Songs about getting really old? - 1

Subject: Songs about getting really old?
From: Peter T.
Date: 06 Oct 97 - 11:44 AM

This is a companion ("cf. Old Friends, Simon and Garfunkel") to the other thread "Songs About Getting Older" asking about songs relating to those who are getting somewhat older. Does anyone have any good songs -- uplifting, depressing, gruesome, sweet -- about the really aged? It is scary to think that the Beatles "When I'm Sixty-Four" might be in this category, but they were in their twenties, what did they know? Yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: S.P. Buck Mulligan
Date: 06 Oct 97 - 12:39 PM

Peter: I have a few for you: "Hello In There" by John Prine, "The Dutchman" by Mike Smith, and "The Old Folks" by, I think, Jacques Brel (not 100% sure on this attribution). The prine has been recorded by Bette Midler of course, but Prine's own rendition is far superior. The Mike Smith tune was sort of a signature of Steve Goodman's, appearing on one of his earliest albums. The only recording of "The Old Folks" I've heard is by HJ Dutschendorf on none of his "pre-Country Boy" LPs.

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: Harold
Date: 06 Oct 97 - 01:19 PM

Peter, the Beatles sung "When I get older.." and not "When I get really old" ! Then you would be right.
I remember parts of the Dubliners´ "Now I´m Easy", about a man who IS really old, or at least feels really old. "It´s nearly over now, and now I´m easy...". It´s a very haunting song of hard times in Ireland in former times.

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: Bill D
Date: 06 Oct 97 - 02:13 PM

"Over the Hills to the Poor House"..old country/bluegrass number and "The Black Sheep"...(in the database)...songs about what is done with the old...

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: Alice
Date: 06 Oct 97 - 02:30 PM

There are "Silver Threads Among the Gold" (in the DT) and "Darling Nellie Gray", "The Picture on the Wall", "Long, Long, Ago", "Grandfather's Clock", "You're As Welcome As The Flowers in May" (I saw my daddy old and grey, I heard my dear old mother say,), "Are You Tired of Me Darling", "After The Ball" (A little maiden climbed on an old man's knee, begged for a story...), "Bring Back to Me My Wandering Boy" (tell him that his mother with faded cheeks and hair, at the old home is waiting him there...).
I didn't check the first thread on aging to see if I am repeating here, guess I should have done that before typing all of this in. Interesting topic. Alice in Montana

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: Coralena
Date: 06 Oct 97 - 03:36 PM

"That Silver Haired Daddy of Mine" by Gene Autry

A very touching song, if you love your Daddy this one may make you cry.

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 06 Oct 97 - 04:49 PM

Steve Goodman and Jerry Jeff Walker both wrote wonderful songs with the same title, "My Old Man."
Not folk songs, but "The Living Years" by Mike and the Mechanics is worth a close listen. "Leader of the Band" by Dan Fogelberg always makes me think of my dad, who nowadays doesn't sing as much as he used to.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: Peter T.
Date: 06 Oct 97 - 04:57 PM

Great Songs. (the real Buck Mulligan? We are honoured) Another Jacques Brel (his best) "Chanson des Vieux Amants".

Harold, any lyrics to "Now I'm Easy"?

I guess "Angel From Montgomery" is also an old person's song.

An e-mail from a friend who notes (while recommending "I'm So Glad I'm Not Young Anymore" from Gigi) that Sophocles is reputed to have said, "At last I do not feel those terrible fires." He was 90. Yours, Peter

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 06 Oct 97 - 05:01 PM

Many of the songs in the "Time & Changes" chapter of the "Rise Up Singing" songbook have to do with aging, but I don't have time today to type any. One I like especially is "The Activity Room (Mrs. Abrams)," by Ruth Pelham. Ronnie Gilbert did a great job with this song on the "Lifeline" album she recorded live with Holly Near in 1983.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: Bill D
Date: 06 Oct 97 - 05:05 PM

Oh!! Another great one,,,it's in the database.."Didn't I Dance"

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: Frank Phillips
Date: 06 Oct 97 - 05:46 PM

The chorus posted by Harald sounds like the Eric Bogle song about the Australian farmer called "Now I'm Easy" which is in the DT.

Might there be another song by this name?

Frank

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: Harold
Date: 06 Oct 97 - 06:04 PM

Well, as far as I remember:

For nearly 60 years,I´ve been a cockey

I married a fine girl, when I was twenty
My wife died when giving birth, when she was thirty
No flying doctor then, just a gentle old black gent
But It´s nearly over now, and now I´m easy

She left me with two sons and with a daughter
And a bone dry farm, which soil cries out for water

me daughter married young and went her own way
me sons lie buried near the Burma Railway
But it´s nearly over now, and now I´m easy

Oh, what have I done? I´m ready to submit only fragments of a song. I thought, I would have more of that song in my mind. To my excuse: It´s some time ago, that I´ve heard it. But the fact that I remembered at least a little bit showes, that the song is worth it. Bye the way: The Dubliners sang it on their 25th years celebration album. There´s also a songbook containing the songs of that record.
Sorry for my insufficient memory, Harald ^^^

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: Harold
Date: 06 Oct 97 - 06:09 PM

Hey what´s the heck is going on here? I first searched the DT before making a fool out of me with submitting these fragments, but didn´t find it. Now I´m looking up something else and what do I see: Now I´m Easy !!!
Well, it´s after midnite here, perhaps I should go to bed now.
See ya tomorrow folks, good night to everybody,

Harald

Subject: Lyr Add: GET UP AND GO (partial lyrics)
From: Robert Lee
Date: 06 Oct 97 - 06:14 PM

A great song done by Pete Seeger on the Pete Seeger and Arlo Guthrie Live at Carnegie Hall album:

How do I know my youth is all spent?
My get-up-and-go has got up and went,
But in spite of it all I'm able to grin
And think of the places my get-up has been.

I wake up each morning and dust off my wits,
Pick up the paper, and read the obits.
If I'm not there, I know I'm not dead,
So I eat a good breakfast and go back to bed.

...there's lots more, but that's all I remember.

Robert Lee

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: alison
Date: 06 Oct 97 - 06:25 PM

HI

Now I'm easy is about Australia.

The words are in the dfatabase but just to correct what was said up above, it goes....

No flying doctor then, just a gentle old black gin, (Aboriginal woman.)

Come on Alan of Oz, give them the other version........

Slainte

Alison

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: Carl
Date: 06 Oct 97 - 06:38 PM

Hi Alison,
As this thread went via Now I´m easy directly to Australia, I waited for you to respond, and there it is.
But could also be Ireland. Only the hint of the Burma Railway and the black gent/gin showed clearly that it´s Australia-originated. Some songs sung in Ireland come from Australia, like one of my favourites "Waltzing Matilda".

Well, there´s no particular message in this answer, I know. Just wanted to have a little chat, and the chat-room is always empty...

Slan go foill, Carl

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: Peter T.
Date: 06 Oct 97 - 07:03 PM

Wherever it is from, a good song. Must find the record, before I get too old....Yours, Peter

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: Moira Cameron
Date: 06 Oct 97 - 08:56 PM

There's a couple of humourous songs sung by the late David Parry that come to my mind. One is a song called "Greezy Mac" about an older man who consideres himself a 'bar-maid connoiseur'. The other one is (I believe) a Robert Service poen that David put to music called "I wish I was eighty again." Actually, Robert Service wrote quite a few poems about getting old or being old; some of them funny, some not.

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: Pauline Lerner
Date: 06 Oct 97 - 10:19 PM

A bunch of them, with different moods, come to mind: 1. Hats Off to Old Folks, by Schooner Fare, is actually upbeat. 2. Sailor's Rest, by Stan Rogers, is depressing. 3. Saltwater Farm, by Schooner Fair, is about unfulfilled dreams of an old man. 4. Eileen Aroon, by Trad., addresses aging of a pretty woman. 5. Eyes of a Painter, by Kate Wolf, is a kind, loving portrait of Grandpa.

Subject: Lyr Add: GET UP AND GO (additional lyrics: Walden)
From: rich r
Date: 06 Oct 97 - 11:10 PM

"My Get Up and Go Has Got Up and Went" words Public domain and tune by Pete Seeger is in the database. In Pete's book (Where Have All The Flowers Gone) he relates the story of how he found the words on the back of a restaurant menu in Wisconsin and since has found evidence that it goes back at least to WW1. He also includes an alternative last verse and chorus that was went to him by Eleanor Walden.

I get up each morning and dust off my wits,
Open the paper and read the obits.
If I'm not there, I know I'm not gone,
So I eat a good breakfast and plan to go on.

For life is a blessing and love is a hope.
There's too much to do now to sit here and mope,
So I tie my Adidas and answer the call.
I'll die in the struggle or I won't die at all.

How do I know I'm ready to fight?
My get up and go is still within sight.
In spite of my body, my spirit is strong,
And I'm passing the torch from the old to the young.

rich r

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: Barry
Date: 07 Oct 97 - 01:02 AM

Now I'm Easy is from Eric Bogel, who wrote it (or so he says) after spending some time in a bar with an elderly gent who proceeded to tell his life story to Eric's willing ear. He then says after the story was finished he ran outside, behind the bar & jotted it all down as was related to him & it became song. Moore's "Believe Me If All Those Endearing Young Charms" & Dave Van Ronk's "Another Time And Place" are a few charmers. Barry

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: Charlie Baum
Date: 07 Oct 97 - 01:42 AM

I'm thinking of "Run the Film Backwards" by Sydney Carter, which I've heard sung by Iain MacKintosh on his album _Gentle Persuasion_ (Greentrax/ TRAX014) about getting younger and younger. It starts out "At the grand old age of eighty-seven, they took me from the coffin," and runs a life in reverse until he becomes a very young boy and "Mother means the world to me and soon I'll be inside her."

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: Wolfgang (Hell)
Date: 07 Oct 97 - 03:32 AM

What comes to my mind is the beautiful "Joy of living" (it is in the database) by the then quite old Ewan MacColl.
What also comes to my mind is the quite nasty "When you are old and grey" by Tom Lehrer (also in the DTDB)
Wolfgang

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: alison
Date: 07 Oct 97 - 08:36 AM

HI

What about the beautiful, (if depressing) Kilkelly, which I'm sure is in the database. About the old man's letters to his son.

Faals into my songs to slash your wrists to category, (along with Now I'm easy), but a great song nevertheless.

Slainte

Alison

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 07 Oct 97 - 01:13 PM

Check out @age or @aging (or, better yet, @ag*) in the database.

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 07 Oct 97 - 01:17 PM

Hi again- Just checked. The Digital Tradition database lists 99 songs dealing with age or aging. A start, at least.

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: Bill in Alabama
Date: 07 Oct 97 - 03:54 PM

There's always "Old and In the Way." I'm sure that it's in the DT.

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: S.P. Buck Mulligan
Date: 07 Oct 97 - 04:33 PM

I wouldn't be surprised if "Chanson de vieux amants" is in fact the same song Denver recorded in translation as "The Old Folks." but that's only a suspicion. I'd forgotten about "Angel" - it is indeed about growing old ("I am an old woman ....")

Not the real Buck (but I qualify for the "Plump" part; "stately"'s a judgment call though.)just a Joyce fan. Was once in a band, and we spent an entire evening (and several jugs of E&J's best) thinking up names. "Buck Mulligan Band" got the nod, and as I was in front, I was often mistaken for "Buck."

What about Kristofferson's great "Casey's Last Ride?" It's not strictly about getting old, I guess, but about maturing out of a relationship.

Or "Are You Tired Of Me, My Darling" which I think dates to the 1830s (Nanci Griffith did a smashing job on "Other Voices ..." with Chet atkins on acoustic 6 string. "Tecumseh Valley" by Townes van Zandt on the same disc is kinda about getting old (and then stopping getting older)

Stan Rogers did a nifty job with "Lies" though again, that's not about getting "Really" old, just getting on in years and on with life. On his "From Fresh Water" there's "The Last Watch" which deals with obsolescence, human and mechanical. I think that'd qualify.

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: Nonie Rider
Date: 07 Oct 97 - 04:46 PM

Yeah, I'd say MOST of Stan Rogers' songs are about getting older--as long as you include the aging and passing away of ships and jobs and ways of living.

Goddammit, I miss that man, and I never even met him.

Ever read Peter S. Beagle's THE FAIR FOLK? The main character is described by a friend as always mourning for things passing away, even if they haven't yet; always aware of what WILL pass.

--Nonie

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: Bert
Date: 07 Oct 97 - 05:09 PM

Talking of old ships, my Dad sings a song called "Goodbye Old Ship of Mine"

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: Peter T.
Date: 07 Oct 97 - 05:45 PM

Dear Buck, No, Chanson is a different song, more about the savage (and now not so savage) relationship between a man and a woman.

More good songs (I have never heard).

Dear Nonie, I think it was Orwell somewhere who talked about being at the tail end of traditions he didn't know were passing on until afterwards, when they became curiosities. Like reading, for example. Yours, Peter

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From:
Date: 07 Oct 97 - 07:12 PM

As I mentioned in the other thread, "Hello In There" by John Prine.

There is also that one that was a hit in the 1970's that began "Now I've been 'round for 80 summers . . ."

"Now I'm 64", the folksong, not to be confused with "When I'm 64" by the Beatles, which also qualifies.

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: Mark Pemburn
Date: 07 Oct 97 - 08:32 PM

Then there's "Rockin' Chair":

Rockin' chair done got me/ Cane by my side/ Hand me that gin boy/ Fo' I tan your hide

That's all I know of it. Hand me that whiskey, would ye?

Mark

Subject: Lyr Add: IT'S NOT EASY (Alan Foster)
From: Alan of Australia
Date: 08 Oct 97 - 04:51 AM

G'day,
Eric Bogle's "now I'm Easy" is actually full of Aussie references:-

cocky - Aussie slang for farmer

droughts & fires & floods - could be anywhere maybe, but applies particularly to Oz.

Flying Doctor - Royal Flying Doctor Service which brings medical help to people in outlying areas covering 2 million square miles and has been operating since 1927. Started by Rev. John Flynn (Flynn of the Inland) and Alfred Traeger who invented the pedal wireless which was used for many years by remote farmers etc.

gin (definitely not gent) - see Alison's post above.

And here's a parody:-

IT'S NOT EASY

by Alan Foster

For nearly sixty years I've been a folky
Of clubs and pubs and festivals I've seen plenty
And one day I'll make my name
And I'll find fortune and fame
But I've nearly made it now and it's not easy.

Well I learnt to play guitar when I was twenty
And I started writing songs when I was thirty
And I sang my songs one day
But the audience faded away
But I've nearly made it now and it's not easy.

Pretty soon I'm gonna record a great new album
Full of Aussie songs, it'll really be fair dinkum
Then one day and it won't be long
I'm gonna write the world's best song
But I've nearly made it now and it's not easy.

Teenagers today despise the folky
Say compared to rock'n roll folk songs ain't funky
They say your songs are much too long
They exceed our attention span
But I've nearly made it now and it's not easy.

For nearly sixty years I've been a folky
Of clubs and pubs and festivals I've seen plenty
And I'll sing my songs once more
To an audience of four
But I've nearly made it now and it's not easy.

Cheers,
Alan

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: Justin
Date: 08 Oct 97 - 11:08 AM

Good Alan. I heard Eric Bogle do his own parody for a sound check once in Princeton (NJ). It started, "For nearly 60 years I've been a jockey," and complained of saddle sores. A really good song that kind of goes with "Now I'm Easy" is Judy Small's (not on the database) ... now I can't remember the title, but it's chorus has "Sometimes I wonder if it all was worth the doin'...and some times I think this was the finest life of all". Priscilla Herdman recorded it on an early album. I'll get the words & submit them.

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: Bob Landry
Date: 08 Oct 97 - 12:01 PM

I was flipping through my "A" book last night and came across "Streets of London" by Ralph McTell. A poignant commentary on how our youth and money oriented society treats old people. It's in the database

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 08 Oct 97 - 07:14 PM

My own favorites (at least today) are The Good Boy and Silver in the Stubble. Both in the database.

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: anna root
Date: 08 Oct 97 - 08:12 PM

An unusual one, and in the DT, is a version of "John Anderson, My Jo" where John's wife laments that

"John Anderson, my jo, John
When first that ye began
Ye had as good a tail-tree
As ony ither man
But now its waxen wan, John
And wrinkles to and fro
I've twa gae-ups for ae gae-down
John Anderson, my jo"

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: Will
Date: 08 Oct 97 - 09:46 PM

Yes, Streets of London is great. It's in Rise Up Singing, too.

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: dulcimer
Date: 08 Oct 97 - 10:33 PM

Check out a song by the Carter Family, 1930, called The Little Log Hut in the Lane. It starts--

Mama says she don't want me cause I getting old.
'Fraid that I might freeze to death, the weather is so cold.\

--- on Rounder C 1066

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: TomG
Date: 09 Oct 97 - 03:06 PM

Besides "September Song", which I'm sure you know, there is "Younger than Spring" and "Once Upon a Time". I am 62 and I sing these around the campfire when called upon for "old folks' songs. If you don't know the lyrics or can't find them, e-mail me at [e-mail] and I'll send them or put them here.

Tom

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: Alan of Australia
Date: 09 Oct 97 - 09:10 PM

G'day,
To anna root I may be wrong but I think the bawdy version of John Anderson my Jo is a Robbie Burns version.

Cheers,
Alan

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: Whippoorwill
Date: 10 Oct 97 - 10:43 AM

Running the gamut from the sloppily sentimental to the sublimely ridiculous, there's "Old Dogs and Children and Watermelon Wine," and from the '40s, "He's Too Old to Cut the Mustard Any More."

Subject: Lyr Add: WHEN THIS OLD HAT WAS NEW
From: LaMarca
Date: 10 Oct 97 - 02:41 PM

Some others that fit, just off the top of my head:

WHEN THIS OLD HAT WAS NEW (trad, from Chris Foster)

I am a poor old man
Come listen to my song
Provisions now are twice as dear
As when that we were young
The poor are quite done o'er
We know this to be true,
But it was not so when Bess did reign
And this old hat was new,
When this old hat was new

I'll post the rest for the database next week when I can bring the correct words from home

Silver In the Stubble by Sidney Carter, in the DT here

In the Rare Ol' Times - Pete St. John's depressing song about Dublin's changes over the years. DT has it here (without an author listed, and some garbling of verses...)

Time Has Made A Change In Me - in the DT here

What's the Life of a Man? (in the DT here

Chorus: What's the life of a man, more than that of the leaves
A man has his seasons, so why should he grieve
Although in this life we appear fine and gay
Like the leaves we must wither and soon fade away

A cheery little ditty...

Generations of Change - old man reminiscing about the change in trades in Scotland over the years, by Scottish songwriter Matt Armor, in DT here

And how can we forget the oldest man (woman?) of all in
I Was Born About 10.000 Years Ago (in the DT as Just the Facts, Ma'am, Woody Guthrie's intertwining of 10,000 Years with Great Historical Bum!)

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From:
Date: 11 Oct 97 - 02:35 PM

Oscar Brand recorded "I Was Born About 10,000 Years Ago". I have it on vinyl. (Whatever happened to him, anyway?)

Alison, "Kilkelly" must be one of the most depressing songs I've ever seen.

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: Bill D
Date: 11 Oct 97 - 08:08 PM

Oscar Brand did a couple of programs at local (Wash DC)libraries just a few months ago...I didn't go...but I guess he is doing ok...

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: Alice
Date: 11 Oct 97 - 08:57 PM

dick.. I looked at the list under @age* and found some really touching gems like FARAWAY TOM, which I have never heard. Makes me want to find all the recordings Jean Redpath has ever done. Alice in Montana

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: Bill D
Date: 12 Oct 97 - 01:25 AM

I think I have 95% of everything she has ever recorded...never got tired of hearing her....heard her first in 1963.....checked out a record from the library....most are still available in some form....

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: Doug Ramsey
Date: 12 Oct 97 - 06:15 PM

One of my favorite songs about growing old is "75 Septembers" by Cheryl Wheeler. The most accessible recording of it is on the Peter Paul and Mary lifelines album...

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: Bruce
Date: 12 Oct 97 - 07:36 PM

Alan, Burns had nothing to do with the bawdy "John Anderson my Jo". The first version in DT, except for verse order and spelling is practically the same as that in 'The Masque', 2nd edit. 1768. Burns was then 9 years old. A version of five verses is in "Philomel', 1744, reprinted in the first volume of 'The Comic Miscellany,' 1756. The later version is also in other songbooks before its appearance in 'The Merry Muses of Caledonia' (1799), and appears with its tune in 'The Convivial Songster' 1782.

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

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: ossonflags
Date: 21 Dec 05 - 07:47 AM

"200 year old alchoholic"

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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: GUEST
Date: 03 Jun 07 - 11:21 PM

"Yesterday When I Was Young" -

Thanks for posting the lyrics. I'd always it thought it was kind of schmaltzy, without ever having really listened to it ("so much pain my dazzled eyes refused to see") - although I do recall well being moved the first time I heard it - as a kid, saw Roy Clark sing it on Hee-Haw ... and now, just doing a search, I find that Mickey Mantle asked Roy Clark to sing it at his funeral.

You really have to have reached a certain age, and perhaps have lived a certain life, to appreciate it ...

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: GUEST,meself
Date: 03 Jun 07 - 11:21 PM

(That was me).

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: GUEST,Black Hawk at work
Date: 04 Jun 07 - 06:52 AM

How about - Waylon Jennings 'White Hair and Yellow Teeth'.
Mo Bandy - 'Too Old to Die Young'
Johnny Cash - 'The Masterpiece'

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: GUEST,john f weldon
Date: 04 Jun 07 - 09:42 AM

...as long as I'm tooting my own horn here, but what about "riding the iceberg", second from the bottom on this page....

http://www.weldonalley.ca/songs/nowsongs.html

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: SINSULL
Date: 04 Jun 07 - 10:55 AM

Utah Phillips "Golden Mansions"

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego
Date: 04 Jun 07 - 02:40 PM

What? Nobody mentioned (so far as I can tell) "Rosin the Beau," most particularly the last verse:

    I feel that old tyrant approaching,
    That cruel, remorseless old foe,
    And I lift up me glass in his honor!

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego
Date: 04 Jun 07 - 02:50 PM

Somehow the last line got dropped when I submitted the above:

The last line is: "Take a drink with old Rosin the Bow!"

Without that, the first three lines might leave one hanging.....

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: Ebbie
Date: 04 Jun 07 - 02:53 PM

Wow. Yesterday When I was Young- I've got to hear it.

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: GUEST,Nicholas Waller
Date: 04 Jun 07 - 03:01 PM

I saw Nathalie Nahai perform her song Winter to an audience of greyhairs all about 30 years older than her; she was no doubt inspired by previous sightings of the horrors awaiting her:

You say we're still young
Our lives have just begun
Beauty will leave me and time wear us down
I don't want to grow old
I don't want to die

http://www.myspace.com/nathalienahai

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: Ebbie
Date: 04 Jun 07 - 03:11 PM

Thought off the top of my head: Unless Nathalie Nahai was but 20 years old, I should think that singing those lyrics to people 30 years older than herself would be incredibly insensitive...

I tell people that my age is something they'll get if they are lucky. Think of all the deaths of young'uns.

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: GUEST,meself
Date: 04 Jun 07 - 04:48 PM

I just wrote a big long post, a real beaut' - and it got eaten by some kind of cyber-beast.


Okay, Ebbie: 1) Charles Aznavour.

2) Dusty Springfield.

3) some guy who calls himself 'living legend'.

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: GUEST,Nicholas Waller
Date: 04 Jun 07 - 06:20 PM

Nathalie Nahai is indeed 20-something, not exactly sure what, and she wasn't singing in an old people's home; as a guess those "30 years older than her" were about 15 when Sergeant Pepper came out (and 13 when The Who's My Generation came out).

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego
Date: 04 Jun 07 - 07:44 PM

I was already out of the service and back to college when the Beatles invaded. Most of the fellows had really short hair at the time. We were in high dudgeon at seeing all the girls go for these chaps with the bowl haircuts! Who knew? Maybe Uncle Albert.

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: Joe_F
Date: 04 Jun 07 - 09:41 PM

EBarnacle: Surely, Mr Seeger must have known that "Fair Harvard" took its tune from "Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Young Charms" -- which, come to think, belongs here too.

However, I suspect he was spoofing. The resemblance between that tune and that of "Get Up and Go" is not great. If they were sung simultaneously, there would be many discords.

Subject: Lyr Add: I'M OLD (Reggie Miles)
From: GUEST,reggie miles
Date: 05 Jun 07 - 04:34 AM

Here's a jolly song about gettin' old.

I'm Old Reggie Miles 2007

I'm old, yes I'm old, and I found out today,
My tired old frame just gets in the way.
So I guess I'll move on and try to find me some place,
Where a man can grow older and die with some grace.

I've done so many things with the times of my life.
I courted a beauty and made her my wife.
I found a good job, and then we settled down
We bought a small house on the outskirts of town.

I raised a fine family. Shall I tell you their names?
Well, there's Johnny and Mary, and Annie and James.
But now they've all gone and I'm bent from the wear.
With withered ol' limbs and gray shaggy hair.

I'm old, yes I'm old, and I found out today,
My tired old frame it just gets in the way.
I'm off on my own after all of these years,
Filled with laughter and love and sadness and tears.

The American dream, I've lived it you see
Spent all of my life in this land of the free
I've leveled her mountains, farmed her great plains
Dammed mighty rivers, and poisoned her rains

I've reaped vast wealth from polluting her soil
I've spoiled her oceans by spilling her oil
There's not a fish in the sea, nor a bird in the air
That hasn't suffered or died while under my care

I'm old, yes I'm old, and I realized today,
My time 'round here hasn't all gone my way.
I've found no balance in this worldly place
Only struggles and strife over faith, wealth, and race.

I've fought mighty battles and wars by the score
I've left thousands to starve, and ignored the poor
Destruction and death have been my legacy
In the wake of such hate who cares about me?

I've left no solutions only more of the same
No comfort I've given to ease anyone's pain
My words have been lies; my heart's been a stone
I guess it's befitting that I die all alone

I'm old, yes I'm old and I've naught left to do
But to say goodbye and farewell to you
And if I should ever pass this way again
I'll try to do better with my spent here then

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: Bugsy
Date: 05 Jun 07 - 07:30 AM

GReat words Reggie, What's the tune like?

Cheers

Bugsy

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: mandotim
Date: 05 Jun 07 - 08:30 AM

Steve Ashley's wonderful song 'Take the Rough with the Smooth'.
Tim

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: GUEST,reggie miles
Date: 05 Jun 07 - 02:02 PM

Thanks for the comment Bugsy. I've actually received mixed reviews for this one. Some folks don't understand why I would malign the elderly as having anything to do with the present state of life on the planet. To those folks I can only scratch my head.

I just noticed that there's a word missing in the last line. It should read - I'll try to do better with my time spent here then.

I'm not certain if I can easily translate the chordal structure via a text format and I don't know how to read or write those musical hen scratchins that those in the know folks know how to use. I'm uncertain as to how to offer it up to you here but here goes. It's a slow to medium paced ballad type song with only four chords. It's a simple folk song type progression. There is only one pattern throughout and that does not change from verse to verse. There is only an "A" part to the melody, no "B", or turn around, or bridge, or any of the other conventions that so many contemporary composers seem so adamant about adding to each and every song they write. Let me try to explain further and see if I can illustrate what I've done with it.

(1)I'm old, yes I'm old and I (5)found out to(1)day
My (4)tired old frame just (1)gets in the (5)way
So I (4)guess I'll move on and try to (1)find me some (the relative minor of the 1 chord)place
Where a (1)man can grow older and (5)die with some (1)grace

If in the key of G major it would look like this.

(G)I'm old, yes I'm old and I (D)found out to(G)day
My (C)tired old frame just (G)gets in the (D)way
So I (C)guess I'll move on and try to (G)find me some (Em)place
Where a (G)man can grow older and (D)die with some (G)grace

Of course, this doesn't tell you how I actually play or sing this melody. It merely offers you the basic idea behind where I went with it. Maybe some songs are better left to interpretation.

Reg

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: GUEST,Jim
Date: 05 Jun 07 - 02:13 PM

Sorry, but I didn't read the whole thread, so I may repeat a few.

When You and I Were Young Maggie

Aged Like Wine (Todd Snider)

Class Reunion (Mark Rust)

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: GUEST,meself
Date: 05 Jun 07 - 02:50 PM

Days of '49.

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: KB in Iowa
Date: 05 Jun 07 - 03:03 PM

"Arthritis Blues" by Ramblin' Jack Elliott (on the CD 'I Stand Alone')

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: Ebbie
Date: 05 Jun 07 - 03:19 PM

Reggie Miles, those are great words and insightful sentiment. I think of the fella speaking as being an amalgamation of us all. I can only hope that we wake up before we reach the end.

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: GUEST,meself
Date: 05 Jun 07 - 04:34 PM

Strong song, Reggie. Strikes me as an updated "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime".

Anyone mention "Now I'm Easy", Eric Bogle?

Then there's The Ash Grove - at least the lyrics I learned as a kid.

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: GUEST,john f weldon
Date: 05 Jun 07 - 05:08 PM

Previously mentioned I believe...
My Old Man was a Good Old man (from a Fiddler's Green CD)
...I find it too depressing to listen to.

Perkier, same theme...

VACATION AND NAP

I was workin my ass off the other day
Doin my job to get my pay
The boss comes by and he says to me
You look forty seven, maybe fifty three
You got no volts, and not much wattage
You're gettin on son, hittin your dottage
I'm not gonna sling you a line of crap
You need a short vacation and a nice long nap

Subject: Lyr Add: FREEWHEELING (parody)
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 05 Jun 07 - 09:14 PM

Here's a parody of the song by Jim Reid which was mentioned way back above called "Freewheeling".
I wrote this parody for the thousands of people who did the Glasgow to Edinburgh charity bike ride last summer, some of whom were definitely "getting older" but doing their best to keep fit! They broke their journey for refreshment in Linlithgow where we provided some musical entertainment. Other parodies included "Ride On" and "O Pedallers of Scotland"(You may need a glossary for a few of the Scots words!)
I'll try to post the original Jim Reid words later.

FREEWHEELING                                
(Based on song by Jim Reid – parody 24.08.06.)

They're getting ower the hill it seems
Tho' their bikes are not all young,
It's half a hunner miles they ride
And they're daein' it – for fun?
But they've another twenty miles tae go
Afore they finish,
They'll get a bowl o' pasta here
Bu ne'er a pint o' Guinness.

Chorus
Freewheeling noo, freewheeling noo,
Gets easier every day,
Just tak' it slow, where'er you go,
Freewheeling doon the brae.

Their bikes are getting muddy noo,
Could do wi' a good wash,
But careful by the Union canal
Or there could be a big splash.
Chorus

There's some folk trim and slim and fit
And ayeways keep their cool,
And others red-faced puff and pant
Havenae ridden a bike since school.
Chorus

The shorts are clingin', oxters mingen,
And someone's feet are smelly,
But me, I think I'd raither be
Back hame beside the telly.
Chorus

So tuck in tae the scran that's here
You're certain tae gae faster
While some might cry it rocket fuel,
I think it's only pasta.
Chorus

But jokes apart, we do admire
Brave lads and lassies who ride,
I ken you'll look back on this day
And remember us with pride.
Chorus x 2
TB

Subject: Lyr Add: TWO-HUNDRED YEAR OLD ALCOHOLIC (L Clancy)
From: Scorpio
Date: 06 Jun 07 - 05:16 AM

Just for the record:

THE TWO-HUNDRED YEAR OLD ALCOHOLIC
Liam Clancy

When I was eighty I started smoking
Took to drinking at eighty-five
At ninety I started courting
Thank God that I was alive
Ninety-five saw me in business
Determined to rake in a pile
At a hundred I made my first million
And I started living in style

Chorus:
Oh, it's never too late to start living
To get out and have some fun
The sun will be just as shiny in the morning
As the first day the world begun

Well I moved to an uptown penthouse
Used fifties to light my cigars
Developed a taste for fine champagne
Drove fast I-talian cars
But the doctor he give me a warning
And a lecture on right and wrong
If I didn't give up my sinful ways
I couldn't live very long

But I said to him...

Now I'm a two-hundred year old alcoholic
And the nicotine's caught up on me
But worst of all in this morning's mail
Got a suit for paternity
But I'm not really unhappy
'Cause maybe I'll have me a son
And his morning's will be just as shiny
As the first day the world begun


Also Simon & Garf: Bookends

And Leonard Cohen's gem, Tower of Song, which begins with the immortal lines:

My friends are gone
And my hair is grey
I ache in the places
Where I used to play

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: reggie miles
Date: 06 Jun 07 - 10:51 AM

Ebbie, thank you, I think you see this fella just right. It's my hope as well that we might all be able to wake up, before it's too late.

meself, many thanks. I'll have to check out those lyrics in "Brother Can You Spare A Dime?" I wonder if that one is included in the lyric database here. I guess it should be easy enough to search for online.

I've often found it difficult to step forward against the grain of criticism with regard to some of the messages in my songs. Sometimes it seems as though the words write themselves. They insist on being written and then further insist that they be heard, played, and performed. I have little choice but to obey their nagging and taunting. I'm fascinated by this, the way that some song ideas come to me and I don't want to offend the muse by denying or limiting my participation in the process.

Reg

Subject: Lyr Add: AGE LIKE WINE (Todd Snider)
From: GUEST,Jim
Date: 06 Jun 07 - 11:05 AM

Todd Snider's AGE LIKE WINE

Old timer, Old timer
Too late to die young now
Old timer, five and dimer
Trying to find a way to age like wine somehow

My new stuff is nothing like my old stuff was
And neither one is much when compared to the show
Which will not be as good as some other one you saw...
So help me, I know, I know, I know

I am an old timer, old timer
It's too late to die young now
Old timer, five and dimer
Trying to find a way to age like wine somehow

I've met every fool that ever signed
Their picture on these walls
In the backs of these beer joints and concert halls.
I been through seven managers, five labels,
A thousand picks and patch cables,
Three vans, a band, a bunch of guitar stands,
and cans and cans and cans of beer
And bottles of booze and bags of pot
And a thousand other things that I forgot.
I thought that I be dead by now...
But I'm not.

Subject: Lyr Add: LUCILLE (Fred Eaglesmith)
From: GUEST,Jim
Date: 06 Jun 07 - 07:47 PM

Brenda Hazlewood of Port Dover sent this setting of Fred Eaglesmith's Louise to Jason Hammond's web site:

LUCILLE (by Fred Eaglesmith)
C
Lucille was a woman and I was a boy
            F
And it was obvious that she wanted more
       c                                       G
Than a man her age could give her and that was me.
C
I was wild as a summer squall
F
Blowing through town no direction at all
    C                G                C
And I was wilder than even she could believe.


(Chorus)
         F                   C
I had a Cobra Jet 428 in a '65 Ford and it ran great
F                                           C
Take it on out to where the gravel turns to road
F                     C
Take it on up to 110, tires screaming in and out of the bend
                                             G
And Lucille hanging on just as tight as she could.
            F             G                      C
And it was cra...ayyyy...zeee. But it sure was good!


Lucille was 50 and I was 19
And you know it never bothered me
Not even when they called out in the bars.
I'd get tough and I'd bust some heads
Lucille would laugh when the cops got there
We'd sneak out the back and take off in my car.

(Chorus)
I had a Cobra Jet 428 in a '65 Ford and it ran great
Take it on out to where the gravel turns to road
Take it on up to 110, tires screaming in and out of the bend
And Lucille hanging on just as tight as she could.
And it was cra...ayyyy...zeee. But it sure was good!

Last week I turned 45, when I woke up,
Well out in the driveway,
My wife had fixed that old car up for me.
She'd had in the garage for a week or two
When I got it back, it was good as new.
I started it up and I took off down the highway.


BRIDGE (LIKE CHORUS)

   F
I drove on up to Randolph Heights,
            C
There's an old folks' home there past the lights
    F                                    C
And Lucille was sitting out there in the shade.
   F
I wheeled her around to the passenger door
C
I picked her up and put her in that car
                        G             C
And we took off like a dustbowl hurricane.


(Chorus)
         F                   C
In that Cobra Jet 428 in a '65 Ford and it ran great
F                                           C
Took it on out to where the gravel turns to road
F                     C
Took it on up to 110, tires screaming in and out of the bend
                                             G
And Lucille hanging on just as tight as she could.
            F             G                      C    F C
And it was cra...ayyyy...zeee. But it sure was good!
             C    F C
It sure was good...
             C    F    C
It sure was goooo-oooo-ooood.

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: Peace
Date: 30 Sep 07 - 12:38 PM

Refresh

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: Relson
Date: 30 Sep 07 - 04:08 PM

Tom Rush's "The Remember Song"

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: bankley
Date: 30 Sep 07 - 09:12 PM

"The Last Ride" recorded by Hank Snow.... written by Halcomb and Daffen. A superb hobo song.

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: SINSULL
Date: 30 Sep 07 - 09:21 PM

Old and Gray and Only in the Way

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: GUEST,Neil D
Date: 01 Oct 07 - 10:05 AM

Does anyone remember a song by Harry Nilsson with the chorus:
                  I'd rather be dead
                  Than wet my bed
   He actually had the residients of a nursing home singing with him on the chorus.

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: PMB
Date: 01 Oct 07 - 10:10 AM

Banks of the Dee - not really really old I suppose, more sort of my age. But anyone of my age applying for a job has the same problem today:

I am an old miner, aged fifty and six.
If I could get lots, why I'd raffle my picks;
I'd raffle them, I'd sell them, I'd hoy them away,
For I can't get employment, my hair it's turned grey.

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: GUEST,Jim
Date: 01 Oct 07 - 11:32 AM

I didn't read the whole thread, but did anyone mention Mike Smith's The Dutchman?

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: Nick E
Date: 01 Oct 07 - 07:31 PM

I too admit I did not sift the whole thread, but a couple of thoughts.
Warren Zevon's last album, written and recorded while he was in the process of dying may have a few tunes of interest. (Not that he was that old)
Or the obscure tune by J.P Cormier "Another Morning" I had heard the song but did no know the title and posted lyrics on Mudcat and after a week no one had ID'ed it. Now that is obscure, still a beautiful and sad song, a sample of you can here on JP's site (I googled it to find it)

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: GUEST,Jim
Date: 02 Oct 07 - 01:09 PM

Relson,
I've heard a few people sing The Remember Song: "I'm lookin' for my wallet and my car keys...", but none of them credited it to Tom Rush. I'm sure they mentioned another name. I know he sang it, but are you sure that he wrote it.

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: Relson
Date: 02 Oct 07 - 07:53 PM

My mistake, you are correct, Tom Rush sings it but it was written by Steve Walters. My apologies! My memory is not what it used to be!

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: Melissa
Date: 02 Oct 07 - 10:06 PM

There's one about a guy who gets older and crickled up..but insists on working himself hard to tend his crop. I think the name is "the corn will still grow"
It was on one of those sites where you click to hear the songs and might still be found by running a search for the title.

The line I remember was something like "rest easy, dear farmer, and don't shed a tear..the corn will still grow when you're gone"

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: GUEST
Date: 02 Oct 07 - 11:04 PM

OLD AND IN THE WAY.....jerry garcia

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: GUEST,PMB
Date: 03 Oct 07 - 04:53 AM

All Used Up by U. Utah Philips:

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

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: GUEST,Mike B.
Date: 03 Oct 07 - 06:49 PM

"Wearing The Time" (Tom Paxton)

I think he also wrote a humorous one about the painful experience of finding an issue of Modern Maturity magazine in his mailbox.

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: GUEST,Neil
Date: 04 Oct 07 - 07:04 PM

Patches (George Jones)

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego
Date: 05 Oct 07 - 01:40 PM

What was the song by George Jones that had a verse approximately thus:

"She was hotter than a two-dollar pistol,
She was the fastest thing around.
Long and lean, every young man's dream,
She turned every head in town.
She was hot, and fun to handle son,
I'm glad that you dropped in -
She reminds me of the one I loved back then!"

It begins when the young man drives his hot new car into a service station. When the old man begins the song, it seems he is singing about a long ago car he had - an obvious metaphor for something he valued much more, flaming youth long past.

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: Susan B
Date: 05 Oct 07 - 07:05 PM

And there was that sentimental song that the Oldham Tinkers did, I think. The chorus went something like this:-

Take your time, me lovely old man,
There's no need for to hurry
For as long as you're able to wind up me clock
Then I have no need for to worry.

Can't think what that was all about?

Susan B

Subject: Lyr Add: SLIPPERS (Bernie Martin)
From: GUEST,Jim
Date: 24 Oct 07 - 10:51 AM

Slippers by Bernie Martin

I bet when you were younger you were handsome,
I bet you had a way with all the girls,
Bet you used to stay up after midnight
Planning how you'd conquer the whole world.

Now you go to sleep soon after supper;
Seems the world has done some conquering of its own.
What happened to those girls you often wonder
As you sit there watching TV all alone.

You say tomorrow I will get myself together,
Just knowing that tomorrow never comes.
You'd like to go out walking after midnight,
But it's dark out there and cold; you'd best stay home.

I bet when you were younger you were handsome,
Bet you had a way with all the girls,
Bet you used to stay up after midnight
Planning how you'd conquer the whole world.

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: Joe_F
Date: 24 Oct 07 - 08:33 PM

Cyril Tawney's "In the sidings"

Subject: RE: Songs about getting really old?
From: reggie miles
Date: 26 Apr 23 - 11:55 PM

Here's a link to an audio recording of I'm Old

Subject: These Are The Days
From: Holly Tannen
Date: 28 Apr 23 - 12:29 AM

THESE ARE THE DAYS
Tune: Those Were The Days. (I had to rewrite it because the line "we'd live the life we choose" was making me crazy.)

After two years closed due to Covid, Lark Music Camp is happening in the Mendocino Woodlands again this year! (July 28-August 5th) But will it be the same?

Once upon a time we’d go to Lark Camp
Hugging all the old friends that we knew
Drinking chai and coffee at the Mullah’s *
Boasting of the great things we would do.
        
        Those were the days, my friend
        We thought they'd never end
        We'd sing and dance forever and a day
        We'd live the life we chose
        And wear our hippie clothes
        Those were the days, oh yes, those were the days.

All those Irish tunes with pipes and fiddles
All the jokes that now we can’t recall
Playing our accordions and banjos
Singing with the Brunos and John Paul.
        
        Those were the days, my friend
        We thought they'd never end
        We'd eat and drink forever and a day
        We'd play the tunes we knew
        And sing a song or two
        For we were young and we knew how to play.

At the Woodlands there’s familiar laughter
Saw your face and heard you call my name
Many friends have gone to the hereafter
But the joyful music’s still the same.

        These are the days, my friend
        We hope they'll never end
        We won’t give up our happy hippie ways   
        Our kids will carry on
        When all of us are gone
        These are the days, oh yes these are the days.


*The Coffeehouse of the Mullah Nasrudin's Donkey