Wordsmith.org
Posted By: boronia aging songs - 05/06/02 02:23 PM
Given the success of the lyric-linking thread, here's a variation: Can people think of songs that include lyrics about being specific ages? It would be helpful to post them in chronological order, and I'd love to begin, but the youngest age I can think of mentioned in a song is 4. So -- does anyone have songs that make reference to being 1, 2 or 3 to get this started?

Posted By: wofahulicodoc just a-borning song - 05/06/02 02:55 PM
You want the youngest ages first, eh?

Let's start with "The Naughty Lady of Shady Lane"
(By Sid Tepper and Roy C. Bennett
recorded by the Ames Brothers, 1954):

The Naughty Lady of Shady Lane has hit the town like a bomb
The backfence gossip ain't been so good since Mabel ran off with Tom.
Our town was peaceful and quiet before she came on the scene
The lady has started a riot, disturbin' the suburban routine!

Chorus:
The Naughty Lady of Shady Lane
Has the town in a whirl!
The Naughty Lady of Shady Lane,
Me oh my oh what a girl.

Bom-biddy-bom-bom-bom, bom
Bom-biddy-bom-bom-bom


You should see how she carries on with her admirers galore
She must be giving them quite a thrill the way they flock to her door
She throws those come-hither glances at every Tom, Dick, and Joe
When offered some liquid refreshment, the lady never never says "No."

Chorus

Bom-biddy-bom-etc-modulate up a half-step

The things they're trying to pin on her won't hold much water, I'm sure.
Beneath the powder and fancy lace there beats a heart sweet and pure

She just needs someone to change her, and she'll be sweet as can be
If you're in the neighborhood, Stranger, you're welcome to drop in and see!

Chorus

The Naughty Lady of Shady Lane,
So delightful to hold,
The Naughty Lady of Shady Lane
She's delectable, quite respectable,...

...and she's only nine days old!

Posted By: JosieWales Re: just a-borning song - 05/06/02 04:02 PM
From the Billy Elliot soundtrack:


T-Rex - Cosmic Dancer


I was dancing when I was twelve
I was dancing when I was aaah
I danced myself right out the womb
Is it strange to dance so soon
I danced myself right out the womb

I was dancing when I was eight
Is it strange to dance so late
I danced myself into the tomb
Is it strange to dance so soon
I danced myself into the tomb

Is it wrong to understand
The fear that dwells inside a man
What's it like to be a loon
I liken it to a balloon

I danced myself out of the womb
Is it strange to dance so soon
I danced myself into the tomb
But when again once more

I danced myself out of the womb
Is it strange to dance so soon
I danced myself out of the womb.



Posted By: Chemeng1992 Re: before-a-borning song - 05/06/02 04:29 PM
How about an 'embryonic' reference???



From Ray Boltz "What Was I Supposed To Be?"

I wonder if up in Heaven
Do you suppose we'll see
Little children ask Him
What was I supposed to be

What was I supposed to be
What were my eyes supposed to see
Why did I taste of death
Before I even drew a breath
Or laid my head at my mother's breast
to sleep
Oh Jesus
What was I supposed to be


Surely there are some that would even pre-date this one.....some cheesy lyrics about 'a gleam in daddy's eye' or something similar.


Posted By: TEd Remington Re: aging songs - 05/06/02 04:31 PM
Kill't him, a b'ar when he was only three.

Posted By: SilkMuse Post deleted by SilkMuse - 05/06/02 05:45 PM
Posted By: AnnaStrophic Re: aging songs - 05/06/02 05:54 PM
Aren't we supposed to be doing this chronologically? (I was waiting till "17")

Posted By: boronia Re: aging songs - age 4 - 05/06/02 06:01 PM
I don't know what went wrong, I couldn't understand
You grew up much too fast for me
I wish it was before, like back when you were 4
I held you on my knees and I told you lots of pretty things

the title escapes me (I'll add it tomorrow, after I check my LP at home tonight), but it's by the Boomtown Rats

edit"Never Bite the Hand that Feeds"

Posted By: Sparteye Re: aging songs - 05/08/02 01:30 AM
You come on like a dream
Peaches and cream
Lips like strawberry wine
You're 16
You're beautiful
And you're mine.

-- You're Sixteen, Ringo Starr


I'll do anything
For my sweet sixteen,
And I'll do anything
For little run away child

-- Sweet Sixteen, Billy Idol


You're only sixteen
But you're my teenage queen
Oh, you're the prettiest, the loveliest girl I've ever seen

-- Sixteen Candles, The Crests


Wells she was just 17,
You know what I mean
And the way she looked
Was way beyond compare

-- Saw Her Standing There, The Beatles


I learned the truth at 17
That love was meant for beauty queens
And high school girls with clear-skinned smiles
Who married young and then retired

-- At Seventeen, Janis Ian


Lines form on my face and hands
Lines form from the ups and down
I'm in the middle without any plans
I'm a boy and I'm a man
I'm eighteen and I don't know what I want
Eighteen, I just don't know what I want

-- I'm Eighteen, Alice Cooper


Posted By: Angel Re: aging songs - 05/08/02 01:51 AM

When first I saw the love-light in your eyes,
I dreamed the world held not but joy for me.
And even though we drifted far apart,
I never dream but what I dream of thee.

I love you as I never loved before,
Since first I met you on the village green.
Come to me or my dream of love is o’r,
I love you as I loved you, when you were sweet,
When you were sweet sixteen.

I love you as I never loved before,
Since first I met you on the village green.
Come to me or my dream of love is o’r . . .
I love you as I loved you, when you were sweet,
When you were sweet sixteen.

When You Were Sweet Sixteen
~ from the Bing Crosby productions, Inc., picture "The Great John L."
Music and Lyrics by James Thornton and Published 1898

Posted By: Fiberbabe Re: aging songs - 05/08/02 02:00 AM
When I was seventeen,
It was a very good year.
It was a very good year
For small town girls
And soft summer nights.
We'd hide from the lights
On the village green.
When I was seventeen ...

When I was twenty-one,
It was a very good year.
It was a very good year
For city girls
Who lived up the stair.
With all that perfumed hair
And it came undone,
When I was twenty-one ...

Then I was thirty-five,
It was a very good year.
It was a very good year
For blue-blooded girls
Of independent means,
We'd ride in limousines,
Their chauffeurs would drive.
When I was thirty-five ...

But now the days grow short,
I'm in the autumn of the year.
And now I think of my life
As vintage wine
From fine old kegs,
From the brim to the dregs,
And it poured sweet and clear.

It was a very good year ...
It was a mess of good years ...

It Was A Very Good Year, popularized by Frank Sinatra
Posted By: WhitmanO'Neill Re: aging songs - 05/08/02 02:35 AM
Janis Ian

At Seventeen

I learned the truth at seventeen
That love was meant for beauty queens
And high school girls with clear skinned smiles
Who married young and then retired.
The valentines I never knew
The Friday night charades of youth
Were spent on one more beautiful
At seventeen I learned the truth.
And those of us with ravaged faces
Lacking in the social graces
Desperately remained at home
Inventing lovers on the phone
Who called to say come dance with me
and murmured vague obscenities
It isn't all it seems
At seventeen.
A brown eyed girl in hand me downs
Whose name I never could pronounce
said, Pity please the ones who serve
They only get what they deserve.
The rich relationed hometown queen
Married into what she needs
A guarantee of company
And haven for the elderly.
Remember those who win the game
Lose the love they sought to gain
In debentures of quality
And dubious integrity.
Their small town eyes will gape at you
in dull surprise when payment due
Exceeds accounts received
At seventeen.
To those of us who know the pain
Of valentines that never came,
And those whose names were never called
When choosing sides for basketball.
It was long ago and far away
The world was younger than today
And dreams were all they gave for free
To ugly duckling girls like me.
We all play the game and when we dare
To cheat ourselves at solitaire
Inventing lovers on the phone
Repenting other lives unknown
That call and say, come dance with me
and murmur vague obscenities
At ugly girls like me
At seventeen.

© 1970 by Janis Ian





The Only WO'N!
Posted By: doc_comfort Re: aging songs - 05/08/02 04:45 AM
I know 18 is missing but this is one of my favourites.

http://www2.ozland.net.au/users/marshall/only19/only19.htm

Posted By: paulb Re: aging songs - 05/08/02 11:54 AM
At seventeen he falls in love quite madly with eyes of tender blue;
At twenty-four he gets it rather badly with eyes of a different hue;
At thirty-five you'll see him flirting sadly with two or three, or more;
When he fancies he is past love,
It is then he meets his last love,
And he loves her as he's never lov'd before.

"A bachelor gay" from The maid of the mountains;
words by F Clifford Harris and Valentine,
music by Jas W Tate (1917)

Posted By: boronia Re: aging songs - 16, 17, 21, 22, 24 - 05/08/02 12:21 PM
I am 16, going on 17 -- from The Sound of Music


I was 21 years when I wrote this song
I'm 22 now but I won't be for long
People ask me when will I grow up to be a man
Girls I knew in school are already pushing prams

"New England", Billy Bragg


He had a stroke at the age of 24
It could have been a brilliant career

"It Could Have Been a Brilliant Career"
Belle & Sebastian (and I'm going to see them tonight - yay!)

Posted By: AnnaStrophic Re: aging songs - 05/08/02 03:48 PM
Is there really nothing for the ages between 4 and 17??? I keep coming up blank... and now y'all have posted the 17-related songs I was waiting to explode upon the scene with.

(going to the back of the class now)

Posted By: boronia Re: aging songs - 05/08/02 04:15 PM
I'm thinking this'll be easier if we are just approximately chronological - say, go by decades instead of years.

Posted By: of troy Re: aging songs--6 - 05/08/02 04:23 PM
Thank to AnnaS, we have age 6 (between the two of us, one good brain!)

MEMPHIS TENNESSEE
Long distance information, give me Memphis Tennessee
Help me find the party trying to get in touch with me
She did not leave her number but I know the place to call
The phone boy took the message and he wrote it on the wall

I said help me information get in touch with my Marie
She's the only one who'd phone me here from Memphis Tennessee
Her home is on the south side, high up on a ridge
About a half a mile from the Mississipi bridge

Oh help me information, more than this I cannot add
Only that I love Marie and all the fun we had
But we were pulled apart now 'cause her momma did not agree
And tore apart our happy home in Memphis Tennessee

I said help me information, more than this I cannot add
Only that I miss Marie and all the fun we had
But she was pulled apart from me 'cause her momma did not agree
And tore apart our happy home in Memphis Tennessee

Last time I saw Marie, she was waving me goodbye
With hurry home drops on her cheek that trickl'd from her eye
Marie is only six years old, so information please
Try to put me through to her in Memphis Tennessee
I said try to put me through to her in Memphis Tennessee
Oh won't you put me through to her in Memphis Tennessee

(Berry)

PS-- maybe the age in the header? and some of us could go back and edit headers? then even if not in order.. we could find an age?

Posted By: milum Re: aging songs - 5 - 05/08/02 04:48 PM
Is there really nothing for the ages between 4 and 17??? ~ Annastrophic

Yes!. Great Gooblely-wooblebly, just where were you people in 1955?

I'M A MAN - Do Diddley

Now when I was a little boy,
At the age of five,
I had somethin' in my pocket,
Keep a lot of folks alive.

Now I'm a man,
Made twenty-one,
You know baby,
We can have a lot of fun.

I'm a man,
I spell M-A-N...man.

All you pretty women,
Stand in line,
I can make love to you baby,
In an hour's time.

I'm a man,
I spell M-A-N...man.

I goin' back down,
To Kansas to
Bring back the second cousin,
Little John the conqueroo.

I'm a man,
I spell M-A-N...man.

The line I shoot,
Will never miss,
The way I make love to 'em,
They can't resist.

I'm a man,
I spell M-A-N...man.

Thank you Bo Diddley, that was nice and I'm sure you are. ~ mw.


Postedit: Forgive me, SHELLY THE PLAYBOY, I misspelled "Gooblely-wooblely".
Posted By: Alex Williams Re: aging songs - 5 - 05/08/02 07:01 PM
the age is only in the title in this song but it is a good song

Won't you let me walk you home from school?
Won't you let me meet you at the pool?
Maybe Friday I can get tickets for the dance
And I'll take you...

Won't you tell your dad to get off my back
Tell him what we said 'bout "Paint It Black"
Rock and roll is here to stay
Come inside it's okay
And I'll shake you

Won't you tell me what you're dreaming of
Would you be an outlaw for my love
If it's over let me know
If it's "no" then I can go
I won't make you

"Thirteen" by Alex Chilton, performed by Big Star



Posted By: Alex Williams Re: aging songs - 5 - 05/08/02 07:03 PM
When I Grow Up To BE a Man by the Beach Boys

When I grow up to be a man
Will I dig the same things that turn me on as a kid?
Will I look back and say that I wish I hadn't done what I did?
Will I joke around and still dig those sounds
When I grow up to be a man?

Will I look for the same things in a woman that I dig in a girl?
(fourteen fifteen)
Will I settle down fast or will I first wanna travel the world?
(sixteen seventeen)
Now I'm young and free, but how will it be
When I grow up to be a man?

Oooooo Ooooooo Oooooooo
Will my kids be proud or think their old man is really a square?
(eighteen nineteen)
When they're out having fun yeah, will I still wanna have my share?
(twenty twenty-one)
Will I love my wife for the rest of my life
When I grow up to be a man?

What will I be when I grow up to be a man?
(twenty-two twenty-three)
Won't last forever
(twenty-four twenty-five)
It's kind of sad
(twenty-six twenty-seven)
Won't last forever
(twenty-eight twenty-nine)
It's kind of sad
(thirty thirty-one)
Won't last forever
(thirty-two . . .)

Posted By: satin Re: aging songs - 2-4-18 - 05/08/02 08:18 PM
I know there is more to this but I can't remember it all.
Dad sang it to me and I sang it to my daughter.
I have no idea who wrote it.

Where are you going my little one, little one,
Where are you going my babe, my own,
Little dirndles and petticoats, where have you gone,
Turn around and your 2, turn around and your 4, turn
around and your a young girl going out of my door.

(I remembered some more...)
Where are you going my little one, little one,
Where are you going my babe, my own,
Turn around and you're tiny, turn around and you're grown,
turn around and you're a young wife with babe's of you're own.

And somebody much younger will have to help me with this one.

I'm 18 and I like it, love it. (Mick Jagger????)

Posted By: of troy Re: aging songs - 2-4-18 - 05/08/02 09:37 PM
it may have had a life as a song... but i remember it from a Kodak commercial.. early 1960'? or so..

another 'song' that started it life as a commercial is Four Green Fields written for Aer Lingus airlines. it was an imediate hit, and people swear they learned it as a child, and it an old, old song. nonsense. Tommy Makem wrote it in the 1970'S!(and has the copywrite and royalties to prove it.



Posted By: Max Quordlepleen . - 05/08/02 09:44 PM
Posted By: maverick Re: aging songs - 2-4-18 - 05/09/02 02:49 AM
Strictly in the interests of being contrary

so who died and made you faldage?

Posted By: jmh Re: aging songs - 2-4-18 - 05/09/02 06:35 AM
Not that I approve of this one, but

Rolf
You wait, little girl, on an empty stage
For fate to turn the light on
Your life little girl is an empty page
That men will want to write on

Liesel
To write on

Rolf
You are sixteen going on seventeen
Baby, it's time to think
Better beware...be canny and careful
Baby, you're on the brink
You are sixteen going on seventeen
Fellows will fall in line
Eager young lads and rogues and cads
Offer you food and wine
Totally unprepared are you to face a world of men
Timid and shy and scared are you
Of things beyond your ken
You'll need someone older and wiser
Telling you what to do,
I am seventeen going on eighteen
I'll take care of you!

Liesel
I am sixteen going seventeen
I know that I'm naive
Fellows I meet may tell me I'm sweet
And willingly I believe
I am sixteen going seventeen
Innocent as a rose
Bachelor dandies, drinkers of brandies
What do I know of those?
Totally unprepared am I to face a world of men
Timid and shy and scared am I
Of things beyond my ken
I need someone older and wiser
Telling me what to do,
You are seventeen going on eighteen
I'll depend on you!

TSOM - Rogers and Hammerstein

[edit][Darn, just read the thread from the beginning again and saw that it had already been mentioned. Sorry folks.]
Posted By: boronia Re: aging songs - 37 - 05/09/02 11:42 AM
At the age of 37,
She realised she'd never drive
Through Paris in a sportscar with the warm wind in her hair
So she let the phone keep ringing
As she lay there, softly singing
Little nursery rhymes she had memorized in her daddy's easy chair

Title???? Marianne Faithful sang it
(uh-oh -- I'm 37 - does that mean 'bye-bye dreams'?)

Posted By: duncan large Re: aging songs - 37 - 05/09/02 02:11 PM
Im 18 with a bullet
got my finger on the trigger and im gonna pull it

can't remember the artist though , anybody?

PS 37 IS NOT OLD OK?

the Duncster
Posted By: satin Re: aging songs - 2-4-18 - 05/09/02 02:25 PM
Helen,

I remember that the commercial was taken from the song. It had to be because dad sang it to me before the commercial came out and he knew more verses.

Posted By: AphonicRants Re: aging songs - 05/09/02 06:58 PM
> [post by SilkMuse]
>> ASp: Aren't we supposed to be doing this chronologically? (I was waiting till "17")
>>>[Post deleted by SilkMuse]

I do not comment; I merely report.

--------------------------------------------------------------

>[post by sparteye, jumping to 16]
No objection by ASp.

I do not comment; I merely report.


Posted By: AphonicRants Re: aging songs: 27, 30, 33 - 05/09/02 07:18 PM
Lather was thirty years old today,
They took away all of his toys.
His mother sent newspaper clippings to him,
About his old friends who'd stopped being boys.
There was Harwitz E. Green, just turned thirty-three,
His leather chair waits at the bank.
And Sergent Dow Jones, twenty-seven years old,
Commanding his very own tank.

Lather (Grace Slick) on Crown of Creation by Jefferson Airplane (1968)


Posted By: AphonicRants Re: aging songs: 9, 12 - 05/09/02 07:31 PM
Ages 9 and 12 in a song from 1928, whose title and subject I would rather not mention:
http://makeashorterlink.com/?I222527D; scroll down to the highlights

Posted By: AphonicRants Re: aging songs: 13 - 05/09/02 07:35 PM
Thirteen years old, sweet as rose
Every petal of her wafer thin
Love will make you mine
Creep up from behind
Get you jumping out of your skin
Angel...it's sink or swim

--Deep in the Heart; U2



Posted By: AphonicRants Re: aging songs: 14 - 05/09/02 07:40 PM
You thought you had found yourself a good girl,
One who would love you and give you the world.
Then you find, babe, that you've been misused,
Come to me, honey, I'll do what you choose.
(I want you to) tell mama
All about it.
Well, tell mama
What you need
Tell your mama, babe,
What you want.
Tell your mama, babe.
Whoa! an' I'll make everything alright.
...
You already know what you need, man.
You already know what you're looking for,
Man, i found out out at fourteen years old
And I been lookin' for it every since, too, man.

-- Tell Mama by Janis Joplin




Posted By: AphonicRants Re: aging songs: 15 - 05/09/02 07:44 PM
Ya I can see that you're just fifteen years old
But I don't want your I.D.
Ya I can see that you're so far from home
This ain't no hanging matter,
No it ain't no capital crime

-- Stray Cat Blues; Rolling Stones


Posted By: AphonicRants Re: aging songs: 9 - 05/09/02 08:03 PM
John Henry was a little boy,
'Bigger than the palm of your hand,
'Time that boy, he was nine years old
Driving spikes like a man
Driving spikes like a man.

John Henry was a little boy,
Sitting on his mammy's knee,
He picked up a hammer and a little bit of steel:
"Hammer's gonna be the death of me,
Hammer's gonna be the death of me."



Posted By: AphonicRants Re: aging songs: 900 - 05/09/02 08:17 PM
At the far end of the scale:

It ain’t necessarily so
It ain’t necessarily so
De t’ings dat yo li’ble
To read in de Bible
It ain’t necessarily so
Methus’lah lived nine hundred years
Methus’lah lived nine hundred years
But who calls dat livin’
When no gal’ll give in
To no man what’s nine hundred years
I’m preachin’ dis sermon to show
It ain’t nessa, ain’t nessa
It ain’t necessarily so!

-- It Ain't Necessarily So; George & Ira Gershwin, from Porgy & Bess
Posted By: of troy Re: aging songs - 2-4-18 - 05/09/02 10:48 PM
oops! after being publicly corrected, i guess i should go back and delete my post..
or maybe-- i could reluctantly admit..
yeah, i guess for some people, a song written in the 1970's, could have been learned in childhood, and be thought an old song...
or i could just let it pass..

i could be wrong in making the comment, and Max could be wrong to nit pic, and Maveric could be wrong to join the battle.. or it could just be fun, and and i can be somewhat right (since the comments were made in the late 1970's, by adults, the four green fields was an old song) and max is right too, (but are we doing letting young whipper-snappers like him post?) and Mav could be right.. and no ones feelings got hurt, because we are adults, and behave like adults, and not like spoiled children, who, make problems for everyone..

no one told Silk Muse to remove her post... and AnnaS's post to my ear, sounded more like some one stunned that they missed the train..

rather than a complaint or being critical, she was a deer caught in the headlights saying What are those interesting liSMASH!

hey, but i could be wrong about this too! but what harm does it do to give AnnaS the benifit of the doubt? if she continued to complain, and RANT, again and again, and to make leading statements, and inuendo (posting with no comment-- such B.S!) then, maybe we could say, hey AnnaS, give it a rest!

but somehow, AnnaS, (and one or two others) are expected to be perfect, and never, ever post a statement that has the least bit of ambiguity.. because if they don't, one or two people will say-- Oh, look-- if you read it upside down, backwards, and inverted, it could be construed to mean something else!


Posted By: Max Quordlepleen . - 05/09/02 11:17 PM
Posted By: WhitmanO'Neill Re: aging songs - 2-4-18 - 05/10/02 12:20 AM
Hey, I've got "dibs" on The Beatles' When I'm 64 when we get to it!

The Only WO'N!
Posted By: Angel Re: aging songs - 2-4-18 - 05/10/02 02:35 AM
Hey, I've got "dibs" on The Beatles' When I'm 64 when we get to it!

Sorry, Juan...that's what Silk Muse deleted above....She claims that one!

Posted By: musick aging lyrics - the same old story - 05/10/02 02:52 AM
I do not comment; I merely report.

You, of all people, know that those are the same thing when you do *it.

----------------

I was 40 when I got here
and you all gave me a lift
It added ten yers to my life
Being thirty was quite a gift

After meeting Jackie 5 more got added
and became a quarter century old
again, but AphonicRants just made it saddened
his reporting pushed my years to Gold.

Me (soon to be a number one hit on Doctor Demento)

--------------

Leave the 'reports' in I + A, cuz they are even less "fun" than you putting 7 posts here in a row (appropriate or not).

Remember: "The only structure we need is self-control".

Posted By: hev Re: aging lyrics - 15, 25 & 30 - 05/10/02 04:54 AM
TURNING THIRTY

Words and Music by Randy Stonehill Those USns, why must they use that name...

I've got a house down by the ocean, the rent is not too high
And I love to watch the ships come in and hear the seagulls cry
And lately I've been taking stock of all that I've been through
Oh tomorrow is my birthday feels funny but it's true
I'm turning thirty
.....
Now thirty ain't like fifteen and it's not like twenty-five
My back's a little stiff and there're some lines around my eyes
But I've still got my energy and I've got most of my hair
And I'm not too old to rock 'n roll and I'm not really scared
Of turning thirty

Obviously turning 30 in 1983 was a lot different to turning 30 in 2001... None of these peculiar ailments overtook me when I turned 30!

John Lennon wrote and recorded a song called Life Begins At Forty, and never released it. Talk about eerie.

The lyrics seem to be unavailable online, but here's a page with the complete song history (evidently he laid down several different versions of it):

http://www.bootlegzone.com/beatleg/songs/lifeoruy.htm

Beautiful Boys

by John Lennon

You're a beautiful boy,
With all your little toys,
Your eyes have seen the world,
Though your only four years old,
And your tears are streaming,
Even when your smiling,
Please never be afraid to cry,

You're a beautiful boy,
With all your little ploys,
Your mind has changed the world,
And your now forty years old,
You got all you can carry,
And still somehow empty,
Don't ever be afraid to fly,

All you beautiful boys,
Creating multiple plays,
You like to fence in your world,
And settle down when you're old,
You can run from pole to pole,
And never scratch your soul,
Don't be afraid to go to hell and back,
Don't be afraid to go to hell and back,
Don't be afraid to be afraid.

from the Double Fantasy album, © 1980 John Lennon



Posted By: WhitmanO'Neill Re: ageing songs: 24 - 05/10/02 06:34 AM
"Old Man"

by Neil Young

Old man look at my life,
I'm a lot like you were.
Old man look at my life,
I'm a lot like you were.

Old man look at my life,
Twenty four
and there's so much more
Live alone in a paradise
That makes me think of two.


Posted By: WhitmanO'Neill Re: ageing songs: back to a great 16! - 05/10/02 06:43 AM
Lest we forget...no Chuck, no Beatles, they said so themselves! The greatest "16" R'n'R song ever written (IMHO)! Take it Chuck!

Sweet Little Sixteen

by Chuck Berry

They're really rockin Boston
In Pittsburgh, P. A.
Deep in the heart of Texas
And 'round the Frisco Bay
All over St. Louis
Way down in New Orleans
All the Cats wanna dance with
Sweet Little Sixteen

Sweet Little Sixteen
She's just got to have
About half a million
Framed autographs
Her wallet's filled with pictures
She gets 'em one by one
She gets so excited
Watch her look at her run

Oh mommy mommy
Please may I go
It's such a sight to see
Somebody steal the show
Oh daddy daddy
I beg of you
Whisper to mommy
It's all right with you

Cause they'll be rockin on bandstand
In Philadelphia P.A.
Deep in the heart of Texas
And 'round the Frisco Bay
All over St. Louis
Way Down in New Orleans
All the Cats wanna dance with
Sweet Little Sixteen

Sweet Little Sixteen
She's got the grown up blues
Tight dress and lipstick
She's sportin' high heal shoes
Oh, but tomorrow morning
She'll have to chang her trend
And be sweet sixteen
And back in class again

Cause they'll be rockin on bandstand
In Philadelphia P.A.
Deep in the heart of Texas And 'round the Frisco Bay
All over St. Louis Way Down in New Orleans
All the Cats wanna dance with
Sweet Little Sixteen


© 1955 by Chuck Berry







Sunrise, Sunset

Is this the little girl I carried?
Is this the little boy at play?
I don't remember growing older
When did they?

When did she get to be a beauty?
When did he get to be so tall?
Wasn't it yesterday when they
Were small?

Sunrise, Sunset
Sunrise, Sunset
Swiftly flow the days
Seedlings turn overnight to sunflowers
Blossoming even as we gaze

Sunrise, Sunset
Sunrise, Sunset
Swiftly fly the years
One season following another
Laden with happiness and tears

What words of wisdom can I give them?
How can I help to ease their ways?
Now they must learn from one another
Day by day

They look so natural together
Just like two newlyweds should be
Is there a canopy in store
For me?

Sunrise, Sunset
Sunrise, Sunset
Swiftly fly the years
One season following another
Laden with happiness and tears

© 1968 by Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick, from Fiddler on the Roof




Posted By: Bingley birth and 16 - 05/10/02 10:22 AM
Gypsies Tramps and Thieves by Cher



I was born in the wagon of a travelin' show
My mama used to dance for the money they'd throw
Papa would do whatever he could
Preach a little gospel
Sell a couple bottles of doctor good

CHORUS:
Gypsies, tramps and thieves
We'd hear it from the people of the town
They'd call us gypsies, tramps and thieves
But every night all the men would come around
And lay their money down

Picked up a boy just south of Mobile
Gave him a ride, filled him with a hot meal
I was sixteen, he was twenty-one
Rode with us to Memphis
And papa woulda shot him if he knew what he'd done

Chorus

I never had schoolin' but he taught me well
With his smooth southern style
Three months later, I'm a gal in trouble
And I haven't seen him for a while
I haven't seen him for a while

She was born in the wagon of a travelin' show
Her mama had to dance for the money they'd throw
Grandpa'd do whatever he could
Preach a little gospel
Sell a couple bottles of doctor good

Chorus




Bingley
Posted By: AphonicRants Re: aging songs: "dibs" - 05/10/02 11:03 AM
>>Hey, I've got "dibs" on The Beatles' When I'm 64 when we get to it!

I'm putting dibs down on:
47 (Gilbert & Sullivan)
65 (Gilbert O'Sullivan)

Posted By: boronia Re: aging songs: 45 - 05/10/02 12:38 PM
I haven't heard Elvis Costello's new album, but I've read a review of it. Apparently, there's a song called "45" -- with verses about the year 1945, about being 45, and about 45 rpm records.

Posted By: Faldage FAIR - 05/10/02 12:54 PM
I haven't been spending a lot of time in this thread, but the local branch of Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting has asked me to point out a, no doubt unintentional, lapse in completeness in an earlier report (not a comment).

> [post by SilkMuse]
>> ASp: Aren't we supposed to be doing this chronologically? (I was waiting till "17")
>>>[Post deleted by SilkMuse]

I do not comment; I merely report.

--------------------------------------------------------------

>[post by sparteye, jumping to 16]
No objection by ASp.

I do not comment; I merely report.


The (no doubt unintentional) lapse is that between [post by sparteye, jumping to 16] and the report (not a comment) the aforementioned ASp had posted:

Is there really nothing for the ages between 4 and 17??? I keep coming up blank... and now y'all have posted the 17-related songs I was waiting to explode upon the scene with.

[white](going to the back of the class now)[/white]




I do not comment, I merely report. I do commend the ARs for advancing from newbie to journeyman in the prosecution of his efforts to demonstrate his greater knowledge of popular music when for all we know he could be a Pooh-Bah if he were to take proper credit for his postings. I do hope he will pay more attention to the little details in his reporting and I would hope that no one ever find him to have committed similar lapses to the one he wrongly attributes to the ASp.



Posted By: AphonicRants Re: FAIR - 05/10/02 01:16 PM
faldage, there is some merit to what you say about the second part of my post.

Please consider that part deleted, and the post confined to its first part only.

Aside to of-troy: did you notice that "It Ain't Necessarily So" is in limerick form, dear to your heart?

Edit to faldage: very nicely said, sir. Thank you for pointing that out; I deserved it.

Posted By: AphonicRants Re: aging songs: the younger years - 05/10/02 01:23 PM
This song, though it gives no specific year, is clearly referring to a pre-adolescent:

When I was a lad of three-foot-three / Certain questions occurred to me,
So I asked me father quite seriously / To tell me the story 'bout the bird and bee.
He stammered and he stuttered pathetically / And this is what he said to me.

He said, "The woman piaba and the man piaba
and the Ton Ton call baka lemon grass,
The lily root, gully root, belly root uhmm,
And the famous grandy scratch scratch."


[and one more line, starting the next verse: It was clear as mud but it covered the ground]

-- Man Piaba by Harry Belafonte

Although age-16 has been well-covered, I find this one too sweet to omit:

Tonight's the night I've waited for
Because you're not a baby anymore
You've turned into the prettiest girl I've ever seen
Happy birthday sweet sixteen
What happened to that funny face
My little tomboy now wears satins and lace
I can't believe my eyes you're just a teenage dream
Happy birthday sweet sixteen

When you were only six / I was your big brother
Then when you were ten / We didn't like each other
When you were thirteen / You were a funny Valentine
But since you've grown up
Your future is sewn up
From now on you're gonna be mine so

If I should smile with sweet surprise
It's just that you've grown up before my very eyes
You've turned into the prettiest girl I've ever seen
Happy birthday sweet sixteen

-- Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen (Neil Sedaka / Howard Greenfield)

[My daughters are older [sad -e], but still "the prettiest girls I've ever seen".]



Posted By: wofahulicodoc N - 2 - 05/10/02 05:12 PM
Let me contribute another eager fourteen-year-old:


Lolly Too Tum Day

As I went out one morning to fetch the pleasant air
Lolly too tum, too tum, lolly too tum day.
As I went out one morning to fetch the pleasant air,
I overheard a mother a-scoldin' her daughter fair
Lolly too tum, too tum, lolly too tum day. hereinafter to be known as "Lolly-etc"


"You better go wash them dishes, and hush that flattering tongue,"
Lolly-etc
"You better go wash them dishes, and hush that flattering tongue,
For you know that you wanna get married, and that you are too young."
Lolly-etc

"Oh pity my condition, just like it was yer own,"
Lolly-etc
"Oh pity my condition, just like it was yer own,
For fourteen long years I've been living all alone."
Lolly-etc

"Supposin' I were willin', where would you get yer man?"
Lolly-etc
"Supposin' I were willin', where would you get yer man?"
"Lawsy, massy, Mammy, I'd marry that handsome Sam."
Lolly-etc

"Supposin' he should spite you, like you done him before?"
Lolly-etc
"Supposin' he should spite you, like you done him before?"
"Lawsy, massy, Mammy, I could marry me fourteen more!"
Lolly-etc

"There's peddlers and there's tinkers, and boys from the plow,"
Lolly-etc
"There's peddlers and there's tinkers, and boys from the plow!
"Lawsy, massy, Mammy, I'm a-gettin' that feelin' now!
Lolly-etc


As I went out one morning to fetch the pleasant air
Lolly too tum, too tum, lolly too tum day.
As I went out one morning to fetch the pleasant air,
I overheard a mother a-scoldin' her daughter fair,
Lolly too, tum, too, tum,
Lolly Too Tum Day.

sung by Burl Ives (from the record "The Wayfaring Stranger" ? )

"Lawsy, massy" approximately translates "Lord have mercy," I suspect

Posted By: SilkMuse Post deleted by SilkMuse - 05/10/02 07:43 PM
Posted By: Angel Re: 16 - 05/10/02 11:13 PM
"She was only sixteen, only sixteen
With eyes that would glow
But she was too young to fall in love
and I was too young to know.
So why did I give my heart so fast
It never will happen again
But I was a mere child of sixteen
I've aged a year since then"
Dr. John - "Only Sixteen"


"Dr. John"? I was going to post this one by "Dr. Hook and the Medical Show"...circa 1975! When I was 16!

Posted By: SilkMuse Post deleted by SilkMuse - 05/11/02 03:18 AM
Posted By: Angel Re: 16 - 05/11/02 06:24 PM
I stand corrected

That's OK girlfriend...lots of mistakes get made here every week. I just more or less wanted to point out that the song about being 16 came out when I was 16, and I guess I really lived the feelings in the whole song back then. Couldn't pay me enough to go back to 16..uh uh....no way, Jose!

Posted By: consuelo Re: 17 turns 35 - 05/13/02 10:00 AM
Well I lived on the outskirts of town
In an eight room farmhouse, baby
When my brothers and friends were around
There was always somethin' doin'
Had me a couple of real nice girlfriends
Stopped by to see me every once in a while
When I think back about those days
All I can do is sit and smile

That's when a sport was a sport
And groovin' was groovin'
And dancin' meant everything
We were young and we were improvin'
Laughin', laughin' with our friends
Holdin' hands meant somethin', baby
Outside the club"Cherry Bomb"
Our hearts were really thumpin'
Say yeah yeah yeah
Say yeah yeah yeah

The winter days they last forever
But the weekends went by so quick
Went ridin' around this little country town
We were goin' nuts, girl, out in the sticks
One night, me with my big mouth
A couple guys had to put me in my place
When I see those guys these days
We just laugh and say do you remember when

Chorus

Say yeah yeah yeah
Say yeah yeah yeah

Seventeen has turned thirty-five
I'm surprised that we're still livin'
If we've done any wrong
I hope that we're forgiven
Got a few kids of my own
And some days I still don't know what to do
I hope that they're not laughing too loud
When they hear me talkin'
Like this to you

Chorus

Cherry Bomb - John Mellencamp

Posted By: consuelo Re: 21-43 - 05/13/02 10:12 AM
Suzanne divorced her husband
She got the keys and the car and the home
But her friends were really his friends
No one stops by to see her much any more
So one night, she goes back down to
The old haunts
That once upon a time were her own
She didn't know nobody out there no
More
And the whole experience just made her
Feel so old
She says

I want to live the real life
I want to life my life close to the bone
Just because I'm middle-aged that
Don't mean
I want to sit around my house and watch TV
I want the real life
I want to live the real life

Jackson Jackson was a good kid
He had four years of college
And a bachelors degree
Started workin, when he was 21
Got fed up and quit
When he was 43
He said, "My whole life
I've done, what I was supposed to do
Now I'd like to maybe do something
For myself
And just as soon, I figure out what
That is
You can bet your life
I'm gonna give it hell"
He says

I want to live the real life
I want to life my life close to the bone
Just because I'm middle-aged that
Don't mean
I want to sit around my house and watch TV
I want the real life
I want to live the real life

I guess, it don't matter, how old you
Are
Or how old one lives to be
I guess, it boils down to what we did
With our lives
And how we deal with our own
Destinies
But something happens
when you reach a certain age
Particularly to those ones, that are
Young at heart
It's a lonely proposition when you
Realize
That there's less days in front of the
Horse
Than riding in the back of this cart
I say

I want to live the real life
I want to life my life close to the bone
Just because I'm middle-aged that
Don't mean
I want to sit around my house and watch TV
I want the real life
I want to live the real life.

The Real Life - John Mellencamp
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Posted By: boronia Re: 17 and 22 - 05/13/02 12:43 PM
Your mom was 17 when it started to get mean
by Mulholland Drive.
Now you're 22, there's nothin you wouldn't do
to keep your soul alive.

Topanga Canyon Freaks
Steve Wynn and the Miracle 3

bonus points for lyrics that include a movie title!

Posted By: Angel Re: 16 - 05/13/02 09:47 PM
For Mother's Day, I offer this, for those who selflessly gave up children, so that they could have a better life.

She gets in her car, October Friday night,
Home from work, down 31, past Franklin High,
She can see the stadium lights,
She can hear the band.
A thousand crazy high school kids,
Screaming in the stands.
Quarterback and Homecoming Queen,
Love too young to know what it means.
She goes back in time, oh, in her mind,
It's like a dream.

He would be sixteen,
The son she never knew.
It hurt so much to give him up:
But what else could she do?
He would be sixteen.

A child should have a home,
She knows her folks were right.
She never heard the couple's name,
Just that they were nice.
She wonders if he's taller than his father was.
Does he drive a car by now, has he been in love?
She shakes back to reality,
She knows things turn out the way they should be.
But she just can't help but ask herself,
Does he know about me?

He would be sixteen,
The son she never knew.
It hurt so much to give him up:
But what else could she do?
He would be sixteen.

She never even got to hold him,
And nights like this.
It hurts to miss,
The son she's never seen.
He would be sixteen.

He would be sixteen.

"He Would Be Sixteen"
~~Michelle Wright


Posted By: alexis 93 - 05/23/02 10:02 AM
Right - I don't notice much chronological order here, so I'm going to jump in with the last verse of a previously mentioned song, since it's a way-cool song and Harry should get some more air-play...

Well I traveled far and I traveled wide
And I don't even have me self a bride
All the great men upon this earth
Have confused me since my birth
I've been over land and been over sea
Trying to find answer 'bout the bird and bee
But now that I am ninety three
I don't give a darn you see

If the woman piaba and the man piaba
And the Ton Ton call baka lemon grass,
The lily root, gully root, belly root uhmm,
And the famous grandy scratch scratch.

Man piaba, Harry Belafonte
alexis


Posted By: milum Re: 93 > seventeen - 05/23/02 05:55 PM
The connection? Uh, I think Ben E King sez "LIED" ninty-three times in this song.
___________________________________________________________

Don't play that song for me
It brings back memories of days that I once knew
The days that I spent with you
oh no, don't let it play
It fills my heart with pain
Please stop it right away
I remember just-a what it said

It said:
"Darling, I love you"
_______________You know that you lied.
"Darling, I love you"
_______________You know that you lied.
"Darling, I love you"
_______________You know that you lied.

You lied, you lied, you Lied, Lied, Lied, lied.

Remember on our first date
You kissed me and you walked away
You were only seventeen
I never thought you'd act so mean
But baby you told me you loved me
You told me you cared
you said, "I'll go with you darling -
almost anywhere
"

But darling, you know that you lied.
You know that you lied.
You know that you lied,
lied, lied, lied, lied, lied, lied.

Darling I love you (You lied) - Ben E. King


Posted By: AphonicRants Re: aging songs: "dibs" on 47 - 05/23/02 06:20 PM
Claiming my previous dibs on 47. Ruth (purple) and Frederic (green) speaking, then singing, in The Pirates of Penzance by Gilbert & Sullivan:

Ruth, you are considerably older than I. A lad of twenty-one usually looks for a wife of seventeen. A wife of seventeen! You will find me a wife of a thousand! No, but I shall find you a wife of forty-seven, and that is quite enough.
... (later) ...
You told me you were fair as gold! / And, master, am I not so?
And now I see you're plain and old. / I'm sure I'm not a jot so.
Upon my innocence you play. / I'm not the one to plot so.
Your face is lined, your hair is grey. / It's gradually got so.
Faithless woman, to deceive me, / I who trusted so!
Master, master, do not leave me! / Hear me, ere you go!

My love without reflecting, / Oh, do not be rejecting!
Take a maiden tender, her affection raw and green,
At very highest rating, / Has been accumulating
Summers seventeen, summers seventeen.
Don't, beloved master, / rush me with disaster.
What is such a dower to the dower I have here?
My love unabating / Has been accumulating
Forty-seven year--forty-seven year!


----------------------------------------------------------------
[ensemble]
Don't, beloved master, / Crush me with disaster.
What is such a dower to the dower I have here?
My love unabating / Has been accumulating
Forty-seven year--forty-seven year!


Yes, your former master / Saves you from disaster.
Your love would be uncomfortably fervid, it is clear
If, as you are stating / It's been accumulating
Forty-seven year--forty-seven year!
Posted By: AphonicRants Re: aging songs: an aside - 05/23/02 06:39 PM
From the same Gilbert & Sullivan: the Pirate King's chant:

For some ridiculous reason, to which, however, I've no desire to be disloyal,
Some person in authority, I don't know who, very likely the Astronomer Royal,
Has decided that, although for such a beastly month as February, twenty-eight days as a rule are plenty,
One year in every four his days shall be reckoned as nine and-twenty.
Through some singular coincidence-- I shouldn't be surprised if it were owing to the agency of an ill-natured fairy--
You are the victim of this clumsy arrangement, having been born in leap-year, on the twenty-ninth of February;
And so, by a simple arithmetical process, you'll easily discover,
That though you've lived twenty-one years, yet, if we go by birthdays, you're only five and a little bit over!


Posted By: AphonicRants Re: aging songs: "dibs" on 65 - 05/23/02 06:55 PM
And claiming my previous "dibs" on 65. From Alone Again, Naturally, by Gilbert O'Sullivan:

In looking back over the years, / And whatever else that appears.
I remember I cried when my father died, / Never wishing to hide the tears.
At sixty-five years old, / My mother, God rest her soul,
Couldn’t understand why the only man, / She had ever loved had been taken.
Leaving her to start, with a heart so badly broken,
Despite encouragement from me, / No words were ever spoken.
And when she passed away, / I cried and cried all day,
Alone again, naturally .....

Posted By: satin Re: aging songs: "dibs" on 65 - 05/28/02 03:31 PM
Will you still need me, will you still feed me, When I'm 64?
Beatles

Posted By: belMarduk Re: ixsteen - 05/28/02 08:47 PM
From The Frog Prince as played by the Muppets

I'm ixsteen, I'm ixsteen,
I'm ixsteen dotay
A gig birl
A daly
I'm ixsteen dotay

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