(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
Paul Simon did that early on the sleeve notes of his "Songbook" album
― Mark G, Sunday, 9 January 2022 17:44 (two years ago) link
I see Richard Thompson has been mentioned upthread - excellent choice. Meet on the Ledge also fits, and was written when he was just 19. Interesting how a fair few artists mentioned in this thread are folk singers - maybe knoweldge of all those centuries-old songs put their own mortality in perspective.
― vexingvexillologist, Tuesday, 11 January 2022 18:10 (two years ago) link
Recently discovered this one on an Oldies show: "The Old Crowd" sung by the then-17 year-old Lesley Gore (not sure who wrote it)
[Intro]Sometimes I get to thinkin' 'bout days gone byAnd I start cryin' every timeWhat I wouldn't give if I could just reliveOne day with those old friends of mine[Verse 1]No one ever planned it, but every day at fourWe would get together at the corner candy storeWe would just ignore the sign, "No dancing allowed"Oh wo yeah, how I miss the old crowd[Verse 2]Sally was the funny one, Sue wore the hippest clothesEddie was the wise guy, was always one of thoseJohnny used to sing off-key, but boy he was loudOh woah yeah, how I miss the old crowd[Bridge]Well now, it is funny when high school are throughFriendships always come to an endEverybody tells you they'll keep in touch, yeahBut you don't see them again[Verse 3]Oh no, It's not that I'm unhappy; I know I still have youBut I still think about those good times we knewWe were so carefree, our hearts were on cloudOh woah yeah, I miss the old crowd[Outro]Oh, how I miss the old crowdYeah, how I miss the old crowd
[Verse 1]No one ever planned it, but every day at fourWe would get together at the corner candy storeWe would just ignore the sign, "No dancing allowed"Oh wo yeah, how I miss the old crowd
[Verse 2]Sally was the funny one, Sue wore the hippest clothesEddie was the wise guy, was always one of thoseJohnny used to sing off-key, but boy he was loudOh woah yeah, how I miss the old crowd
[Bridge]Well now, it is funny when high school are throughFriendships always come to an endEverybody tells you they'll keep in touch, yeahBut you don't see them again
[Verse 3]Oh no, It's not that I'm unhappy; I know I still have youBut I still think about those good times we knewWe were so carefree, our hearts were on cloudOh woah yeah, I miss the old crowd
[Outro]Oh, how I miss the old crowdYeah, how I miss the old crowd
― an icon of a worried-looking, long-haired, bespectacled man (C. Grisso/McCain), Monday, 19 February 2024 16:28 (two months ago) link
I'm 26 and would greatly enjoy more songs by youngsters about how their lives have been relatively, disappointingly static for about fifteen years or so
― you can see me from westbury white horse, Monday, 19 February 2024 16:29 (two months ago) link
Self-XP Wiki says "The Old Crowd" was written by Goffin/King! Which totally makes sense because it really feels like the musings of a married with children couple in their early 20s.
― an icon of a worried-looking, long-haired, bespectacled man (C. Grisso/McCain), Monday, 19 February 2024 16:36 (two months ago) link
The Carpenters were 26 and 23 when they released the super-nostalgic "Yesterday Once More"
― Josefa, Monday, 19 February 2024 16:42 (two months ago) link
"The Class of '57" by the Statler Bros. (Released in 1972)
Tommy's selling used carsNancy's fixing hairHarvey runs a grocery storeAnd Margaret doesn't careJerry drives a truck for SearsAnd Charlotte's on the makeAnd Paul sells life insuranceAnd part-time real estateHelen is a hostessFrank works at the millJenett teaches grade schoolAnd probably always willBob works for the cityAnd Jack's in lab researchAnd Peggy plays organ at the Presbyterian ChurchAnd the class of '57 had its dreamsWe all thought we'd change the world with our great works and deedsOr maybe we just thought the world would change to fit our needsThe class of '57 had its dreamsBetty runs a trailer parkJan sells TupperwareRandy's on an insane warAnd Mary's on welfareCharlie took a job with FordAnd Joe took Freddie's wifeCharlotte took a millionaireAnd Freddie took his lifeJohn is big in cattleRay is deep in debtWhere Mavis finally wound up is anybody's betLinda married SonnyBrenda married meAnd the class of all of us is just part of historyAnd the class of '57 had its dreamsBut living life, day and day, is never like it seemsThings get complicated when you get past eighteenBut the class of '57 had its dreamsOh, the class of '57 had its dreams
Jerry drives a truck for SearsAnd Charlotte's on the makeAnd Paul sells life insuranceAnd part-time real estate
Helen is a hostessFrank works at the millJenett teaches grade schoolAnd probably always will
Bob works for the cityAnd Jack's in lab researchAnd Peggy plays organ at the Presbyterian Church
And the class of '57 had its dreamsWe all thought we'd change the world with our great works and deedsOr maybe we just thought the world would change to fit our needsThe class of '57 had its dreams
Betty runs a trailer parkJan sells TupperwareRandy's on an insane warAnd Mary's on welfare
Charlie took a job with FordAnd Joe took Freddie's wifeCharlotte took a millionaireAnd Freddie took his life
John is big in cattleRay is deep in debtWhere Mavis finally wound up is anybody's bet
Linda married SonnyBrenda married meAnd the class of all of us is just part of history
And the class of '57 had its dreamsBut living life, day and day, is never like it seemsThings get complicated when you get past eighteenBut the class of '57 had its dreams
Oh, the class of '57 had its dreams
― an icon of a worried-looking, long-haired, bespectacled man (C. Grisso/McCain), Monday, 19 February 2024 16:54 (two months ago) link
I'd say the Carpenters one is the American Graffiti-type situation in which in 1973 America, ten years ago seemed liked ages ago.
― Josefa, Monday, 19 February 2024 17:10 (two months ago) link
"In My Life" (John Lennon, 25...not a personal favourite, but obviously it fits)
there are a lot of 80s Madness songs that have this melancholy ruminative focus on childhood memories from the perspective of early-mid 20 somethings, but possibly this is a distinct thing from the old before your time type songs, ruminating on your childhood is maybe a typical early 20 something thing to do?
Madness were only young when they started having hits, late teens to early 20s, only a few years older than the kids buying their records, and this was obviously part of their appeal, that they were peers of their young fans, but even from the start there's this sense of people looking back at the youth they've just left behind, even if only recently
Their last album before they broke up (Mad Not Mad from 1985) has lots of lyrics about ageing and weariness, I think that's to do with the band coming to an end and tiredness of being on the record/promote/tour carousel non stop for several years, which is maybe why a lot of young pop stars end up writing these kind of songs.
― soref, Monday, 19 February 2024 17:23 (two months ago) link
Mood-wise, not even remotely the same thing, but Ian MacKaye was 23 when Minor Threat put out "Salad Days" (their last single, I think). In his world, 23 actually was old.
― clemenza, Monday, 19 February 2024 18:05 (two months ago) link
I think people in their mid-20s are often more nostalgic for childhood/teen years than older folks
― Beyond Goo and Evol (President Keyes), Monday, 19 February 2024 18:11 (two months ago) link
Miley Cyrus had a god awful single last year called Used To Be Young. She was 30 at the time on release. Absolute pensioner.
― a hoy hoy, Monday, 19 February 2024 18:18 (two months ago) link
I don't know if this counts but I think Leonard Cohen wrote "Tonight Will Be Fine" (my favorite Leonard Cohen song) in about 1968. When he was maybe 32 or 34?
It begins "sometimes I find I get to thinking of the past."
― fleetwood macrame (Ye Mad Puffin), Monday, 19 February 2024 18:31 (two months ago) link
in 1973 America, ten years ago seemed liked ages ago
The Beach Boys reminisced about the days of rock and roll in "Do You Remember", released in 1964!
― Kim Kimberly, Monday, 19 February 2024 18:35 (two months ago) link
Ray Davies had this market cornered.― Are You Still in Love With Me, Klas-Göran? (Tom D.), Monday, 27 September 2021 15:16 (two years ago) bookmarkflaglink
― Are You Still in Love With Me, Klas-Göran? (Tom D.), Monday, 27 September 2021 15:16 (two years ago) bookmarkflaglink
Bears repeating. Just one example, "Where Have All the Good Times Gone" was written when he was 21.
― The British Boy of Film Classification (Tom D.), Monday, 19 February 2024 18:41 (two months ago) link
As the man himself said:
"We'd been rehearsing 'Where Have All the Good Times Gone' and our tour manager at the time, who was a lot older than us, said, 'That's a song a 40-year-old would write'."
― The British Boy of Film Classification (Tom D.), Monday, 19 February 2024 18:42 (two months ago) link
Apparently, once a single left the charts it was impossible to find it. So when the Oldies But Goodies LPs came out in the early 1960s they were recapturing something that had been very ephemeral, if only two or three years old. Pop culture moved so fast in part because stuff disappeared from radio and theaters and shops quickly. No matter how poptimist we’d like to be I don’t think we can internalize that sentimentalism. Play it again Sam, etc.
― bendy, Monday, 19 February 2024 18:47 (two months ago) link
True story: On New Year's Eve of maybe 1990 I was on the roof of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts with some friends.
Someone started singing "Still Crazy After All These Years." Most of us were twenty or so.
The oldest person among us (who may have been, yikes, and 22) said to stop it, because "all these years" should be reserved for older persons with longer shared histories.
Okay, point taken, but Paul Simon was probably or 32 when he wrote that line
― fleetwood macrame (Ye Mad Puffin), Monday, 19 February 2024 18:48 (two months ago) link
Yeah, but I bet those people are a lot crazier today
― Beyond Goo and Evol (President Keyes), Monday, 19 February 2024 18:51 (two months ago) link
idk y'all, everyone has a past. does a 30 year old former child star get to feel old? i'd say yeah, myself.
absolute king of the young old men has to be orson welles though, right? not a song per se, but him doing "hearts of age" at 19...
i read a lot of the songs upthread about being "old" as just depression. or trauma. like, having a friend die, that'll make you feel old.
i think sometimes about dylan's "so much older than" and mitchell's "both sides now" - there aren't in fact two sides, but it's easy for me to fall into thinking that way.
this whole thing kinda reminds me of those Twitter threads of people in the 50's and 60's who looked like old men in their early thirties, people just seemed to age faster back then― frogbs
― frogbs
i got a picture of me at age 22 where i look twice that age. i look like i'm about to yell at some kids to tell them to get off my lawn. then i got a picture of me actually _at_ about twice that age, and i look, god, i look at least 60 in that one.
i got no idea how old i look now. i got no idea how old i _am_ now. i mean, i can give you a number. i can give you a couple of numbers. i went to a friend's birthday party a couple months ago. she was turning five. she's looking forward to retiring - she's eligible this year.
Most all of the songs I named date to the mid-late '60s; I'm guessing there was just so much happening so fast, a lot of these people felt prematurely old.― clemenza
― clemenza
that's the thing, right? it gets graded on a curve. if i hang out with people my age, they don't see me as old, but mostly i don't hang out with people my age. the people i hang out with are younger than me _and getting younger_. transfem HRT will knock ten years off your age over the course of two years or so. do things change fast around me? fuck yes, things change fast. when it comes to transition, two years is a generation. i'm more than four years in and i've started aging forward again. candy darling was 29 when she died, "bored by everything. You might say bored to death." how old does she look in that famous picture?
― Kate (rushomancy), Monday, 19 February 2024 21:34 (two months ago) link
I did not know the song "Class of '57" but I am picturing Charlotte as Charlotte from Sex and the City.
Sort of reminds me of my favorite Dylan line, "some are mathematicians, some are carpenters' wives," though I think it works better as a single line than as an entire song.
― Lily Dale, Monday, 19 February 2024 23:27 (two months ago) link
Probably why the Statlers haven’t won a Nobel
― Beyond Goo and Evol (President Keyes), Monday, 19 February 2024 23:37 (two months ago) link
Marmalade’s “Reflections Of My Life” seems to fit, though like “Heart of Gold” and several other examples, it definitely feels like it swings between old man POV (“all my sorrows/sad tomorrows/take me back/to my old home”) and young man perspective (all the “changing” and “rearranging” the singer is doing of his life). It actually has two singers, with one sounding older than the other. Anyway, neither band member who wrote it was older than 25 at the time.
― gjoon1, Monday, 19 February 2024 23:54 (two months ago) link
the class of what, '09? did the class of '09 have dreams? come to think of it '09 was my 15 year reunion.
i don't know. i don't think i can look at '94 and see a bunch of young people who had big dreams. i mean i had 'em. they were pissant dreams, though.
― Kate (rushomancy), Tuesday, 20 February 2024 00:11 (two months ago) link