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
[Verse 1]
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
[Verse 2]
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
[Chorus]
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
[Verse 3]
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
[Chorus]
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
[Outro]
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
About
Neil ponders age, sex and death in a ballad for his groundsman. As he explains during his 1971 Massey Hall performance in Toronto, this song is about the foreman who lived on Neil’s ranch – “he came with the place when I bought it.”
The song was released on his 1972 album Harvest. James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt both contributed vocals.
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
In the documentary Heart of Gold, Neil said the following about the song:
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, Louie, just real lucky.” And he said, “Well, that’s the darndest thing I ever heard.” And I wrote this song for him.
Broken Arrow Ranch is near San Francisco in Redwood City, California. In 2014, when Young divorced Pegi, his wife of 36 years, the ranch went to his ex-wife where she lives with their son Ben.