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?”
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?