Old man look at my life,
I’m a lot like you were.
Old man look at my life,
I’m a lot like you were.
“Old Man” is a song written and performed by Neil Young on his 1972 album Harvest. “Old Man” was released as a single on Reprise Records on April 17, 1972, reaching number 4 in Canada, and number 31 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for the week ending June 3.
This is not the jokerman. This is someone whose heart can be got ahold of. And in a real sense this person is more vulnerable, and even more in need of a place to hide, than the genius who could write and perform “Blind Willie McTell.”
~Paul Williams (Bob Dylan: Performing Artist, Vol 2: The Middle Years 1974-1986)
It’s getting harder and harder to recognize the trap
Too much information about nothing, too much educated rap
Never could learn to drink that blood, and call it wine
What looks large from a distance, close up is never that big
~Bob Dylan (Someone’s Got a Hold of My Heart)
Great song recorded during the “infidels” sessions April 1983, but sadly not included on the released album.
It later developed into “Tight Connection to My Heart (Has Anybody Seen My Love)”, recorded during the “Empire Burlesque” sessions in 1985 (and released on that album).
Man thinks ’cause he rules the earth he can do with it as he please
And if things don’t change soon, he will
Oh, man has invented his doom
First step was touching the moon
License to Kill was recorded April 13, 1983 @ Studio A, Power Station, New York City.
Performed 46 times live, top year was 1984 with 30 performances.
NBC Studios
Rockefeller Center
New York City, New York
22 March 1984
Late Night with David Letterman
Now, there’s a woman on my block
She just sit there as the night grows still
She say who, gonna take away his license to kill?
Yeah, Elvis Presley. I liked Elvis Presley… Elvis Presley recorded a song of mine. That’s the one recording I treasure the most… It was called Tomorrow Is A Long Time. I wrote it but never recorded it.
~Bob Dylan (to Jann Wenner, Nov 1969)
“Tomorrow Is a Long Time” is an example of an exceptional Dylan song from 1962-63 that as far as we know he never chose to record in any of his Columbia studio sessions, although many lesser songs were recorded, sometimes more than once.
~Paul Williams (Bob Dylan Performing Artist I: The Early Years 1960-1973 )
Dylan’s officially released version of the song is a live recording from his April 12, 1963, concert at New York’s Town Hall. Dylan had recorded the song in December 1962 as a demo for M. Witmark & Sons, his publishing company. This particular recording, long available as a bootleg, was released by Columbia in 2010 on The Bootleg Series Vol. 9: The Witmark Demos: 1962-1964. A studio version of the song, an outtake from the June 1970 sessions for New Morning, has also been bootlegged.
The warden led a prisoner down the hallway to his doom
I stood up to say goodbye like all the rest
And I heard him tell the warden just before he reached my cell
“Let my guitar playing friend do my request”
Merle Ronald Haggard (April 6, 1937 – April 6, 2016) was an American country singer, songwriter, guitarist, and fiddler.
“Sing Me Back Home” is a song written and recorded by American country music artist Merle Haggard and The Strangers. It was released in November 1967 as the first single and title track from the album Sing Me Back Home. In 2019, Rolling Stone ranked “Sing Me Back Home” No. 32 on its list of the 40 Saddest Country Songs of All Time.
Bob Dylan
Dylan covered this song in September 1985 – Farm Aid Rehearsals – with Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers.
Tracks from this rehearsal first started circulating in June 2016.
This is a pretty good performance, even though he doesn’t remember a lot of the lyrics.
Ten years ago, on a cold dark night
Someone was killed, ‘neath the town hall light
There were few at the scene, but they all agreed
That the slayer who ran, looked a lot like me
William Orville “Lefty” Frizzell was born March 31, 1928 (and died on July 19, 1975). He is one of the greatest vocalists in country music and one of his best songs is “Long Black Veil” a 1959 country ballad, written by Danny Dill and Marijohn Wilkin.
Many great artists have covered this wonderful song, I’ve collected some of them here.
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