One of the very best songs I’ve ever heard about getting older is **Ripples **by Genesis.
Here is the chorus:
Sail away, away
Ripples never come back.
They’ve gone to the other side.
Look into the pool,
Ripples never come back,
Dive to the bottom and go to the top
To see where they have gone
Oh, they’ve gone to the other side…
Waiting On a Friend by the Rolling Stones - more about growing up rather than growing old.
Try to Remember from The Fantasticks. I like the Harry Belafonte version, available from iTunes.
“Hello In There” by John Prine and covered by a few other people. (In fact, anything by John Prine would qualify. He hasn’t been big for a long time now.)
Has anyone mentioned “Where Do We Go From Here?” by the Alan Parsons Project?
There’s “Lather” by Jefferson Airplane:
Queen - Good Company
These are the Days of Our Lives
The End, by The Doors
*This is the end
Beautiful friend
This is the end
My only friend, the end
Of our elaborate plans, the end
Of everything that stands, the end
No safety or surprise, the end
Ill never look into your eyes…again
Can you picture what will be
So limitless and free
Desperately in need…of some…strangers hand
In a…desperate land
*
Jimmy Buffet again A Pirate Looks at 40
mother mother ocean
after all the years I’ve found
occupational hazard is
my occupation just not around
Pink Floyd Time
and you run and you run
to catch up with the sun
but its sinking
and racing around to come up behind you again
The sun is the same in a relative way
but you’re older
shorter of breath
and one day closer to death
“First of May” by the BeeGees
When I was small, and Christmas trees were tall,
we used to love while others used to play.
Don’t ask me why, but time has passed us by,
someone else moved in from far away.
“Puff the Magic Dragon” by Peter, Paul & Mary
A dragon lives forever,
But not little girls and boys.
Painted wings and giant rings
Make way for other toys.
One grey night it happened,
Jackie Paper came no more
And Puff that mighty dragon,
He ceased his fearless roar.
Dar Williams
You’re Aging Well:
*They say
“I’m so glad that you finally made it here,”
“You thought nobody cared, but I did, I could tell,”
And “This is your year,” and “It always starts here,”
And oh-oh oh-oh-oh oh-oh, “You’re aging well.” *
1985 by Bowling for Soup
“Debbie just hit the wall
She never had it all
One Prozac a day
Husband’s a CPA
Her dreams went out the door
When she turned twenty four
Only been with one man
What happen to her plan?”
Walk on the Ocean by Toad the Wet Sprocket
“…we don’t even have pictures
just memories to hold
that grow sweeter each season
as we slowly grow old”
How about “Sunrise, Sunset” from Fiddler on the Roof?
One of the two that came to mind immediately.
That and ‘A Pirate Looks at 40’:
*Mother, mother ocean, I have heard you call
Wanted to sail upon your waters since I was three feet tall
You’ve seen it all, you’ve seen it all
Watched the men who rode you switch from sails to steam
And in your belly you hold the treasures few have ever seen
Most of 'em dream, most of 'em dream
Yes I am a pirate, two hundred years too late
The cannons don’t thunder, there’s nothin’ to plunder
I’m an over-forty victim of fate
Arriving too late, arriving too late
I’ve done a bit of smugglin’, I’ve run my share of grass
I made enough money to buy Miami, but I pissed it away so fast
Never meant to last, never meant to last
And I have been drunk now for over two weeks
I passed out and I rallied and I sprung a few leaks
But I got stop wishin’, got to go fishin’
Down to rock bottom again
Just a few friends, just a few friends *
‘The End of the Movie’ by Cake is relevant and funny and awesome.
One of the most poignant I can think of: September Song
(the Jimmy Durante version).
*When I was a young man, caught in the girls,
I played me a waiting game.
If a maid refused me with tossin curls,
I let the old earth take a couple of whirls.
While I apply her with tears in lieu of pearls.
And as time came around, she came my way,
And as time came around, she came.
Oh its a long, long while, from May to December
But the days grow short, when you reach September.
When the autum weather, turns the leaves to flame,
One hasn’t got time, for the waiting game.
Oh, the days, dwindle down, to a precious few.
September. November.
And these few precious days, I’ll spend with you.
These precious days, I’ll spend with you.
Oh, the days dwindle down, to a precious few.
September. November.
And these few precious days, I’ll spend with you.
These precious days, I’ll spend with you.*
If you count someone who thinks they are getting old at 27, this is a great song:
Herman Düne - Not on Top
I feel a little strange
Feels like I’ll never get my shit together
27 and I’m fucked
Well, it’s 10 years from teenage
and that’s a freaking lot
I think I’m getting old
and I thought I’d never say
that I bought Nevermind
and it changed my life
some fifteen years ago
I thought my little sister
would never ever make it out of high school
and go looking for jobs (yeah right)
Mother’s Little Helper (What a drag it is getting old…)
Two pages and no one’s mentioned Cat Stevens - Cats In The Cradle?
Reverend Billy C. Wirtz - Hey You, Get Off Of My Lawn