Help the aged,
One time they were just like you,
Drinking, smoking cigs and sniffing glue.
Help the aged,
Don't just put them in a home,
Can't have much fun when they're all on their own.
Give a hand, if you can,
Try and help them to unwind.
Give them hope and give them comfort
'cause they're running out of time.

In the meantime we try.
Try to forget that nothing lasts forever.
No big deal so give us all a feel.
Funny how it all falls away.
When did you first realize?
It's time you took an older lover baby.
Teach you stuff although he's looking rough.
Funny how it all falls away.

Help the aged
'cause one day you'll be older too -
You might need someone who can pull you through
And if you look very hard
Behind those lines upon their face
You may see where you are headed
And it's such a lonely place.

In the meantime we try.
Try to forget that nothing lasts forever.
No big deal so give us all a feel.
Funny how it all falls away.
When did you first realize?
It's time you took an older lover baby.
Teach you stuff although he's looking rough.
Funny how it all falls away.

You can dye your hair but it's the one thing you can't change.
Can't run away from yourself.

In the meantime we try.
Try to forget that nothing lasts forever.
No big deal so give us all a feel.
Funny how it all falls away.
When did you first realize?
It's time you took an older lover baby.
Teach you stuff although he's looking rough.
Funny how it all falls away.
Funny how it all falls away.
So help the aged.



Lyrics submitted by typo

Track duration: 04:29

"Help the Aged" as written by Jarvis Branson Cocker, Nick Banks, Candida Doyle, Stephen Patrick Mackey, Mark Andrew Webber

Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

Lyrics powered by LyricFind


Help the Aged song meanings
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17 Comments

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  • 0
    Song Meaning:I used to think of this song as something just a bit quirky that didnt really mean very much
    old people with grey hair and walking sticks sniffing glue was the mental image i got.

    Some years later i have a different idea of what its about, the "aged" from the title i think is Jarvis Cocker himself, its a song about feeling the 30s blues. (you are not so young anymore and you might of found a grey hair or two and younger girls/women think you're looking old

    He would of been about 32-33 then , he is thinking how he was younger smokeing fags and sniffing glue he wants to be young and carefree again and attractive to younger women , who now see him as the "aged" he is trying to sell the idea that now as an older man he would make a better lover , also he says, in a round about way, beauty fades away, so come on girl let this old 30 year old have a feel because one day you will be 30+ too ... bored lonely wanting the carefree fun again ...
    so kinda a sad song i think really about getting old, and how others see just your age, which may seem ignorant to all the experiences in his life as the "aged"
    Flag danthevanon July 15, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I always thought this song was referencing "An Older Lover, Etc" by The Fall. The subject is handled in a slightly more sentimental fashion than Mark-e Mark, most likely because Jarvis was ten years older than MES when he wrote "An Older Lover, etc" and more sensitive to aging. I could be wrong. Anyway, I agree with what dross said above, it's both funny and sad. Tragic and comic, just like life.
    Flag artsluton December 06, 2009   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:A hilarious and sad song about helping old people get off sexually "cause one day you'll be older too and you might need someone who can pull you through".
    Flag drosson May 16, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:It also begins like a "second part" to This Is Hardcore. Up to this song, the characters and stories portrait uncertainty and strangeness to this state, they've just discovered they're aging and don't quite understand it. From this song on up to Seductive Barry, Jarvis explores stories when the characters are quite conscious about it, their reactions going from anger ("I'm a Man") to regret ("A Little Soul"), and desperate lust ("This Is Hardcore"), finally falling to the point of pure lack of dignity ("Seductive Barry"). From "Sylvia" to its end the album tries to find a happy ending for it all, kinda like a change of attitude.
    Flag Santiagofon May 11, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:An instant masterpiece, must add.... So is the album, a really dark record exploring a subject usually not covered in rock... And the music is top notch!
    Flag Santiagofon February 27, 2008   Link
  • +1
    General Comment:It's one of the centerpieces of "This Is Hardcore", seemingly a concept album about reaching thirty and beyond and suddenly realizing you're not young anymore, that what you did maybe didn't lead you to what you expected, and its consecuences... if not one, the closest thing to a middle-age crisis.
    In "Help The Aged", Jarvis pretty much materializes his fears and uncertainties typical of this crisis ("the sound of someone losing the plot", as stated on "The Fear") through a feeling of sympathy for "the aged", old people. He urges (seemingly, to the youth) for them to be cared, to be given comfort... " 'cause one time they were just like you"... Of course, he realizes he's becoming one of those "aged" ones, that's what generates his sorrowful sympathy towards them. "Funny how it all falls away", he sighs in an ironic resignation, contemplating his own aging. He's just discovered, much against his own will, that "nothing lasts forever", not even youth. He himself has seen in the eyes of the aged his own future, "where he's headed", and he warns the youngsters the bad omen: "and it's such a lonely place".
    As for the verse naming "an older lover", he's simply recommending to some girl to pick up an older lover, since he can offer "experience", despite "looking rough". Probably it's a pick-up speech he tries to use on a girl to woo her. Since he's not considered young anymore and knows it, he looks at the aged and tries to emphasize whatever virtues he sees on them.
    Flag Santiagofon February 27, 2008   Link
  • -1
    General Comment:"Me nan's 63 her name be Sheila. She always on da phone to her mutha fuckin deala. She work da ghetto star, she always wear Fila. She still get jiggy in her boyfriend's three wheela. Said O.A.P."
    "Yeah you know me!"
    Flag Boournson November 13, 2007   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Actually in a interview, he said he wrote it as a semi-midlife crisis. He wrote it at thirty-three/thirty-four, and its basically to feel sorry for himself that he was getting older.
    Flag thebatgirlon January 26, 2007   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:today i heard this song after a long time period and in blew me away again like it did back then.
    one of the greatest lines ever is: 'One time they were just like you
    Drinking, smoking cigs and sniffing glue'. you can't have any humour if you do not like this one! simply great kind of dealing with a problem that wil occur to the most of us.
    Flag pringles76on January 26, 2007   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:It's about an older man trying to convince a younger woman that she should be with him. I work in a bar and I see it all the time. They try to brag that they are better and more accomplished because they are older rather than actually trying to seduce them properly. It's a pathetic plea that usually backfires.
    Flag xinnerxon October 30, 2006   Link

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