Thought u might find this a bit of synchronicity Eric. I just played this song last Saturday nite and I’ve been playing it since it came out. ‘I’m alot like you are’ Who knows it may be a good epitaph.
Old Man (song)
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the Neil Young song. For the song of the same title by Love, see Forever Changes.
"Old Man"
Single by Neil Young
from the album Harvest
B-side "The Needle and the Damage Done"
Released April 17, 1972
Recorded February 6, 1971
Studio Quadraphonic Sound Studio, Nashville TN
Genre
Folk rockcountry rock
Length 3:24
Label Reprise
Songwriter(s) Neil Young
Producer(s) Neil Young
Elliot Mazer[1]
Neil Young singles chronology
"Heart of Gold"
(1971) "Old Man"
(1972) "War Song"
(1972)
"Old Man" is a song written and performed by Canadian rock singer-songwriter and guitarist Neil Young from his 1972 album Harvest. "Old Man" was released as a single on Reprise Records in the spring of 1972, reaching number 4 in Canada,[2] and number 31 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for the week ending June 3.
Background
The song was written for the caretaker of the Northern California Broken Arrow Ranch, which Young purchased for US$350,000 in 1970 (equivalent to US$2,637,446 in 2022). The song compares a young man's life to an old man's and shows that the young man has, to some extent, the same needs as the old one. James Taylor played six-string banjo (tuned like a guitar) and sang on the song, and Linda Ronstadt also contributed vocals.[3]
In the film Heart of Gold, Young introduces the song as follows:
About that time when I wrote ("Heart of Gold"), and I was touring, I had also—just, you know, being a rich hippie for the first time—I had purchased a ranch, and I still live there today. And there was a couple living on it that were the caretakers, an old gentleman named Louis Avila and his wife Clara. And there was this old blue Jeep there, and Louis took me for a ride in this blue Jeep. He gets me up there on the top side of the place, and there's this lake up there that fed all the pastures, and he says, "Well, tell me, how does a young man like yourself have enough money to buy a place like this?" And I said, "Well, just lucky, Louis, just real lucky." And he said, "Well, that's the darnedest thing I ever heard." And I wrote this song for him.
He tells a similar story when introducing the song at a February 23, 1971 performance broadcast by the BBC (in which he says that he purchased the ranch from "two lawyers").
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And so I say; “Just blessed . Just really blessed.”
