Lyrics for Old Man as interpreted by H-bomb

Old Man Lyrics
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 look at my life,
Twenty four
and there's so much more
Live alone in a paradise
That makes me think of two.

Love lost, such a cost,
Give me things
that don't get lost.
Like a coin that won't get tossed
Rolling home to you.

Old man take a look at my life
I'm a lot like you
I need someone to love me
the whole day through
Ah, one look in my eyes
and you can tell that's true.

Lullabies, look in your eyes,
Run around the same old town.
Doesn't mean that much to me
To mean that much to you.

I've been first and last
Look at how the time goes past.
But I'm all alone at last.
Rolling home to you.

Old man take a look at my life
I'm a lot like you
I need someone to love me
the whole day through
Ah, one look in my eyes
and you can tell that's true.

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.

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  • 53 Comments
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Fred39
03-05-2003

Rated 0 
this is so fucking good

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1 Reply
Joey Joe Jo-Jo
03-09-2003

Rated -1 
Agreed.

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rae4212002
03-13-2003

Rated +1 
"it doesn't meant hat much to me to mean that much to you??"

I love how Neil Young just doesn't GIVE A F and still rocks so hard.

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1 Reply
instant_karma
03-22-2003

Rated 0 
love that banjo

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1 Reply
jehosefat
04-06-2003

Rated +1 
banjo played by James Taylor...

Yeah, i read about how Young stayed at this farm one time and wrote this song inspired be the old man who owned it...don't quote me on this though...

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CeeJai
05-04-2003

Rated +1 
It's a young man talking to his father. He feels like his old man has set his expectations too high for him. This is one of my favorite songs.

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ataraxia37
06-10-2003

Rated +1 
this song makes me think about my dad.
my mom always calls me little Philip (which is my dad's name). i think it is about a man who is repeating his father's mistakes, and then is calling his dad a hypocrite when he gets pissed about it. it's also a statement of proof that they really are a lot the same, thus removing justification for his anger... hueoh, too many big words.

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phatgrrl
06-28-2003

Rated 0 
God, I love this song. It makes me cry for some reason... I love how Neil Young has aged and seen so many dollars, and yet he's liberal as ever. He's definately one of my heroes.

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headlessparrot
06-28-2003

Rated 0 
It's about the janitor/custodian guy on his ranch. Sad character, and a real sad, melancholic number. Haunting.

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sweetteeth15
06-30-2003

Rated 0 
dont care what its about its just a great song....go neil young...hehehehe

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rosene_80
06-15-2004

Rated 0 
awesome, awesome song...one of those that you never get tired of.... I always thought it was about a young man who's afraid that he disappointed his father, and he's asking his father to remember what it was like to be young and clueless about life.

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x_nikole_x
10-05-2004

Rated +1 
This is one awesome fucking song.. puts you in quite the melancholy mood. My own little interpretation to the song is as follows: a younger man reflecting upon his hardships, and although they may be fewer than a man twice his age, he feels as though he hurts just as much as the older man.

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1 Reply
therealsvenden
10-29-2004

Rated 0 
Interesting to read everyone's thoughts on this one. I hadn't heard the story about the farmer. I'd always fallen in line with the father-son story. But I think it can be more generally interpreted to just be about dealing with the disappointment of your elders, the expectations that are passed between generations, and the constant struggle to define oneself as separate from everything and everyone else.

Definitely a classic in my book.

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Sandman-X
11-11-2004

Rated 0 
One of the best songs ever. Harvest is my all time favorite albums.

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toolmusik
12-22-2004

Rated +1 
This song means so much to me right now. As I am writing this, It's been about 20 hours since my dad died. I'm hurting so bad right now. He struggled with alchoholism for so long and whenever this song came on the radio we would both cry. My father's gone forever now but this song will always make me remember him. Dad, I will never forget you...

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kmk_natasha
12-24-2004

Rated 0 
That's so sad. Sorry about your father.

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sabbathkid
01-04-2005

Rated 0 
For those poeple who commented that this song has no meaning , abviously you are not very observent.
If you look into the contrast of these lyrics and know that he was kicked out of his home then you will realize that maybe he hekd a grudge for many against his father , and then when he realized that his father did the same thing that he would have in that situation maybe then he noticed that he was alot like his father was.

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sabbathkid
01-04-2005

Rated 0 
I think that this song has to do with someone that isolates themselves from the world because he cannot take the pressure and what not of reality , maybe it has to do with drugs.. but then he is isolated for days and maybe years , realizes that he cannot go on and then dies loanly.

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River Wolf
03-01-2005

Rated +1 
Love this song, Neil is a mastermind

According to the book "Neil and Me" by Scott Young (Neil's dad), in Neil's words he says to his dad "it isn't about you. I know a lot of people think it is. But it's about Louis, the man who lives on the ranch and looks after things for me, the cattle and the buffalos and the feed and all that. A wonderful guy."

And in Scott's words on this song, "I love it."

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corrente
03-23-2005

Rated +1 
i love how he goes from past tense to present back to past. "im alot like you were" to "im a lot like you" to "im a lot like you". kind of has that cats in the craddle vibe to it. great song.

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ZepJimiFloyd
03-31-2005

Rated +1 
neil youngs dad was acutally a very popular sports writer for the Toronto Star, a very well known and well admired writer in this area. Thus, I always thought that "old man, im alot like you" coulda meant hey look, im famous too.

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OpinionHead
06-26-2005

Rated 0 
Sounds to me like a son trying to reconcile things with his father. As far as I know, sons and their dads are in conflict no matter how much both want to avoid it. I don't know if that's right, but this is a great song and Neil Young is one of the greatest song writers of all time. He is the Bob Dylan of Canada.

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jesman76
09-17-2005

Rated +1 
This song was written becuase Neil had met a care taker at the ranch that he was living at. Neil was amazed about how similar their lives were and he wrote this song.

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xdvr
09-29-2005

Rated +1 
According to the decade book, in Neils own hand:
"I wrote this for the caretaker of my ranch after I purchased it in 1970. Special thanks to James Taylor for his banjo playing."

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turnofthekey444
12-19-2005

Rated 0 
River Wold is right about this song. It really isn't about his dad like everyone thinks. This is a very touching songs from one of the greatest albums.

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