You Can't Be 20: Old-Person Songs by Young People

Lol clemenza

I was just listening to Dion and the Belmonts singing “September Song” from 1960’s Wish Upon a Star album and thinking they sound much too young to sing those lyrics. But my benchmark of an appropriately grizzled performance is Willie Nelson’s 1978 recording and he was only 45 when that came out, which now seems a bit young for that death-haunted song.

Willie Nelson is an interesting case. He was already old when most us were born, and he is apparently immortal.

When he was relatively young, and wrote "Crazy," dinosaurs still roamed the plains. It's a bit weird to see pictures of young Willie, because his brand and image have solidified so much into the one we know.