xp agree with those thoughts Lily Dale. Another way to put the distinction is that Springsteen is actually convincing about it where some of the examples upthread end up sounding naïve and ironically childish. Like with the Neil Young examples, it's kind of an endearing quirk of Neil's that he always feels like his best days are behind him. Whereas Bruce sells it that for these song characters, their best days actually are behind them
― Lavator Shemmelpennick, Monday, 27 September 2021 21:35 (two years ago) link
or yeah that it's a deeper more existential feeling anyway
― Lavator Shemmelpennick, Monday, 27 September 2021 21:36 (two years ago) link
Not sure if the Incredible String Band's "Way Back in the 1960s" qualifies. Robin Williamson was 23 when he wrote it but it's set in the future - in fact he says he's 91 in it, which places it around 2034!
― Are You Still in Love With Me, Klas-Göran? (Tom D.), Monday, 27 September 2021 21:39 (two years ago) link
shook ones
― Vapor waif (uptown churl), Monday, 27 September 2021 21:45 (two years ago) link
Bob Dylan is an interesting one; he's sort of ageless when he's in his twenties, but then when he hits his mid-fifties, with Time Out of Mind, he seems to fast-forward to old age and stay there.
― Lily Dale, Monday, 27 September 2021 21:51 (two years ago) link
Different thing, but I've always loved that Bob Seger released an album called Back in '72 in January 1973.
― ... (Eazy), Monday, 27 September 2021 22:23 (two years ago) link
Feel like John Fogerty must have written one of these.I feel like “Lodi” fits, even though there’s no mention of age or aging.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Monday, 27 September 2021 22:54 (two years ago) link
adele "when we were young"
― dyl, Monday, 27 September 2021 23:26 (two years ago) link
First thing I rememberWas asking Papa, "Why?"For there were many things I didn't knowAnd Daddy always smiledTook me by the handSaying, "Someday you'll understand"
Well, I'm here to tell you now each and every mother's sonYou better learn it fast, you better learn it young'Cause someday never comes
John Fogerty, age 28
― ... (Eazy), Monday, 27 September 2021 23:26 (two years ago) link
I missed a better thread title, also from "Sugar Mountain": Leavin' There Too Soon.
Rod Stewart's "Gasoline Alley"--Stewart was 25--may belong. And "Help" is another obvious Beatles example ("When I was younger, so much younger than today").
― clemenza, Tuesday, 28 September 2021 00:41 (two years ago) link
MGMT: "Kids" (written in college, IIRC)
― Precious, Grace, Hill & Beard LTD. (C. Grisso/McCain), Tuesday, 28 September 2021 00:58 (two years ago) link
Pulp: "Help The Aged" (although Cocker was in his mid-30s when he wrote it)
― Precious, Grace, Hill & Beard LTD. (C. Grisso/McCain), Tuesday, 28 September 2021 01:04 (two years ago) link
The Cure fits this thread. Robert Smith was 22 when "Primary" came out. "Further we go / And older we grow / The more we know / The less we show"
I've also read that much of the <i>Disintegration</i> album was written in response to turning 30.
― Ex Slacker, Tuesday, 28 September 2021 02:08 (two years ago) link
Would Taylor Swift's "Fifteen" fit in here, in that she's writing (at 18) in the voice of someone old enough to look back on 15 as the distant past?
― Lily Dale, Tuesday, 28 September 2021 02:20 (two years ago) link
i feel like songs in this category must get quoted a lot in high school yearbooks.
― I Am Fribbulus (Xax) (Doctor Casino), Tuesday, 28 September 2021 03:27 (two years ago) link
^^Speaking of..."Truckin'"!
― Precious, Grace, Hill & Beard LTD. (C. Grisso/McCain), Tuesday, 28 September 2021 03:31 (two years ago) link
(xpost) I quoted "Cortez the Killer" in mine, and that kind of fits.
― clemenza, Tuesday, 28 September 2021 03:34 (two years ago) link
Kate Bush wrote “wuthering heights” when she was 18. Overall lyrics, music style and the fact that it’s based on a book from 1847 would have made me think Kate Bush was an old lady if I didn’t know better.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Tuesday, 28 September 2021 03:44 (two years ago) link
Jackson C Frank wrote the album “blues run the game” when he was 22 and they don’t sound like the edgy musings of a young adult, he sounds and sings like he’s sincerely as burned out and depressed as idk Johnny Cash in his later years.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Tuesday, 28 September 2021 03:54 (two years ago) link
I always thought he was at least in his 50’s
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Tuesday, 28 September 2021 03:55 (two years ago) link
I’m not sure what timeframe Morrissey had in mind when we wrote, aged 25 or so, about fans moving on from the songs that made them them laugh and cry, but Rubber Ring always struck me as far-sighted.
― Alba, Tuesday, 28 September 2021 05:57 (two years ago) link
Lukas Graham "7 Years"
― Siegbran, Tuesday, 28 September 2021 06:57 (two years ago) link
The Beach Boys "'Til I Die", by 27 year old Brian Wilson
― Lee626, Tuesday, 28 September 2021 09:16 (two years ago) link
The Cure fits this thread. Robert Smith was 22...
Pretty sure he was 18 when he wrote "I want to be old":
I want false teethAnd not be able to chewI want to be senileA centenarian fool
I want to have lots of wrinklesWant my hearing to go
― Extinct Namibian shrub genus: Var. (Ye Mad Puffin), Tuesday, 28 September 2021 10:09 (two years ago) link
(xpost) Wilson was 24 when he wrote "I Just Wasn't Made for These Times"--I don't think he mentions age specifically, but definitely fits the old-before-your-time mood spiritually/emotionally.
― clemenza, Tuesday, 28 September 2021 17:48 (two years ago) link
maybe gram parsons, "return of the grievous angel"? i guess it depends on how you interpret "Twenty thousand roads I went down, down, down", but he was still in his early 20s when he wrote that. need factchecking on how many roads GP went down down down before dying
― typo hell #5: maybe you get an idea of what went into, or (Karl Malone), Tuesday, 28 September 2021 18:14 (two years ago) link
While you're at it, we want to know precisely how many faces were seen, and subsequently rocked by, Jon Bon Jovi.
― Extinct Namibian shrub genus: Var. (Ye Mad Puffin), Tuesday, 28 September 2021 18:21 (two years ago) link
Another one Robert Smith wrote when he was 24 or 25 is "Sinking".
I am slowing downAs the years go byI am sinking
― LeRooLeRoo, Tuesday, 28 September 2021 18:26 (two years ago) link
Not sure he wrote the lyrics for that song?
― Are You Still in Love With Me, Klas-Göran? (Tom D.), Tuesday, 28 September 2021 18:29 (two years ago) link
oh shoot, is that right? i really don't much at all about his songwriting practices, partners/collaborators, etc, so i'm sure you're right
― typo hell #5: maybe you get an idea of what went into, or (Karl Malone), Tuesday, 28 September 2021 18:32 (two years ago) link
don't ^know^ much at all
― typo hell #6: i really don't much at all (Karl Malone), Tuesday, 28 September 2021 18:32 (two years ago) link
"Wish that I knew what I know now / when I was younger" - Faces, all 27-28 at the time
― ... (Eazy), Tuesday, 28 September 2021 18:34 (two years ago) link
That kind of thinking sets in pretty young in a lot of people, doesn't it? I remember regretting the decisions of my school and college years quite soon afterwards.
― Alba, Tuesday, 28 September 2021 18:47 (two years ago) link
tbh quite a lot of stuff in this thread sounds like the words of youth.
― Alba, Tuesday, 28 September 2021 18:48 (two years ago) link
I can't remember the band, but I friend saw an early 90s reunion of a first gen hardcore band where the thirtysomething singer hobbled his way on stage with a walker. And when I started my own thirtysomething punk band in the wake of 9/11, we certainly felt oooooold. Double Negative had the right idea to just ignore that shit and rip.
― Citole Country (bendy), Tuesday, 28 September 2021 19:01 (two years ago) link
Rush - I Think I'm Going Bald and Lakeside Park, both written by Neil Peart in his early 20s.
― a down-on-his-luck gastromancer enters (Matt #2), Tuesday, 28 September 2021 19:39 (two years ago) link
I recall someone saying this about a song by Throwing Muses from the first album because they were only 16 or something, don't remember which song but all that album is stunning
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Tuesday, 28 September 2021 19:44 (two years ago) link
Ian Anderson, 29 y.o. when Jethro Tull released to album Too Old to Rock & Roll, Too Young to Die
― Hideous Lump, Tuesday, 28 September 2021 19:48 (two years ago) link
The Tull album is explicitly about the character of Ray Lomas, aging rocker (in the mods vs. rockers sense).
I wonder if there's a distinction between songs where:- young people feel nostalgic for their childhood (which, for them, is not actually that long before)- young people empathize with or imagine being "actually" old people
― Halfway there but for you, Tuesday, 28 September 2021 20:38 (two years ago) link
I've also read that much of the Disintegration album was written in response to turning 30.― Ex Slacker, Monday, September 27, 2021 7:08 PM
― Ex Slacker, Monday, September 27, 2021 7:08 PM
and bloodflowers upon turning 40. he was seemingly born with bittersweet nostalgia hardwired into his heart.
i think roddy frame from aztec camera and archy marshall from king krule both seem worth a mention here. i can't think of any songs specifically mentioning age because they're both overbearing blowhard poetic types -the type which i can't seem to get enough of- but things like "knife" (the song) and "rock bottom" feel relevant.
― things repeat forever and there never is a remedy (Austin), Wednesday, 29 September 2021 00:41 (two years ago) link
- young people feel nostalgic for their childhood (which, for them, is not actually that long before)- young people empathize with or imagine being "actually" old people
The first few songs I listed are a mix of the two, so--without really thinking about it--I guess I had both meanings in mind.
― clemenza, Wednesday, 29 September 2021 01:02 (two years ago) link
"Time and time again see I be thinking about that future" - Andre 3000, 19, on the opening line of Outkast's debut album.
― The Color and The Shape (Taylor's Version) (Adept), Wednesday, 29 September 2021 11:37 (two years ago) link
Balcony Beach by Latyrx. Lyrics Born was 25 when rapping about how his hair is falling out and new information can be a challenge for him to comprehend.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfX62bK1Ufc
― peace, man, Wednesday, 29 September 2021 12:20 (two years ago) link
The Cure song "I Want to Be Old" is definitely presented as irony.
Some of these sound like a singer-songwriter trying to inhabit a persona ("Angel from Montgomery"), or empathize with the old (like "Hello in There").
I think the spirit of the original post might be "sounding old before your time."
Another category ("Darling Be Home Soon") might be "people who think they're old but really aren't."
― Extinct Namibian shrub genus: Var. (Ye Mad Puffin), Wednesday, 29 September 2021 12:58 (two years ago) link
"Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground" was recorded by Blind Willie Johnson at the age of 30, but he sounds at least 130
― edited to reflect developments which occurred (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Wednesday, 29 September 2021 13:01 (two years ago) link
Snail Mail has this vibe, but strong.
― yeah but how, Wednesday, 29 September 2021 14:39 (two years ago) link
Balcony Beach by Latyrx. Lyrics Born was 25 when rapping about how his hair is falling out and new information can be a challenge for him to comprehend.
This just came up on a playlist and I immediately thought of this thread. Came here to post this. Great song.
― beard papa, Wednesday, 29 September 2021 19:27 (two years ago) link
"The Circle Game" ("We're captive on the carousel of time"--Joni Mitchell, 24
came here to post this one, and it's in clemenza's OP! one tiny amendment: although her version came out on 1970's Ladies of the Canyon, she was performing it as early as 1966, at age 22. the 1970 recording is lovely, and a great capper to the album, but it almost makes more sense as a wistful mid-60s folkie meditation on childhood and growing up, than as a statement on countercultural coming-of-age. that is, as far as micro-genres of this type of lyric are concerned, i'd slot it alongside "Puff, the Magic Dragon," which Peter Yarrow seems to have written/adapted while a college student in the late 50s.
― I Am Fribbulus (Xax) (Doctor Casino), Friday, 7 January 2022 16:37 (two years ago) link
she was performing it as early as 1966
...and she wrote it as a reply to "Sugar Mountain" (which gave this thread its title) before either had been recorded. I wonder if she saw a certain extra nostalgia in recording the song four years after it was written; I've read interviews where she has been dismissive of the lyrics compared to what she saw as more sophisticated later work.
― Halfway there but for you, Saturday, 8 January 2022 14:26 (two years ago) link
Joni OTM. Paul Simon also tends to dismiss early work as juvenilia. I love both artists inordinately but am not eager to hear "Circle Game" or "Dangling Conversation" again any time soon.
― nonsensei (Ye Mad Puffin), Saturday, 8 January 2022 18:59 (two years ago) link