Good evening, and welcome to your splendid selection of songs about age. You’ve excelled yourselves this week, it has been a joy to listen.
If you have an Earworm you’d like to share, please send an .mp3, .m4a or a link to adempster73@gmail.com, together with a few words about why you’ve chosen it. Next week’s theme will be songs that ask a question of love, (or the nature of love), as suggested by Fintan. Worms should reach me by close of play on Sunday 2 June.
Many thanks to all contributors – keep calm, and carry on!
Neil Young – Old Man – glassarfemptee: On “Harvest” Neil Young sings of how young and old aren’t that different. “Old man, look at my life / I’m a lot like you.”
Beck – The Golden Age – shoegazer: From his best album.
Show of Hands – The Vale – Suzi: ‘She was here in ’41, when I was just a boy.’ An old man recalls his youthful affair with a city girl – and what happened next.
John Prine – Hello In There – glassarfemptee: The late John Prine could paint sympathetic portraits of ordinary folk. Here he laments old age. “Old people just grow lonesome / Waiting for someone to say, “Hello in there, hello.”
Olivia Chaney – Calliope – severin: Written for her daughter’s first birthday. I feel vaguely guilty about (effectively) putting the whole album into the Dropbox, bit by bit. But I’m saving the best track for the Festive ‘Spill and I’m already tensing up in case somebody else gets there first.
Steeleye Span – Hares on the Mountain – Suzi: Lovely old folksong about being old and not being able to chase the girls any more. Innuendo? Surely not!
Sam Cooke – Only Sixteen – Fintan28: That age when you’re ready to “give your heart away”. It’s a song I’ve never tired of and a caution never sounded so sweet. Sam Cooke at his best.
Coeur de Pirate – Tous les garçons – DebbyM: Cover of the Françoise Hardy hit.
Jaques Brel – Avec Élégance – Suzi: He’s past 50, and admits that he’s no longer young. But in a very French, or in his case, Belgian, way, he’s determined that however desperate he feels, he will age with elegance, and he hasn’t quite lost hope.
Nico – My Only Child – severin: Draws a contrast between the child and those whose “hands are old”. I was playing this track at home when I was about 17 or 18 when my mother poked her head round the door and asked who it was because she liked it so much. Said it sounded like plainsong.
Big Star – Thirteen – UncleBen: Adolescent memories don’t get any more achingly beautiful than this.
The Beach Boys – Wouldn’t It Be Nice – Fintan28: They’ve reached that age where they can dream about a life together. Wouldn’t it be nice? Author Sarah Vowell thinks this is the greatest pop song ever written. She might have it right.
X Ray Spex – Age – severin: This is one of the extra tracks on the CD version of Germ Free Adolescents but I think I have it on the B-side of one of their singles. They certainly played it live a few times. I really wish I could go to an X Ray Spex (or Poly Styrene) gig again.
Wintersleep – Free Pour – tincanman: Paul Murphy took himself off to a bar for his 37th birthday and sat there ruminating. There’s something liberating in letting things go, he says.
Sonny James – Young Love – Fintan28: Title says it all. Sonny has arrived at that age where love conquers all.
Bob Dylan – Bob Dylan’s Dream – glassarfemptee: I recently listened to “Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan” for the first time in many years. It’s an astonishing & timeless album of rebellion, poetry and humour. In ‘Bob Dylan’s Dream’ he ruefully wishes he could turn back the clock to be with friends he’s lost contact with. “We never much thought we could get very old / We thought we could sit forever in fun”.
Ian Noe – Ballad of a Retired Man – tincanman: First you retire then you … well, I’ll let Ian tell it. It’s about his grandfather, who… well, I’ll let Ian tell it. (Bonus: Here’s Ian doing John Prine’s Hello In There. Spooky.)
Lizz Wright – Old Man – DebbyM: This is a recording from a German jazz festival. I thought about sending the Neil Young original in (I hope somebody else has!), but I rather like this version.
Main Playlist, blurbs above:
YouTube playlist, blurbs below:
Disturbance – Youth – wyngatecarpenter: Dutch punks hand on the baton to the next generation.
The Guvnors – 40, Fat and Finished – wyngatecarpenter: The video always makes me smile. A very realistic portrayal of the punk scene these days!
Dexys Midnight Runners – Old – wyngatecarpenter: One of the best songs ever.
Pink Floyd – Ringing of the Division Bell – MaggieB: “The grass was greener, / The light was brighter, / With friends surrounded, / The nights of wonder.” What a great song! My grass is greener now, and all the colours are brighter, ‘cos I’ve just had a cataract operation 😂
Mayes – 22 – DebbyM: TheBoyWonder in all his youthful glory.
Tocotronic – Jugend ohne Gott gegen Faschisten – DebbyM: One of our more successful local bands.
The Sweet – Teenage Rampage – LongTallSilly: Still doing it! Saw them last year in a tent near Durham, brought back some teenage memories!
Frank Sinatra – It Was A Very Good Year – LongTallSilly: This’ll teach you to make the categories tighter 🤣🤣🤣🤣 (I am not a fan of F.S.- Ed.)
Elbow – Lippy Kids – AliM: Sorry if you don’t like Elbow, but I’m having a moment. I should be OK in a week or two. “Lippy kids on the corner begin / Settling like crows / Do they know those days are golden? / Build a rocket boys!”
The Cure – In Between Days – AliM: “Yesterday I got so old / I felt like I could die / Yesterday I got so old
It made me want to cry…”
Fred Wedlock – The Oldest Swinger In Town – Suzi: The perils of trying to pretend you’re not middle-aged.
Rush – 2112 – LongTallSilly: One from this older age of men that shows why the joy of music must be maintained!
The 'Spill 