My life list of pop and rock songs is many pages long, divided into sections by genre or date. Here are what I consider the best songs for Baby Boomers about getting old or dying. This list has been carefully curated over decades, but I’m sure I’ve forgotten some good ones. If you can think of any, note them below, and I may add them to my own list. Note that a couple of songs are about long-lost romances.
I’ve put a few videos in to spice things up; I’ve chosen live performances when possible. If no video is shown for a sing, I give a link to one in the title.
Father and Son; Cat Stevens
Touch of Grey; The Grateful Dead
When I’m Sixty-Four; The Beatles
Boys of Summer; Don Henley (here with the Eagles)
Cherry Bomb; John Mellencamp
Long May You Run; Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
All Summer Long; The Beach Boys
Caroline, No; Brian Wilson
Nick of Time; Bonnie Raitt
When We Was Fab; George Harrison
Rocking Chair; The Band (see here also)
Taxi; Harry Chapin (This poignant song, so well written, is one of my favorites. Note that the soprano part is sung by a man, something I didn’t realize until I saw the video.)
Cat’s in the Cradle; Harry Chapin
Old Friends (Bookends); Simon and Garfunkel
Wasted on the Way; Crosby Stills & Nash
Don’t Fear the Reaper; Blue Öyster Cult
All Those Years Ago; George Harrison (not live but a loving remembrance of John Lennon)
“Father and Son” by Cat Stevens has always touched my heart since I heard it when I was about ten years old. Always made my eyes well up.
I was slightly older then but I always thought Peace Train was one of the best.
Same here. And to have a son makes it all the more poignant.
Stevens, aka Yusuf Islam, was and is such a talented songwriter and performer. Yet I still find myself unable to forgive him for his despicable, cowardly endorsement of Ayatollah Khomeini’s “fatwah” against Salman Rushdie.
Stevens/Islam showed his true colors there and I’ve never supported him in any endeavor since. It’s even worse, IMO, that he’s more or less tried to memory-hole his vile support for radical Islamic terrorism in a crass bid to regain his popularity.
Yes.
Tower of Song (Leonard Cohen)
Rush, Losing It https://youtu.be/65Yvo46wqY0
My old friends and I make song lists for our funerals — “End of the Line” by The Traveling Wilburys is on mine. Great video on Youtube.
Jethro Tull: “We Used to Know”. Great music, great lyrics, wonderful wah-wah guitar solo.
Some have claimed that “Hotel California” sounds too similar to it. Maybe, but it’s probably accidental. The Eagles did open for Tull back in the day, which is probably irrelevant since I’m sure that the Eagles knew the song anyway. It was written by Don Felder, who came rather late to the band.
Jethro Tull is criminally underappreciated, despite having a huge and enduring fan base (of which I am a longtime member).
Keep me in your heart – Warren Zevon
https://youtu.be/RMTKb-pgxGI
+1 for Warren, and the whole album “The Wind” made while he was dying. Also “Don’t Let us Get Sick” from an earlier album.
https://youtu.be/ELe4vC3oM5E
I’m also very fond of a song by Mike Skinner of The Streets written when his father died.
https://youtu.be/ygzSXn3oxKU
This was played at my cousin’s funeral. Beautiful and heartbreaking.
Yes. And that whole album, really. What a loss! 🙁
Of course:
Mother’s Little Helper (Rolling Stones-(“What a drag it is getting old.”))
Hello In There, by John Prime?
Beat me to it.
Could probably add Angel from Montgomery, also from his first album, made famous mostly by Bonnie Raitt.
Jethro Tull: “We Used to Know”. Great music, great lyrics, wonderful wah-wah guitar solo.
Some have claimed that “Hotel California” sounds too similar to it. Maybe, but it’s probably accidental. The Eagles did open for Tull back in the day, which is probably irrelevant since I’m sure that the Eagles knew the song anyway. It was written by Don Felder, who came rather late to the band.
“I Ain’t Got No Gal Now” by Phil Baxter and His Orchestra: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skB_Hw4iY_c
Johnny Cash’s version of “Hurt” coupled with the superb video: https://youtu.be/8AHCfZTRGiI
Repurposed from the original by Trent Reznor and the Nine Inch Nails which carried a different vibe entirely.
Yes, absolutely! I wrote about it here on WEIT:
GCM
I saw Prine’s ‘Hello in There’ above. So how about ‘Living on Borrowed Time’ by John Lennon? Or, from the same posthumous album, ‘Grow Old Along With Me.’
Or:
‘Grandma’s Hands’
‘Landslide’
‘It Was A Very Good Year’
‘Glory Day’s
So, so many…
John Prine is generally regarded as having written one of the best songs ever about growing old, “Hello In There.” It’s not about Boomers, but an older generation. He wrote it in his 20s:
It’s a great song. There are some quotes from Prine about writing it here: https://www.songfacts.com/facts/john-prine/hello-in-there
“… best songs for Baby Boomers about getting old or dying. ”
Moment of Zen right there…
I mean, who isn’t getting old, or even dying, as I think some authors have written … it gives pause… of all boats there are, we’re all in that exact same boat – no DEI professional can fix that.
Goes to show the level of musicianship of those musicians, I think.
“Those Were the Days” by Mary Hopkin.
“A Very Good Year” and “September Song” by Frank Sinatra (“September Song” is from the 1930s, but Sinatra’s version is from the 60s.)
+1
A propos Sinatra: “My Way”, of course.
I came here to say “Those Were the Days”…beat me to it. Though I do like the 5th Dimension’s version the best. The song was written by Gene Raskin adapted from the original which was a Russian folk song first performed in the 1920’s. I think Mary Hopkin’s version is the most famous.
Bob Shane of the Kingston Trio did an excellent version. If memory serves me, Sinatra was out driving his car and was so taken by it he pulled off the side of the road to listen.
‘Nature’s Way’ Spirit
Old & In The Way, by bluegrass “supergroup” Old & In the Way.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYETHsxAv8c&list=PL4NlLjtvFKRkfpp8ojZ6N7hzicrKNlNTG&index=3
Jackson Browne: These Days, written when he was about 16! and recorded by others before JB ever had a record out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPk11AugG4c
Randy Newman: Old Man
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMdWKfOLCro
And likely a whole bunch of others I’ll think of over the next few hours.
One of my favorites, “Desperadoes Waiting for a Train”, by Guy Clark. And that makes me think to add Townes Van Zandt’s great “Pancho and Lefty.”
Not dark yet – Bob Dylan
This Jacques Brel song, sung in English here (My Death) by Scott Walker, has to be included.
https://youtu.be/Cyl8Om0yV2c
What about “This Old House”? And don’t forget the classic “Life Sucks, then You Die”.
One of my personal favourites (despite the dodgy, often contrived rhymes) is Squeeze’s ‘Labelled With Love. The first verse is, in my opinion, poignantly emotive.
If you don’t know the song I strongly recommend finding it and giving it a listen. Glenn Tilbrook’s voice perfectly suits the mood of the song, as does the accompanying piano by Jools Holland, who was just 22 at the time and already had an unmistakable playing style. It was also one of the last of Squeeze’s recordings with Holland on keyboards, he went solo in 1980 shortly after recording this song so most live versions you may hear will feature his replacement, Paul Carrack.
Anyway, that first verse plus chorus:
“She unscrews the top from her new whisky bottle,
Shuffles about in her candle lit hovel,
Like some kind of witch, with blue fingers and mittens,
She smells like a cat and the neighbors she sickens.
Her black and white TV has long seen a picture,
The cross on the wall is a permanent fixture.
The postman delivers the final reminders,
She sells off her silver and poodles in china.
Drinks to remember I, me and myself, Winds up the clock and knocks dust from the shelf.
Home is a love that I miss very much,
The past has been bottled and labelled with love.”
Several Squeeze songs talk about lost/screwed-up love. One that combines both that and the passage of time is “Is That Love?” with the lines about a man referring to himself and then his wife:
My assets froze
While yours have dropped
Neil Young’s Old Man makes me think of things like this though it isn’t directly about growing old and dying it does make you think about growing older.
+1
“Martha” by Tom Waits. The lyrics are devastating in their simplicity.
Astonishingly, he wrote and recorded this when he was just 22. (It was released a year later on his debut album, “Closing Time.”) To hear it, you’d swear you were listening to a grizzled but soulful old man.
And Waits has other poignant, growing old together lyrics, such as those from “Take It With Me” off of “Mule Variations.” His songwriting has only gotten better over the years, IMO.
Martha’s incredible and one of my favorites of TW. A favorite cover version is by the lovely Lisa Hannigan.
! Waits has this subject matter done and done. That’s pretty much his schtick.
Another that comes to mind is ‘Mr. Bojangles’ which has been recorded by many artists, but for me Sammy Davis Jr’s is the stand-out version. That said, and I’m sure many here will ‘harumph’ when they read this, I thought that Robbie Williams made a pretty good go of it on his album of big band covers, ‘Swing When You’re Winning’. Not perfect by any means, but he certainly didn’t ruin it.
“Time”, a Mr. Pink Floyd.
Add My Autum’s Done Come by Lee Hazelwood
Your post is wonderful timely for me. I’m writing about death. I’m 81 looking at five or ten years if I’m lucky. The physicist, Carlo Rovelli, points out the natural order of the universe is entropy. Life is a temporary departure from the natural order, but life will end. Death is inevitable. I write about this in my Testament (https://politicsofthelastage.blogspot.com/2023/06/a-testament.html)
“When the end of my time comes, I will consign my existence to the natural order of the universe”.
And interestingly, in support of this, Crosby, Stills, and Nash say in Wasted on the Way, “Let the water come and carry us away”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJnfiUWOifk
So why are you holding my hand tonight?
I’m not intending to go far away.
I’m just slipping through to the back room
I’ll leave you messages almost every day.
And who was I to last forever?
I didn’t promise to stay the pace.
Not in this lifetime, babe
But we’ll cling together:
Some kind of heaven written in your face.
So why are you holding my hand tonight?
Well, am I feeling so cold to the touch?
Do my eyes seem to focus
On some distant point?
Why do I find it hard to talk too much?
And who was I to last forever?
I didn’t promise to stay the pace.
Not in this lifetime, babe
But we’ll cling together:
Some kind of heaven written in your face.
So why are you holding my hand tonight?
I’m not intending to go far away.
I’m just slipping through to the back room
I’ll leave you messages almost every day.
And who was I to last forever?
I didn’t promise to stay the pace.
Not in this lifetime, babe
But we’ll cling together:
Some kind of heaven written in your face.
Father and Son is one of my favorites.
Another, which I associate with death but which may not be, is You Can Close Your Eyes by James Taylor. My favorite performance is this one, with Carole King: https://youtu.be/sVk13aLhbZo. I saw them live and they were amazing.
There are so many good “getting older and wondering WTF” songs, such as:
Once In A Lifetime, Talking Heads
You Can Call Me Al, Paul Simon
Time, Pink Floyd
as well as the song “And When I Die” from Laura Nyro.
and this gem, a mournful meditation on getting old from William Elliott Whitmore, “Everything Gets Gone”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvxbIV7MVVg
John Mellencamp’s “Longest Days” is about the end of life, about how it all passes by too fast. Sad but true.
Unless someone’s already mentioned it, Dan Fogelberg’s “The Leader of the Band”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLr9saEiWTY
Rock is not my preferred type of music, so I don’t know most of these songs. But I do like S&G’s song “Old friends”, which you picked. And another rocking chair, the one by Louis Armstrong and Jack Teagarden — Ol’ rockin’ chair’s got me.
That’s a good one, though it’s jazz. I love that pair!
Can’t get simpler or better than Lori McKenna’s “People Get Old”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4yVj0MdhmI
Or, Iris Dement’s “Our Town”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9IUj1mDENg
Still trying to catch Iris on her latest tour.
Two selections:
John Lennon’s “Grow Old With Me.” He cut a demo but died before he could make an official recording:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o29X5FnzFB4
Pete Atkin’s “Senior Citizens.” With poignant lyrics by Clive James:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBrXo7w6ZK4
“Their sands have run out long before their savings
And the fun ran out so long before the sands
They’ve lost touch with the touch of other hands
That once came to caress, and then to help.”
Love “Touch of Grey” by Grateful Dead.
However, the official video omits Jerry’s solo in the middle. Sacrilege!
I’m pretty sure there should be a song or two from Dylan and then maybe something from CCR – Have you ever seen the Rain. Or the Doors – Roadhouse Blues. Even Roy Orbison – Candy Man
Here’s a devastating song on dying, an anti-meditation drone of a song from the genius of Van Morrison: “T.B. Sheets”
Here’s John Lee Hooker’s acknowledgement with a changed perspective:
https://youtu.be/DxCqBks1qMA
A sideways one here since it is instrumental. La Princess Perdue from Camel’s Snow Goose.
This interprets the scene in Paul Gallico’s novella when Fritha realises that Rhayader was killed at Dunkirk but then sees the snow goose flying over which she interprets as his soul saying goodbye.
“And When I Die” Blood, Sweet & Tears
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_ocQOJWolM
Pauvre Martin
Song by Georges Brassens
Avec une bêche à l’épaule
Avec, à la lèvre, un doux chant
Avec, à la lèvre, un doux chant
Avec, à l’âme, un grand courage
Il s’en allait trimer aux champs
Pauvre Martin, pauvre misère
Creuse la terre, creuse le temps
Pour gagner le pain de sa vie
De l’aurore jusqu’au couchant
De l’aurore jusqu’au couchant
Il s’en allait bêcher la terre
En tous les lieux, par tous les temps
Pauvre Martin, pauvre misère
Creuse la terre, creuse le temps
Sans laisser voir, sur son visage
Ni l’air jaloux ni l’air méchant
Ni l’air jaloux ni l’air méchant
Il retournait le champ des autres
Toujours bêchant, toujours bêchant
Pauvre Martin, pauvre misère
Creuse la terre, creuse le temps
Et quand la mort lui a fait signe
De labourer son dernier champ
De labourer son dernier champ
Il creusa lui-même sa tombe
En faisant vite, en se cachant
Pauvre Martin, pauvre misère
Creuse la terre, creuse le temps
Il creusa lui-même sa tombe
En faisant vite, en se cachant
En faisant vite, en se cachant
Et s’y étendit sans rien dire
Pour ne pas déranger les gens
Pauvre Martin, pauvre misère
Dort sous la terre, dort sous le temps
The second half of David Crosby’s “Carry Me”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcdSDMNx5Y8
Also performed live when Crosby was no longer young:
How about something a bit older: Ultimi miei sospiri by Philippe Verdelot (born 1470), sung by the King’s Singers and others. Translation: My dying breaths which leave me chill and lifeless recount my sufferings to one who sees me perishing amd does not help me. Speak, O infinite beauty, that your faithful one may be spared pitiless suffering, and if this pleases her, go swiftly to heaven and a better state. But if your words arouse her pity, return to me, for I don’t want to die.
Little Talks by Of Monsters and Men, my favorite band from Iceland. It’s a song about an elderly couple in an old house and the woman has late stage dementia.
Porcupine Tree wrote one of the “spookiest” and/or “trippiest” songs about dying: “Arriving Somewhere but not Here.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kpeip2B8l2E
I always try to plug PT or Steven Wilson when a “favorite music theme” comes up on WEIT. Has anyone noticed. 😉
Thanks, Mark. I’ve only heard the Lightbulb Sun album before.
That’s a good album too (early)…I like all their albums, and they got better as they progressed.
Great list, Jerry! I’d add “Oh Very Young” by Cat Stevens
“Oh very young, what will you leave us this time
You’re only dancin’ on this earth for a short while
And though your dreams may toss and turn you now
They will vanish away like your dads best jeans
Denim blue, faded up to the sky
And though you want them to last forever
You know they never will
You know they never will
And the patches make the goodbye harder still
Oh very young what will you leave us this time
There’ll never be a better chance to change your mind
And if you want this world to see a better day
Will you carry the words of love with you
Will you, will you ride the great white bird into heaven
And though you want to last forever
You know you never will
You know you never will
And the goodbye makes the journey harder still”
“Strangers”, by The Kinks, is also a great song (arguably) related to getting old.
Excellent Cat Stevens choice!
Let me add “The great gig in the sky”, by Pink Floyd:
“I am not frightened of dying
Any time will do, I don’t mind
Why should I be frightened of dying?
There’s no reason for it, you’ve gotta go sometime”
Two very different artists:
Blind Gary Davis, “Death Don’t Have No Mercy”
Charles Aznavour, “Yesterday When I Was Young”
“If We Were Vampires” by Jason Isbell is a song about how the inevitably of aging and death give meaning to life and love.
Yeah, that’s a good song about mortality. I like the line about a smoking vampire. If I was a vampire, I think I’d smoke too since I used to smoke and quit for health reasons. 🙂
Jackson Browne’s “For a Dancer” : https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ig6X3-9wxlI
I mentioned recently when listing the anniversary of the death of James Honeyman-Scott that Jackson had dedicated this song to him in 1982 at the Glastonbury Festival a couple of days after the death had been announced.
“For a Dancer” is a heartbreaker.
+1
A little late to the party, but “100 Years” by Five for Fighting (2003) always makes me feel wistful about how quickly time passes. The video is nice as well.
Yes! I was hoping to see someone mention this one here!
“Dance On My Grave” by Seconds Flat
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIVDDVzhHrs
“Old and Wise” by the Alan Parsons Project
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4HI1_LTWIk
“Please Don’t Bury Me” by the late John Prine (lost to COVID-19)
One of my favorites, “The Dutchman”, which always makes me cry:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeBD3rcAMFw
Once I was a young man…and Margaret remembers that for me
Sometimes she sees her unborn children in my eyes
Yes, excellent. John Denver did a great version.
I haven’t been able to find the beautiful version that brought this song to my attention years ago. Don’t know who sung it. Do you have a link to the John Denver version?
Karla Bonoff’s “Goodbye My Friend” gets me every time. Here’s a beautiful concert rendition.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gghG64i8Mmg&pp=ygUeZ29vZGJ5ZSBteSBmcmllbmQga2FybGEgYm9ub2Zm
John Mayall and The Bluesbreakers- Mists Of Time
A local hit i liked, not a particular favorite, but one not likely to be listed here by others.
D.O.A. by Bloodrock released 1971.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0VRHBx090s
The motivation for writing this song was explained in 2005 by guitarist Lee Pickens. “When I was 17, I wanted to be an airline pilot,” Pickens said. “I had just gotten out of this airplane with a friend of mine, at this little airport, and I watched him take off. He went about 200 feet in the air, rolled and crashed.” The band decided to write a song around the incident and include it on their second album.
Not sure if this was added already.
I’d like to add Cat Stevens Miles from nowhere.
https://youtu.be/fsI5IiHVVXw
Someone earlier mentioned expecting to see Dylan here, but I haven’t noticed anyone naming a song. Here’s my nomination: “Not Dark Yet,” from Time Out of Mind, my favorite of his albums. (I’ll let others argue about his best.)
Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door?
+1 It’s gettin’ dark, too dark to see …
Wait, what?! That’s Dylan? I thought it was GNR!
“Tryin’ to get to Heaven” from the same album is also a contender.
“That Silver-Haired Daddy of Mine” by Gene Autry:
“In the Living Years”, Mike and the Mechanics
Face full of sun
And we run
’til we lose our way
Bad thoughts are gone
War is won
And all’s in its place
The day’s all ours
Until we
Trip on a grave
Birds stop their song
As you turn
To me and say
We will be gone, we will be gone
We will be gone
We will be gone, we will be gone
We will be gone
…
—GONE by Matt Elliott:
Lisa Hannigan: Prayer For The Dying
As he’s got older Nigel Blackwell of Half Man Half Biscuit has started writing some excellent songs on the theme of aging, I’d especially recommend “Terminus”, “Slipping the Escort” and “Oblong of Dreams”.
A few songs come to mind:-
On an ‘ optimistic ‘ note, The Who – My Generation ‘ Hope I die before I get old. ‘
Montana Roads – Nanci Griffith. An old man looks back on his youth and winning the local Rodeo in ’33, ’34.
You will never grow old – Nat King Cole. Syrupy lyrics that my Grandmother loved.
When the Levee breaks- Memphis Minnie and Backwater Blues – Bessie Smith. Songs about great Mississippi floods in the 20s.
Lastly, a true and extremely sad song. Grace – The Dubliners and many other artists. Written by Sean and Frank Meara. It tells the story of Joseph Plunkett, one of the conspirators in the Easter Rising in Dublin 1916. He joined his comrades from his hospital bed ( he had undergone an operation ) After the rising he was sentenced to death. He was allowed to marry his fiance at midnight on the day before his execution. He was so ill as a result of the operation and prison beatings that
he had to remain seated when shot.
Who Wants to Live Forever — Queen
Classic song about love and death.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOhuK7aZayw&w=560&h=315%5D
I haven’t seen these mentioned:
Beatles – In my life
Doors – The end
Queen – Let us cling together (as the years go by)
Kaleidoscope (with David Lindley) – Oh Death (can you spare me over till another year)
What? No Tom Waits?? try “Cold cold ground”
Can’t end this without mentioning an iconic song by a legendary singer – ‘ Where have all the flowers gone? ‘ – Marlene Dietrich.
I’m suprised no one has mentioned the classic folk song “When You and I Were Young, Maggie”. Here’s a lovely version by Tom Rush:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPFVcjZftBE
Days of Pearly Spencer by David McWilliams.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VDS8uArR0A
Going Back by Dusty Springfield
“Ballad of You and Me and Pooneil” — from After Bathing at Baxter’s LP — Jefferson Airplane (1967)