Songs about getting really old? - 1

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: PHIL THOMAS
Date: 13 Oct 97 - 04:32 AM

Sam Eskin sang "My children are laughing behind my back..." on his 10" Folkways LP. A great antidote to ageism.

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: alison
Date: 13 Oct 97 - 06:33 PM

hi

Yes I agree the "Kilkelly" is depressing, but it's also supposed to be true. Apparently there is a collection of the letters somewhere in the US (in a museum) and someone thought it would make a good song.

Slainte

alison

Subject: Lyr Add: TIME'S ALTERATION; OR, THE OLD MAN'S...
From: Bruce
Date: 14 Oct 97 - 02:41 AM

Ref. LeMarca, Oct.10
"When this old hat was new" is in Whitaker's 'North Countrie Ballads', 1921 (and nowhere else?). I once saw this book, (where?) but, unfortunately, did not copy this song. What may be an earlier version is:

Time's Alteration; Or,
The Old Man's rehearsall, what brave days he knew,
A great while agone, when his Old Cap was new.

To the tune of Ile nere be drunke againe.

When this old cap was new,
'Tis since two hundred yeere;
No malice then we knew,
But all things plentie were:
All friendship now decayes
(Believe me, this is true),
Which was not in those dayes
When this old cap was new.

Twelve more verses contrasting old times with the new, with the burden 'When this old cap was new' throughout. 'New' being c 1618-29. By Martin Parker. Broadside Index- ZN2893.

Some other 17th century ballads about some of the problems of old age- [first line/ref #/title]:

All you that fathers be/ ZN131| A Ballad Intituled, The Old mans complaint.
An old song made, of an old aged pate/ ZN183| An Old Song of the old courtier. By T. Howard [See DT under "Old Soldiers of the Queen"]
He that is a clear Cavalier will not repine/ ZN1113| The Old Cavalier.
If I live to grow old/ ZN1387| The Old Mans Wish.
O that I was now a marry'd wife/ ZN2045| An Answer to the Old Man's Wish.
If I was young, as now I am old/ ZN1388| A New Song, Call'd The Old Mans Wish.
In Nineve old Toby dwelt/ ZN1446| A Pleasant new Ballad of Old Toby [Tobias].
It was an old man which with his poore wife/ ZN1526| A most excellent ballad, of an old man and his wife.

There are also many ballads about old people, including some who wouldn't act like others expected (i.e, bawdy). There is also one about the Dutch Miller who put old wives and harlots into his mill and ground out tender young virgins (adapted from an earlier German illustrated broadsheet). A cheap print of a large engraving of this mill was a very popular wall decoration in English county cottages in the 18th century).

Subject: Lyr Add: THE OLD MAN'S SONG (Ian Campbell)^^
From: Pete M
Date: 14 Oct 97 - 04:44 AM

One song not mentioned so far and which unites this thread with the one work / labour is simply "the old mans song" written by Ian Campbell. It is also a possibly unconcious precursor /influence to Bogles Now I'm easy.

Most of the lyrics follow but there are two lines I can't recall. Anyone help?

THE OLD MAN'S SONG
(Ian Campbell)

At the turning of the century I was a boy of five,
Me father went to fight the Boers and never came back alive
Me ma was left to bring us up, no Charity she'd seek
She washed and scrubbed and scraped along on seven & six a week.

At the age of twelve I left the school and went to find a job,
With growing kids me Ma was glad of the extra couple of bob,
I'm sure that better schooling would have stood me in good stead,
But you can't aford refinement when you're struggling for your bread.

When the Great War came along I didn't hesitate,
I took the Royal shilling and went off to do me bit,
Three years I fought in in mud and ????
'til I copped some gas in Flanders and got invalided out.

And when the war was over and we'd settled with the Hun,
We got back into civvies and we thought the fighting done,
We'd won the right to live in Peace, but we didn't have such luck
For very soon we had to fight for the right to go to work.

In Twenty six the General Strike found me on the streets
Though I'd a wife and kids by then and their needs I had to meet
But a Brave New world was coming and the Brotherhood of man,
But when the strike was over we were back where we began.

I struggled through the Thirties, out of work now and again,
I saw the Blackshirts marching and the things they did in Spain
But I raised me children decent and I taught them wrong from right,
But Hitler was the man that came and taught them how to fight.

They gave me son a gong for stopping one of Rommel's tanks,
???? and convaleced in Rome,
Got married to an Eytie nurse and never bothered to come home.

I'm living on the pension now, it doesn't go too far,
Not much to show for a life that's been like one long bloody war,
When I think of all the wasted lives it makes you want to cry,
I'm not sure how to change things - but by Christ we have to try.

PM^^

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: Peter T.
Date: 14 Oct 97 - 02:41 PM

Continuing thanks for contributions. This group never fails to surprise and delight. "Old Rocking Chair's Got Me"... Yours, Peter

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: Wolfgang
Date: 15 Oct 97 - 06:08 AM

The Old Man's Song (Tale)

for Pete M.: Thanks for reminding me that fine song. I have a slightly different version of it (from the Big Red Songbook). Here are the missing bits in my version:

verse 3, line 3: "I lived on mud and tears and blood, three years or thereabouts"

verse 7: "My daughter was a landgirl, she got married to a Yank,
and they gave me son a gong for stopping one of Rommel's tanks.
He was wounded just before the end, and convalesced in Rome,
got married to an Eyetie nurse and never bothered to come home."

my version knows an extra verse, before your last verse:

verse 7b: "My daughter writes me once a month, a cheerful little note,
about their colour telly and the other things they've got,
she's got a son, a likely lad, he's nearly twenty one,
and she tells me now they've called him up to fight in Vietnam."

Regards Wolfgang

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: Steve D.
Date: 15 Oct 97 - 06:33 AM

There's a couple of Pete Seeger numbers I can think of. One goes 'How do I know my youth is all spent, my get up and go has got up and went'(!). The other is a ramble on the 'Precious Friend' CD (with Arlo Guthrie) about a song that Lee Hayes wrote. Also good (though not strictly relevant) is 'Old Horse' as sung by Martin Carthy.

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: Pete M
Date: 18 Oct 97 - 10:14 PM

Thanks to Wolfgang for the missing lines. I think they are the same version actually, just my memory failing!

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: David F
Date: 20 Oct 97 - 08:19 PM

Wasn't it Sinatra that sang "It was a very good year"? As in "When I was 17 It was a very good year...."

Then there was an old song with the refrain "Ain't a gonna need this house no longer, ain't a gonna need this house no more...."

Both of these are good "Old" songs.

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: Peter T.
Date: 21 Oct 97 - 09:25 AM

Continuing thanks. David, that reminds me of "Yesterday, when I was young" (first line of a song by a famous country and western singer whose name, like rain upon my tongue, I can't at this moment recall). I will curse myself -- age, age, can remember faces, but... Yours, Peter

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: Bill D
Date: 21 Oct 97 - 05:42 PM

I can never remember faces, but I always forget a name....(at least, I think that's how it goes....)

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.

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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: TheOldMole
Date: 18 Jul 00 - 01:56 PM

The Bard of Armagh

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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: Genie
Date: 16 Feb 02 - 05:51 AM

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

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:
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: 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: 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