tak the shine.
Aa'm gannin doon the hill, Aa cannet use the pick.
The maister hes ne pity on aad bones.
So noo aa'm on the bank, an'aa while me time away
Amang the bits o' lads wi' pickin oot the stones.

Oh me name is Geordie Black. In me time aa've been a crack.
An' aa've warked baith in the Gyuss an' in the Betty.
An' the coals upon the Tyne oot the others tak the shine,
An' we lick 'em aal for iron doon at Hawks's.

Noo when aa wes just a lad carried on me father's back,
An' away he wad take me te the pit.
An' te get in the cage an' te gan doon belaw
'Twas enough te mak a youngster tak a fit.
For te sit an' keep a door midst the darkness an' the gloom
Ay, mony an 'oor be messel,
An' te hear the aaful shots thar rummelled roond the pit,
An' the lumps o' roondy coal come doon pellmell.

Noo aa'll say good neet, for it's nearly time te lowse.
An' aa've done me best te please ye, ivery one.
Young lads that's here the neet, mind, de the thing that's reet.
In this warld that's the way te get on.
So here's success te trade baith on the Wear an' Tyne,
Aa divent like te see the place se slack.
For if wor pit lies idle, ne pay note comes teneet,
An' it grieves the heart o' poor Geordie Black

Bill

---

Note: Bill's version was added to the Digital Tradition in 2001. -Joe Offer-

Subject: Lyr Add: BANKS OF THE DEE^^^
From: bill\sables
Date: 04 Feb 01 - 06:15 PM

BANKS OF THE DEE

Last Saturday night on the banks of the Dee
I met an old man in distress I could see
We sat down together and to me he did say
I've lost my employment 'cause my hair it's turned grey

Chorus;

I am an old miner aged fifty and six
If I could get lots I would raffle my picks
I'd raffle them, I'd sell them I'd throw them away
For I can't get employment my hair has turned grey

When I was a young chap I was just like the rest
Each day in the pit I'd do my very best
When I had a loose place I'd be filling all day
Now at fifty and six my hair it's turned grey

Last Wednesday night to the reckoning I went
To the colliery office I went straight fornenst
I'd just got my pay packet, I was walking away
When they gave me my notice 'cause my hair it's turned grey

Now all you young fellows, it's you that's to blame
If you get good places, you'll do just the same
If you get good prices you'll hew them away
But you're sure to regret it when your hair it's turned grey.

Bill

Subject: RE: Songs about getting older?
From: Mark Clark
Date: 04 Feb 01 - 07:26 PM

Don't forget That Silver-Haired Daddy Of Mine. I posted the lyrics in another thread along with a link to a recording of this great old standard.

      - Mark

Subject: RE: Songs about getting older?
From: Sorcha
Date: 04 Feb 01 - 07:37 PM

I can't believe nobody has mentioned the Beatles, "When I'm 64"........

Subject: RE: Songs about getting older?
From: kytrad (Jean Ritchie)
Date: 04 Feb 01 - 08:41 PM

I didn't mean the traditional Irish song,"Still I Love Him," which IS is Digitrad (but has nothing to do with growing old). Mine begins, "Who's this young man with bright hair shining." Chorus is:
Still I love him, still I love him,
Though he knows it, still I tell him
Every mornin, again at evenin,
Night and noonin, still I love him.

Sure are some good songs named above. Someone thinking of doing an album about growing old? Might be a good idea, but who'd be around to buy it?!!

Subject: RE: Songs about getting older?
From: Stewie
Date: 04 Feb 01 - 09:37 PM

Here's a few good'uns:

Sydney Carter's 'Silver in the Stubble'
Tim O'Brien's 'Like I Used to Be
Pete Mundey's 'TAKE YOUR TIME' (recorded by Yetties)
John Verner's 'Where've you been' (recorded by Kathy Mattea)
Hugh Moffatt's 'Jack and Lucy'
'JOHN ANDERSON, MY JO'

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Songs about getting older?
From: Trevor
Date: 05 Feb 01 - 08:11 AM

Hey Deckman, you've been listening to Fred Wedlock!

Apart from 'The Oldest Swinger in Town' my two favourite songs of all time are 'Grandad' by Clive Dunn (it was so nice to hear it on the Ed Stewart show yesterday) and 'Grandma We Love You', by the St Winifred's School Choir.

And they're coming to take me away.

(Wasn't that a banned number 1 hit in the UK)

Subject: RE: Songs about getting older?
From: GUEST,Lynn T
Date: 05 Feb 01 - 08:45 AM

Garnet Rogers has a good one, fairly recent, called "What's Wrong With This Picture" -- lots of desperately cutting details about how his middle-aged image in the mirror ain't him.

Lynn

Subject: RE: Songs about getting older?
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Feb 01 - 11:34 AM

Southern gospel singer Jake Hess on the Gaither Homecoming Hour cable TV show, singing Wore Out. Very funny.

Subject: RE: Songs about getting older?
From: NicP
Date: 05 Feb 01 - 12:06 PM

Rosie Asplen wrote a song a while back about the vicissitudes of growing old. From memory failing 'cos I hit forty myself this month, the chorus went "Oh God, me Mother's turned forty, You think she'd be ready to stop, But somebody told her that life begins there Now she's gone right over the top" I'll try and dig out the rest of it, or if you see Rosie on the UK scene, I'm sure she would be delighted to pass it on. Cheers NicP

Subject: RE: Songs about getting older?
From: LR Mole
Date: 05 Feb 01 - 12:07 PM

Song the Kingston Trio did: "When I was young/And dreams were new/Iloved a girl/Who looked like you/I saaw her fce/in mountain streams/I lingered there and lost myself in dreams..." Good tune, and they sang in in soft unison, not quasi-barbershop. I'll look up the writer tonight.

Subject: RE: Songs about getting older?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 05 Feb 01 - 12:19 PM

Um, I thought, and the trad agrees, that Pete Seeger wrote that great Get up and Go song [MY GET UP AND GO HAS GOT UP AND WENT], but I really like knowing that about Lee Hayes! I can't think of anything else except to note that Americans are very child-oriented, and do not seem to prize being older. Look at trying to find a NICE birthday card for someone turning anything more than 25... so perhaps that's why the dearth of good English-language songs prizing old age... we get HELLO IN THERE. I'd like to see what people from other cultures, especially if there are any people from Pays en Voie de Sous-developpement around... I bet there are nice African songs about old age, for instance!