Lyr Req: Long, Long Time to Get Old (Ian & Sylvia)

Subject: Lyr Req: Long, Long Time to Get Old
From: Jeremiah McCaw
Date: 22 Oct 03 - 03:28 AM

Au secours, mes amis!

I've tried. The DT. Google, Alta Vista, alla them things. No luck.

I'm looking for the lyrics to an Ian Tyson song called "Long, Long Time to Get Old", recorded by Ian & Sylvia on the "Great Speckled Bird" album. There be lotsa discography references, but that's all.

I recall the 1st verse:

Eagle's flyin' tomorrow; mosquito bitin' me today
Ride the bus to Toronto; Highway 2 all the way
Take a walk along Yonge Street; good times bought and sold
Remember this, children, if the good Lord's willin', there's a Long, Long Time to Get Old

Can't recall the rest. Help? (chords would be convenient, but the rest of the lyrics are what I need.

Pretty please and thanks . . .

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Long, Long Time to Get Old
From: Beer
Date: 22 Oct 03 - 10:08 PM

I don't have and answer for you, but your getting to the bottom without one and that's not fair. So back to the top you go.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Long, Long Time to Get Old
From: Jeremiah McCaw
Date: 23 Oct 03 - 06:53 PM

Very kind of you, Beer. Thank you manymuch for the thought.

It's hard to believe there's been no response at all. Song can't have become that obscure, can it?

(Once more, in a small whimpering voice): Pretty pleae?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Long, Long Time to Get Old
From: GUEST,Dale
Date: 23 Oct 03 - 07:02 PM

That is the one I & S recording that I never managed to get. Not currently available the last I checked. I know that's no help, but it is a difficult project because of the relative scarcity of copies. Maybe someone who has it will dig it out.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Long, Long Time to Get Old
From: Joe Offer
Date: 23 Oct 03 - 07:56 PM

Well....the database says I have a copy of this song, on the Stony Plain 20-year anniversary compilation. I never know where to file ocmpilations, so they get lost. I just spent tewenty minutes looking for it. If nobody posts the song in a few days, bug me - and I'll find the @##$%$ CD.
-Joe Offer, poor housekeeper-

This page says that Toronto's Yonge Street, 1500 km long, is the world's longest street. See? Don't you learn valuable things at Mudcat?? This page is even more interesting.

Subject: RE: Req: Long, Long Time to Get Old (Ian&Sylvia)
From: RWilhelm
Date: 23 Oct 03 - 11:58 PM

Also one of the worlds coolest streets.

Subject: RE: Req: Long, Long Time to Get Old (Ian&Sylvia)
From: Cluin
Date: 24 Oct 03 - 12:10 AM

I gave my dad that CD for Xmas a couple of years ago. I'll try and borrow it after the weekend and see if I can't get the lyrics from it.

Subject: RE: Req: Long, Long Time to Get Old (Ian&Sylvia)
From: Jeremiah McCaw
Date: 24 Oct 03 - 03:56 AM

Bless you all. Looking forward, I am . . .

Subject: Lyr Add: LONG LONG TIME TO GET OLD (Ian & Sylvia)
From: Cluin
Date: 26 Oct 03 - 06:54 PM

Well, here's what I hear... not 100% sure about parts of the 2nd verse, though. Good song. Nice groove to it. They really were up there with Gram Parsons and The Stone Ponies and New Riders of the Purple Sage (and later, Poco and The Eagles) with that Country-Rock sound thing. Too bad the album didn't do well for them.

LONG LONG TIME TO GET OLD
by Ian Tyson 1969

The eagle's flyin' tomorrow
Mosquito bitin' me today
I ride the bus to Toronto
Highway Two, all the way
I take a walk along Yonge Street
Good times are bought and sold
Remember this, children
If the good Lord's willin'
There's a long, long time to get old

(Uh huh)

I aim to bike to the hometown
My liquor store burned down
My old girlfriend a-ridin'
Way on the east end of town
I heard the laughter when she passed me
Then I knew I'd been told
She said remember this, children
If the good Lord's willin'
There's a long, long time to get old

Been through some lean times, mama
I watched a fat friend go
Seen a wreck on this highway
Oh, you be drivin' home slow
So, lay some truth on you, young ones
Give 'em something to hold
Because remember this, children
If the good Lord's willin'
There's a long, long time to get old

(Well all right...)

(Break)

Well, she sings you a story
You can tell her song
Layin' down by the river
Oh, summer slippin' along
With her eyes closed dreamin'
Sun shines some bold
Remember this, children
If the good Lord's willin'
There's a long, long time to get old

(Repeat 1st verse)

Remember this, children
If the good Lord's willin'
There's a long, long time to get old

Subject: RE: Req: Long, Long Time to Get Old (Ian&Sylvia)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 26 Oct 03 - 10:26 PM

Thanks, Cluin. Now I can stop looking for the CD.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: Chords Add: LONG LONG TIME TO GET OLD (Ian&Sylvia)
From: Jeremiah McCaw
Date: 26 Oct 03 - 10:57 PM

Likewise, thankyoumanymuch. Now i can stop tearing my hair out; not an easy task when you sport a buzz cut!

And I believe the following chord pattern will get you by:

Eagle's flyin' to-[C]morrow; mosquito bitin' me to-[Am]day
Ride the bus to To-[C]ronto; Highway Two all the [Am] way
Take a walk along [F] Yonge Street; good times bought and [G]sold
Re-[C]member this, children, if the good [G] Lord's willin',
there's a [F] Long, Long Time to Get [C]Old

And here endeth the quest!

Subject: RE: Req: Long, Long Time to Get Old (Ian&Sylvia)
From: Willie-O
Date: 26 Oct 03 - 11:07 PM

Seems to me this was the theme song for Ian Tyson's TV show--a music and variety show, natch-- that he did in the early 70's, first with and then without Sylvia. I admire Tyson a lot, but he never seemed quite in the groove in that television camera. (Although the show did well, running five years). I think it wasn't a great time in his life...post I & S, before he really found inspiration in his roots again with Cowboyography and all that followed.

If you do a Google on "The Ian Tyson Show" you will find a fair amount of info on that part of his career. Only thing I didn't find is the lyrics to Long Long Time To Get Old...I reckon Cluin's got most of em, but some a them lines don't quite scan...

W-O

Subject: RE: Req: Long, Long Time to Get Old (Ian&Sylvia)
From: Cluin
Date: 27 Oct 03 - 11:39 AM

You got that right, Willie-O. Liner notes say that the opening percussion bit to this song did become Ian's theme music to his show. I barely remember it... strange, since I grew up with Ian & Sylvia and Lightfoot albums as the soundtrack at home (Great Speckled Bird was the only Ian & Sylvia album we didn't have) and my parents used to do a pretty fair pastiche of I&S's harmonies together.

As far as the lines not scanning... I agree they don't, as read, but Ian's timing was a bit idiosyncratic on the song. He also slurred through some bits, which made it hard to understand clearly. And unfortunately, the lyrics weren't in his biography, I Never Sold My Saddle, either.

Another bit of Ian Tyson trivia... David Wilcox (the Canadian blues singer/guitarist, not the American acoustic guitar wizard) was a member of the band, The Great Speckled Bird, but not for the album.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Long, Long Time to Get Old (Ian & Sylvia)
From: GUEST,kate kennedy butler
Date: 19 Apr 04 - 11:17 PM

Don't give up on finding Great Speckled Bird - it's worth searching for. 'We Sail' gives me goosebumps every time I listen to it. It's such a cult classic that someday, someone will reissue it.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Long, Long Time to Get Old (Ian & Sylvia)
From: GUEST,Spencer
Date: 29 Jul 10 - 10:40 AM

>>Sun shines some bold

Some shy, some bold... my $.02

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Long, Long Time to Get Old (Ian & Sylvia)
From: Willie-O
Date: 29 Jul 10 - 05:20 PM

Somebody stop me before I blow another evening looking up Ian Tyson clips on YouTube...please...

...well, there are worse ways to spend an evening...

W-O

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Long, Long Time to Get Old (Ian & Sylvia)
From: GUEST,DWR
Date: 29 Jul 10 - 07:15 PM

The album is pretty commonly available at the moment. I got mine from Amazon a couple of years ago. Do look out if you go there. They have two versions available. One is $25 or so, the other is half that.

I think it is the expensive one though that has sound samples.

Dale (who lamented not having one back in 03)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Long, Long Time to Get Old (Ian & Sylvia)
From: GUEST,gib sosman
Date: 29 Apr 20 - 10:52 PM

I believe it's an old Grandpa Jones song. Mike Seeger has it on his solo album "Mike Seeger".

Lyrics:
Verse
1
When you get old and feeble
and you can't hardly get around,
you'll have to get two walking sticks
to hobble up to town;

You can hear your kinfolks saying
and they're whispering all around:
"Old Grandpa would be better off
If he's six feet under the ground."

Chorus:

We live a long, long time to get old
We live a long, long time to get old,
So there ain't no need to cry,
Old Grandpa's gonna die,
We live a long, long time to get old.

Verse 2

When you were a young man,
you used to jump and hop
Now each time you move around
You start to creak and pop
You can hear your kinfolks talkin'
And they're waiting for the day
When they can throw your walking stick
and walking cane away.

Chorus:
We live a long, long time to get old
We live a long, long time to get old,
So there ain't no need to cry,
Old Grandpa's gonna die,
We live a long, long time to get old.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Long, Long Time to Get Old (Ian & Sylvia)
From: GUEST,Starship
Date: 30 Apr 20 - 03:34 PM

Here's The Great Speckled Bird doing the song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCMZIA5dK4c&list=RDeCMZIA5dK4c&start_radio=1&t=10