What about “Sunrise, Sunset” from Fiddler on the Roof? (Depending on how old your friend is)
Bruce Springsteen – Glory Days
Steely Dan – Reelin’ in the Years
I dunno about Harry Chapin’s Taxi, as someone suggested above. If your friend is not happy about the way his/her life is turning out, it may be depressing. Or inspiration to change.
Same thing with George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass.
He’s going to be 29. He seems to think that’s inexplicably old and that a big chapter of his life is over. I kind of want to rub it in, given that almost all of his friends are older than that. I expect it to be received in good humor.
Sugar Mountain by Neil Young - All about reaching the ripe old age of 20
Another one from Rush: “Losing It”
Grateful Dead’s “A Touch of Grey.”
Old Man by Neil Young
100 years by Five For Fighting.
Yes, it’s evocative, isn’t it? I could never understand what people meant when they described Sinatra as a great interpreter of songs until I really listed to that one.
Then, it could just be because I’m getting older.
End Of The Line, by The Traveling Wilburys
*Well it’s all right, even if you’re old and gray,
Well it’s all right, you still got something to say
Well it’s all right, remember to live and let live
Well it’s all right, the best you can do is forgive
Well it’s all right, riding around in the breeze
Well it’s all right, if you live the life you please
Well it’s all right, even if the sun don’t shine
Well it’s all right, we’re going to the end of the line
*
D’oh! How could I forget that one? :smack:
Touching video for that song, with the rocking chair and Roy’s picture and all.
Not quite as flippant as Don’t Fear The Reaper.
Rock and Roll Never Forgets - Bob Seger
So you’re a little bit older and a lot less bolder
Than you used to be
So you used to shake ‘em down
But now you stop and think about your dignity
So now sweet sixteens turned thirty-one
You get to feelin’ weary when the work days done
Well all you got to do is get up and into your kicks
If you’re in a fix
Come back baby
Rock and roll never forgets
“Doin’ the Math” by Loudon Wainwright III - from Strange Weirdos: Music from and Inspired by the Film Knocked Up, excellent album by the way.
a monkey, a dog, a horse, a giraffe
they’re all gonna die
but they can’t do the math
doin the math is kind of a bummer
you best avoid crunchin the numbers
I am so gonna do that, thanks!
Keane. ‘‘Somewhere Only We Know.’’
Listen and Weep.
*Oh, simple thing
Where have you gone?
I’m getting old and I need something to rely on
So tell me when
You’re gonna let me in
I’m getting tired, and I need somewhere to begin
And if you have a minute,
Why don’t we go
Talk about it,
Somewhere only we know…*
The Obvious Child by Paul Simon fits.
Sample Lyric:
“Sonnys yearbook from high school
Is down from the shelf
And he idly thumbs through the pages
Some have died
Some have fled from themselves
Or struggled from here to get there
Sonny wanders beyond his interior walls
Runs his hand through his thinning brown hair”
Mary Hopkins’ “Those Were The Days” for an upbeat song about aging
*Through the door, there came familiar laughter
I saw your face and heard you call my name
Oh, my friend, we’re older but no wiser
For in our hearts, the dreams are still the same
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’d choose
We’d fight and never lose
Those were the days, oh yes, those were the days!*
Two pages before a mention of “Still Crazy After All These Years”?
But I woud not be convicted by a jury of my peers.
Still crazy after all these years.
Bookends, Simon and Garfunkel
*Old friends
Old friends
Sat on their park bench
Like bookends
A newspaper blown through the grass
Falls on the round toes
Of the high shoes
Of the old friends
Old friends
Winter companions
The old men
Lost in their overcoats
Waiting for the sunset
The sounds of the city
Sifting through the trees
Settle like dust
On the shoulders
Of the old friends
Can you imagine us years from today
Sharing a park bench quietly?
How terribly strange to be seventy
Old friends
Memory brushes the same years
Silently sharing the same fear…
Bookends Theme
P. Simon, 1968
Time it was, and what a time it was, it was
A time of innocence, a time of confidences
Long ago, it must be, I have a photograph
Preserve your memories; They’re all that’s left you*
“Silver Threads Among The Gold”, a very sentimental song from 1873.
“Darling, I am growing old,
Silver threads among the gold
Shine upon my brow today;
Life is fading fast away”
A 1912 recording: Silver Threads Among The Gold : Elsie Baker : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive