How did we get so old? We have to stop and wonder

Who ever thought there’d be a market for singing about getting old, retiring and finding the best bits of an older life.  Bob Dylan sang on the Letterman show about retiring, and our good old favourite Leo Sayer, famous for the anthem “You make me feel like dancing” has done it too, with the first release from his new album being “How did we get so old?”  It is a fun, light-hearted look at life from the perspective of the 66 year old rocker in the flavour of Monti Python’s “Always look on the Bright Side of life”.

And it resonates here an awful lot.  He’s singing about how he woke up one day and suddenly decided he was a little older than he thought.  My dad, now 68 years old was inthralled by how darned true the song is for him and so many of his friends.  Not old in life or living, he says to me “Leo Sayer’s got it just right”.

“It’s like we woke up and suddenly we’re old!” my father said.

But Leo Sayer is not sad about it at all.

“I’m loving being in my 60’s. It’s such fun! Kids think you’re smart, people open doors for you, you get your own dedicated car spaces, get charged less for things. But I’m still a child in my mind, and sometimes I get so disappointed when I look in the mirror, thinking surely that guy can’t be me? I wonder how did I get to here, where do all those years go?”

So that’s what the song is about.  And it is  just one piece of an incredible career highlighted by the sale of 80 million albums… Yes you heard right!  80 million albums.

Listen to the song on iTunes here: https://itunes.apple.com/au/album/restless-years/id949832800

Or watch a short clip on it below.  And tell us what you think… Do you sometimes wonder “How did you get so old?”

How did we get so old?

I’m entertained by the lyrics, below.

She is my Mona Lisa

I am her Charlie Chan

We live a life so easy

Doing the least we can

I thought by now that time would

Have taken all it’s grisly toll

So how did we get so old?

She says I drive too slowly

But I’ve got the hammer down

We’re off to see the young ones

Dressed up like circus clowns

They’ll probably ignore us

They’ll be so hot

We’ll be so cold

Oh how did we get so old?

Outside it’s Palm Tree morning

Under the bluest sky

We’re living free from worry

Chasing our cares goodbye

(solo with whistling)

This is our anniversary

But we’re young at heart

So we’ve been told

How did we get so old…

Park in a senior’s car space

Go see a movie on the cheap

We’re high as kites for taking

A thousand pills a week

Wisdom’s a great salvation

Hindsight is worth a pot of gold

How did we get so old?