My Decade of Turning 50

I ran a post recently with the YouTube video of “Done Got Old“, which made me think about some other songs about aging that could be used for a slideshow or roast for a baby boomer turning 50 years old. There are a couple of obvious ones — The Beatles’ “When I’m Sixty-Four,” or Frank Sinatra’s “It was a very good year” (though you might have more fun with Homer Simpson’s version, with the lyrics “When I was 17, I drank some very good beer” — see the YouTube video here.

There are others, which I’ll dig up here and there. One I like is Greg Brown’s “Hey Baby Hey” from his CD Further In. It’s a lovely song of love and connection and would work especially well if you are putting together a slideshow for someone who’s been together for a long time with his love. (It’s as closer as TB and I have for “Our Song.”) It ends with these lyrics (below that is a video I found on YouTube of someone doing the song):

but I want to stay right by your side
check out the view enjoy the ride
together
with all our loved ones

I want to plant a little garden with you now
take care of a piece of the earth somehow
and tend it when we’re old and gray and
try to straighten up and say, well,
I’m so glad to see you today
hey baby hey baby hey baby hey