The young-old—or is it the old-young?
Did you ever notice that young people sometimes write and/or perform as though they’re old?
Some do it very successfully; the best example that comes to mind is T. S. Eliot—who perhaps was born old—who began writing his masterpiece “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” with its aura of disillusionment and ennui, a life not-quite-lived and all played out, at the ripe young age of 22.
It was published when he was about 27, and it was his first professionally published poem:
Prufrock laments his physical and intellectual inertia, the lost opportunities in his life and lack of spiritual progress, and he is haunted by reminders of unattained carnal love. With visceral feelings of weariness, regret, embarrassment, longing, emasculation, sexual frustration, a sense of decay, and an awareness of mortality, “Prufrock” has become one of the most recognised voices in modern literature.
Turning to a very different artist in a very different time with a very different message, I was shocked many years ago when I learned that singer Tom Waits had been all of 24 years old when the song “Ol’ 55,” one of my favorites, came out. He may have written it even earlier than that, but I don’t know if it was significantly earlier. At any rate, in this case it’s the sound that’s so old; Waits’ musical growl sounds like that of a grizzled old-timer (and it got even deeper as he got only a bit older):
In music another example is Hank Williams who died at the age of 29. So he obviously wrote and recorded all of his songs in his mid to late 20s.
‘I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry’ does not sound like it’s by a young person in either performance or subject matter.
Furthermore, i wonder if this will still be true going forward.
In 1965 my 35 year old mother sat in the car for three hours while my brothers and sister attended a Beatles concert because she was ‘too old’ for that kind of music. But now I can’t tell you how many people I see that are into the same types of music and entertainment as their teenage kids.
Our cushy lives allow many to not mature til later if ever I think leading to much shallower and less introspective lives.
Do you know “neotany”, Neo? You sure should.
In evolution, it’s the retention of juvenile characteristics, into the adult phase.
In Anthro, the famous example is the skull of a chimp infant, compared to that of an adult human.
It’s important in individual development too, I would submit, though I can’t very well prove it scientifically.
But I do know this: Toddlers have fairly routinely been identified as a “Little Old Man” or “Little Old Lady”, since waay back.
Goes the same for other ‘types’, of course.
The capacity to adapt, well into adulthood, to change your mind (even of things acquired in impressionable youth), is neotany at work.
The bitter old person is so common as to be a cliche. The bitter old person is most often someone unwilling to accept the consequences of their earlier choices. Life, God and/or ‘the World’ did it to them.
These songs highlight an all too rare willingness to fearlessly look in the mirror;
“Yesterday, When I Was Young”
“Margaritaville”
I also note that people who have lived faithful lives; whether to religious tenets or to reasoned principle, rarely exhibit bitterness.
To sound old, a young person must internally be old. Tom Waits certainly qualifies. Just one look tells you that he’s never been very happy. To paraphrase; ‘He’s ridden himself hard and put himself away wet”.
I actually restrain from the ad hominem. It’s a fallacy of logic if, IF, it’s a substitution for addressing a fellow debaters argument. But it ceases to be a fallacy of logic if the debater proves that he/she is acting in bad faith.
Neo, do you have sister who might want to date a slightly abused and bruised old Sailor? Or if not a sister a cousin? I can make pancakes and pasta and really good steaks.
You have to test it on the palm of your hand. Does the steak fee tender. Jeexix people how many times do I have to mansplaine this.
*feel
How S((( Happens
In the beginning there was the Plan.
And then came the Assumptions.
And the Assumptions were without form.
And the Plan was without substance.
And darkness was on the face of the Workers.
And they spoke among themselves, saying
“It is a crock of shit, and it stinks”.
And the Workers went unto their Supervisors and said
“It is a pail of dung, and none may abide the odor thereof”.
And the Supervisors went unto their Managers, saying
“It is a container of excrement, and it is very strong, such that none can abide by it”.
And the Managers went unto their Directors saying
“It is a vessel of fertilizer, and none may abide its strength”.
And the Directors spoke among themselves, saying one to another
“It contains that which aids plant growth, and it is very strong”.
And the Directors went unto the Vice Presidents, saying unto them
“It promotes growth, and it is very powerful”.
And the Vice Presidents went unto President saying unto him
“This new Plan will actively promote the growth and vigor of this company, with powerful effects”.
And the President looked upon the Plan and saw it was good.
And the Plan became Policy.
This is how s**** happens.
Do you know “neotany”, Neo? You sure should.
In evolution, it’s the retention of juvenile characteristics, into the adult phase.
It is often attributed to the taming of wolves and the domestication of dogs and horses. Natural selection.
Actually, the other way round. Taming is attributed.
Taming is attributed.
Yes … and of the self. Tamer and tamee.
Jared Diamond denies though, that he defined humans as incapable of domestication.
I thought humans were a great example of neoteny. We retain the big head, big eyes, playful disposition and relative hairlessness of childhood into adulthood compared to the other great apes
These songs highlight an all too rare willingness to fearlessly look in the mirror;
Geoffrey Britain: I love this insight about “Margaritaville,” though the narrator is still somewhat young. I assumed around 30.
GB: I have no idea whether Tom Waits is bitter or not. I assume he works with personas. That low, growly, splintered voice didn’t emerge until his “Foreign Affairs” album where he intentionally took on an working-class/Beat persona.
Here’s a song where he sang in a smooth, young man’s voice, on the album, *after* “Ol’ 55” and before “Foreign Affairs.” Most of that album is likewise.
“Shiver Me Timbers”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eux2qnnslac
Re: Young-old.
How about Max von Sydow? It seems he’s played middled-aged/old guys since the sixties.
My uninformed bet is Tom Waits is a happy person beyond the faux liberal despair.
He saw plenty of other poets and singer/songwriters die on the vine. He made it. He lives, works and creates as he pleases. Is there a greater success in life?
Then again, Ray Stevens in 1957, at 18:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WS4Jo_ih44
And from 2011, 54 years later (when he had matured some, gotten some financial wisdom), at 72:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6TcpfBHlbs&list=RDJ6TcpfBHlbs&start_radio=1
But while it’s hard for me to pick an absolute favorite, this one’s on the shortshortshortlist — from 1984, you do the arithmetic. :>))
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6TcpfBHlbs&list=RDJ6TcpfBHlbs&start_radio=1
The Navy Spitfires over Normandy,
Bet you never heard of him.
I thought this was an Eagles song – was covered by them the next year!
I first remembering hearing Tom Waits in 1976:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPPtrqvHGEg&list=RDBPPtrqvHGEg&start_radio=1
The Piano has been Drinking,
on the album (with a great title track & line):
Small Change (got rained on with own .38)
Now I have to find the song with this line:
Well “Tom, do this” and “Tom, do that”, and “Tom, don’t do that”,
right, from: I can’t wait to get off work.
Franks’ wild years
was also a fine album. Plus he’s appeared in some films around then, 1986ish.
Thanks for nice memories, again, Neo.
Plus YouTube is easiest place to find most music I like, often w/o a video other than a still photo.
At 69 now, he’s not yet so “old” — tho always “young old”.
I wonder what he says on interviews now? He was pretty contrarian & cynical before, I’d guess he still is. But perhaps happy with family & kids, now?
Reincarnation theory postulates that some souls retain a lot of their experience in the past lives in a new one.
http://spitfiresite.com/2010/04/spitfires-of-the-us-navy.html
It appears I didn’t provide a link.
Reincarnation theory suggest that I should have been reborn as a cockroach. at best.
I never heard of Tom Waits, but his “The Piano Has Been Drinking” is surely not the one I remember. Tried tracking it down on UT, no joy. Somebody with a smooth voice. Don’t remember the instrumental accompaniment at all.
I hope everyone finds this comment informative. :>)!
The other one that always strikes me is Otis Redding. He sounded like his music was coming from a long life of failure and success, disappointment and good fortune, love and loss. He was 26 when the plane hit the water.
Mitch Townsend:
I had no idea Otis Redding was that young! I wouldn’t have guessed it.
Billy Joel’s Piano Man has a time worn, melancholy air about it, and was released when Billy Joel was only 24.
Julie – did you try my link, above the title “The Piano Has Been Drinking”? My wife thought it was extra good because of the many, well-chosen pictures that went with the lyrics.
Thanks, Tom. No, I hadn’t checked your link, but the gravelly voice is the same, so not what I remember. However, yes, the stills are entertaining. :>)
Blues Traveler – Hook
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdz5kCaCRFM
you dont know the dirty side of constructing music
so the commentary wont reflect on whats going on
it will reflect on what you imagine is going on
which i guess is fine given that nothing leads to anything among such
ok, the eception that proves the rule is that they will react to the message
but do nothing to make it a different message… kill the messenger is easier
and yes, there IS a dirty side to professional music and has to do with construction
I’ve been just listening to Tom Waits for hours now.
I had forgotten where I got this line, which I often use:
“Sleepin’ ’till the crack of noon”.
Here it is, Better Off Without a Wife:
https://youtu.be/acmejcQRvd8
Tho that title reminds me of Ron Moody’s Fagin in Oliver, Reviewing the Situation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96rC4X_KWl4 .
If the German branch of Antifa, which was started by the original German Communist Party (KPD) in 1932, is busy assembling bombs, what is the US branch doing?
You know, the guys that beat up the nazis and turned them away from street conflict and to parlimentary conflict…. the same process was used by willi munzenberg to fund the end of the sustem, by “getting the capitalists to pay for the rope, make te gallows and man them”…
Antifaschistische Aktion:
tried to teach neo about the special words…
in germany Rote was special… means RED… so Rote Zora the feminist terrorist group (which is why they love terrorists as kindred), planted bombs, among other things.. [at the time, the word League was used in the US, just as in Russia:Communism – England:Fabianism – UnitedStates:Progressives…
which was why the people of the austrian fellow being the Magyar fullfilling the Magyar Struggle, used the absense of men (by war then, by feminism now), to get people into office… their claiming lenin was 2nd only to the austrian, wasnt working in the streets…
Antifaschistische Aktion was formed as a broad-based alliance in which Social Democrats, Communists and others could fight legal repression and engage in self-defence against Nazi paramilitaries
now, here is the MOST interesting thing that NEO ignores….
and right out in the open
After the forced dissolution in the wake of the Machtergreifung in 1933, the movement went underground.
Machtergreifung = Seizure of power
then when the roaches were ended, the waterbugs came out
Groups called “Antifaschistische Ausschüsse”, “Antifaschistische Kommittees” or “Antifaschistische Aktion”, all typically abbreviated to Antifa, spontaneously re-emerged in Germany in 1944, mainly involving veterans of pre-war KPD, KPO and SPD politics,
Since the 1980s
they make this claim (which is complete BS!!!!!)
Contemporary Antifa in Germany “has no practical historical connection to the movement from which it takes its name, but is instead a product of West Germany’s squatter scene and autonomist movement in the 1980s”
The American Antifa of the early 21st-century has drawn its aesthetics and some of its tactics from the original German organization.
NOW WHY BRING THIS UP? WHAT ARE THEY DOING NOW?
German far-right MP Frank Magnitz badly hurt in Bremen attack
YOU will hear two stories… one of a lone single convict, another that three antifa were involved
The leader of Alternative for Germany (AfD) in Bremen was attacked by at least three masked men in the centre of the northern city on Monday. The attackers knocked him unconscious with a piece of wood and kicked him in the head, AfD officials said.
Police release CCTV of an attack on German MP Frank Magnitz
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-europe-46843821/police-release-cctv-of-an-attack-on-german-mp-frank-magnitz
what else are they doing?
AfD party offices bombed
German Antifa members were caught in Mrch last year in an undercover police sting operation in Thuringia, where they were stockpiling chemicals and high explosives in what was described as a “mobile bomb factory”.
[IF not agianst their own countrymen then who?]
[who killed her did so for political ends, and that i guess, is ok]
Sophia Lösche, a 28-year-old female student and pro-migration activist went missing while cycling from Leipzig to her hometown Amberg in the Upper Palatinate (German: Oberpfalz) where she never arrived
On 29 June 2018, the German public prosecutor’s office and police in Bayreuth announced that her remains had been found in Asparrena in northern Spain and identified using DNA tracing
SEE Also:
Kayla Mueller – American activist and aid worker abducted by ISIS and later killed.
Rachel Corrie – American activist killed while trying to block an Israeli armoured bulldozer.
Pippa Bacca – Italian peace activist raped and murdered in Turkey.
[there is a long long list… ]