When We Were Young: A Playlist About Aging, Mortality, and the Unstoppability of Time

Published On July 21, 2016 » By »

2016 has been devastating year for music. Fans were still reeling from the Dec. 28 passing of Motorhead’s Lemmy Kilmister and the New Year’s Eve death of Natalie Cole when David Bowie shockingly died on Jan. 10. And since then, we have lost such legends as Maurice White, Paul Kantner, Glenn Frey, Sir George Martin, Phife Dawg, Merle Haggard, Bernie Worrell, Keith Emerson, Alan Vega, and, of course, Prince. It’s all too much. And the year is barely half over.

Music fans now live in a permanently heightened state of paranoia, fearing that yet another icon will soon be taken from us – tensing up when we hear news of Joe Perry’s onstage collapse or Joni Mitchell and Glen Campbell’s ongoing health issues; feeling a sense of dread when we notice a veteran musician’s name suddenly trending on Twitter; or forking out a month’s salary for tickets to the all-star classic rock festival Desert Trip, just in case this is the last time we’ll have a chance to see greats like Bob Dylan and Paul McCartney share a stage.

It is in this morbid mindset, when we hear 72-year-old Desert Trip performer Roger Daltrey (who’s had his own share of recent medical problems) declare “hope I die before I get old” or the now-74-year-old McCartney contemplate what life might be like at age 64, that such lyrics truly hit a nerve. What’s interesting, however, is that while themes of aging and the simple unstoppability of time have always permeated popular music, many of the most chilling lyrics were penned by artists who at the time had barely even hit the big 3-0. Why were all these twentysomething artists, still very much in the early stages of their careers, so obsessed with mortality? Did any of these boomer-era rockers realize that their songs would take on much greater meaning when they’d perform them for their graying fans several decades later? And does it bother these artists to sing these lyrics now?

Below are some of the most impactful lines about aging in rock, all penned by veteran artists when they were, ironically, very young – artists who are, thankfully, still alive and well and performing today. We appreciate these legends more than ever now, and we feel the weight of their every word.

Fleetwood Mac, “Landslide”

Writer: Stevie Nicks

Age at the time: 27

Age now: 68

Key lyric: “Time makes you bolder/Even children get older/And I’m getting older, too”

The Who, “My Generation”

Writer: Pete Townshend

Age at the time: 20

Age now: 72

Key lyric: “Hope I die before I get old”

Aerosmith, “Dream On”

Writer: Steven Tyler

Age at the time: 25

Age now: 68

Key lyric: “Every time when I look in the mirror/All these lines on my face getting clearer/The past is gone.”

John Mellencamp (Cougar), “Jack & Diane”

Age at the time: 31

Age now: 64

Key lyric: “Oh yeah, life goes on/Long after the thrill of living is gone”

The Cure, “Closedown”

Writer: Robert Smith

Age at the time: 29

Age now: 57

Key lyric: “I’m running out of time/I’m out of step and closing down”

Alice Cooper, “I’m Eighteen”

Writers: Alice Cooper, Michael Bruce, Glen Buxton, Dennis Dunaway, Neal Smith

Cooper’s age at the time: 22

Age now: 68

Key lyric: “Lines form on my face and hands/Lines form from the ups and downs”

The Rolling Stones, “Mother’s Little Helper”

Writers: Mick Jagger and Keith Richards

Age at the time: Both were 23

Age now: 72

Key lyric: “What a drag it is getting old”

Neil Young, “Heart of Gold”

Age at the time: 27

Age now: 70

Key lyric: “Keeps me searching for a heart of gold/And I’m getting old”

Simon & Garfunkel: “Hazy Shade of Winter”

Writer: Paul Simon

Age at the time: 25

Age now: 74

Key lyric: “Time, time, time/See what’s become of me/While I looked around for my possibilities”

The Beatles, “When I’m 64″

Writer: Paul McCartney

Age at the time: 25

Age now: 74

Key lyric: When I get older losing my hair/Many years from now/Will you still be sending me a valentine/Birthday greetings, bottle of wine?… Will you still need me, will you still feed me/When I’m 64?”

LCD Soundsystem, “Losing My Edge”

Writer: James Murphy

Age at the time: 32

Age now: 46

Key lyric: “I’m losing my edge to the art-school Brooklynites in little jackets and borrowed nostalgia for the unremembered ‘80s…But I was there/I was there in 1974 at the first Suicide practices in a loft in New York City…I was there when Captain Beefheart started up his first band…I was the first guy playing Daft Punk to the rock kids”

Honorable mention:

Adele is only 27 now, and “When We Were Young,” which she co-wrote with Tobias Jesso Jr., appears on an album titled 25. But we know years from now, when a still-relevant, still-touring, senior-citizen Adele Adkins croons, “We were sad of getting old/It made us restless/Oh, I’m so mad I’m getting old/It makes me reckless,” there won’t be a dry eye in the house.

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This article originally ran on Yahoo Music.

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