75. 10 Songs about Old Men

Old Man - Neil Young
Me and the Major - Belle and Sebastian
Streets of London - Ralph McTell
Battered Old Bird - Elvis Costello
Old Man - Love
When I'm 64 - The Beatles
Help the Aged - Pulp
My Old Man - Ian Dury & the Blockheads
Old - Dexys Midnight Runners
I'd Rather Be An Old Man's Sweetheart (Than A Young Man's Fool) - Candi Staton

Must be tough being an old man. I mean, really, I wouldn't wish it on anyone. Especially these days when they're not even old enough to have war stories and the respect that'll be accrued from that to fall back on.
Old women tend to be much more automatically beloved and respected and cherished. I don't think one so automatically assumes an old woman will be racist, either. Has anyone ever had a conversation with an old man which was lasted over half an hour where thry haven't ended up saying something mildly - or not mildly - racist. Or is that just me?
At least great old actors do tend to get a few last great parts as they enter their dotage - though Robert de Niro's escapes him so far - and Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash have guaranteed that any aging rock star can get together with a hip producer and do an album which'll suddenly make them vaguely cool again.
This is songs about old men, rather than by old men, though often they're one and the same thing. Anyway, some beautiful songs by old men are If I Could Only Fly - Merle Haggard, Not Dark Yet - Bob Dylan, That Lucky Old Sun - Johnny Cash, Don't Give Up On Me - Solomon Burke, Losing You - Randy Newman ...oldish, anyway. Bob Dylan has occupied the voice of an old man since he was about 18, and even Not Dark Yet is a middle-aged man really.
I very much like the Neil Young song which, one presumes, is about his father, and very much laugh at the Ralph McTell song ... "sun don't shine". Ralph McTell apparently got lost driving Billy Connolly from Putney to Knightsbridge and Connolly said "didn't you write 'let me take you by the hand and lead you through the streets of London'" Hoho. That was in last week's Observer, as i expect you read.
I feel sad for old people sometimes, i feel pretty old myself sometimes, however i believe this hasn't been a bad time to grow old these last few decades - most of them, who were the baby boomer generation, have made a mint from houses and have a fun old age to look forward to while the world warms up a bit, and then when it's time for us lot to grow old, it will all go to shit. Hoho again.
Anyway, this is kind of imaginary, tho i did see something horrific on the tube recently ...

"What with all the basics unlearnt
and the myriad that can go wrong ..."
is a lecture still appropriate? As
The years are closing up on us.

"Two stops on the Victoria Line
shouldn't have been such a trial
but the old man, old man, shuffled
off to universal wincing."

I instantly regret your sleeve
hitched half up now to highlight
an archipelago of eczema -
you're challenging me now, alright.

"I could never love anyone,
anyone who could ever love me" -
what you're expecting I can't give,
I'm just taking notes, you know.

I've some stories I will tell -
that's the shift you ask about,
it's all about the wince these days,
the hinted whiff of excrement.

"You and him, you could be brothers"
I am not too old for mischief
as you're all too keen to point out;
"not too young either" - the first shared smile.