Going Back - Better Now

[royclough]

This week I have been playing The Byrds box set There Is A Season and one track in particular struck a chord with me, whilst I always liked their version of Going Back I suppose back in the 60's it was the melody I liked and perhaps never really listened to the lyrics, but as I approach my sixth decade a couple of lines in the song seemed to strike a a chord with me and somehow seemed personnal

""But thinking young & growin' older is no sin"


"I can recall the time when I wasn't ashamed to reach out to a friend,now I think I've got a lot more than just my toys to lend"


I wondered if perhaps some on here view songs and lyrics differently to when they first heard and liked a particular song.


Going Back

[sowhat]

Yes, i had the same kind of thing (that's not a joke), not with the Byrds though, never could relate to their music. Like, first i thought of "Sounds of silence" as a, say, negative song, "silence like a cancer grows" etc, and i could relate to the hero who wanted to disturb it, but then i thought, "maybe he was wrong and people were right, and he just couldn't see something, the magic of silence and all?" There were lots of songs and bands that i didn't like or even disliked at first, but then grew to liking and even loving them, but the most evident example is not from the 50s or 60s, so i'll keep it to myself. There were also acts and songs i have "outgrown", so to speak, mean once - when i was a teenager - i considered them to be cool and thoughtful and interesting but now i simply cannot take them seriously, cannot relate. Many a "protest" ("let's-hit-out-injustice") and "i don't belong here" ("nobody understands me, i'm too good and the world is ****") song belong to that category. Perhaps it's cause i don't really feel i need to fight anymore.

[rictified]

That happens to me a lot Roy, as when I was a kid I rarely listened to lyrics unless they really jumped out at me, I was too busy listening and analyzing the music. One song that did jump out at me especially as I got older was "I am A Rock" also by Simon and Garfunkle. Another one was Good Time Charlie's Got the Blues, Danny O'keefe.


You know my heart keeps tellin' me
You're not a kid at thirty-three
Play around you'll lose your wife
play too long you'll lose your life

[nick_allen]

"Ah, but I was so much older then,
I'm younger than that now"
(and he was only in his 20s when he wrote it)

"Wish I didnt know now what I didnt know then"
(Bob Seger, Against The Wind)

And I hate to say it Roy, but if the age shown in your profile is correct, then (like me) you are approaching your seventh decade...

[royclough]

Quite correct Nick, hell I'm older than I thought!!

[sowhat]

Technically, 7th decade starts at 61, if it helps... like, 21th century actually started in 2001, not 2000.
"I was twenty-one years when I wrote this song.
I'm twenty-two now but I won't be for long
Time hurries on.
And the leaves that are green turn to brown..." (© Simon and Garfunkel, of course)
I wonder if Mister Simon knew back then how right he was...