Old Man Conversation Song

It seems like a lot of songs, particularly in Country Music, involve a character, usually the narrator, talking to an elderly man. Why is this such a recurring theme?

Well, when someone's been around long enough to be described as "old", they've had a lot of life experience, and usually can impart good advice to the listener. Often, the person he's talking to will ponder over his advice, perhaps deciding to change his own life based on it.

A variant often seen in older music (as in, from the Middle Ages onwards) has the old man be the main character (usually the daughter)'s father, disagreeing about an Arranged Marriage or the Overprotective Dad preventing a marriage.


 * "People are Crazy" by Billy Currington is about the narrator going to a bar, and meeting an old man. The two talk for hours like old friends, and after that they never speak again. The old man dies, and it turns out he's a millionaire that has decided to leave his fortune to the younger man instead of his own kids.
 * In Craig Morgan's "This Ain't Nothin'", a reporter asks an old man what he plans to do after a tornado destroyed his entire home. The old man tells him that a destroyed house is nothing that money can't replace - at age 8 he lost his father; in Vietnam he lost his brother, his best friend, and his left hand; and last year his wife of fifty years died - so a ruined house is nothing.
 * In Love and Theft's "Can't Go Back", in the first verse, the narrator mentions that he meets an old man by the side of the road, and offers to drive him home, and the old man tells him that the world's living in sin, and you might want peace and understanding and harmony again, but you can't go back to where you've never been.
 * In "The Good Stuff" by Kenny Chesney, after the narrator fights with his significant other, he goes to a bar and asks for "the good stuff". The old barkeep tells him that "the good stuff" is kissing your girlfriend, marrying her and seeing her hold your baby girl, and being there to hold her hand as she dies.
 * Another Kenny Chesney song, "Don't Blink" is about a 102-year-old man being interviewed; he is asked about the secret to life. He advises the viewers "don't blink", because life goes by so fast. The narrator, who saw this on television, decides to slow down and enjoy life more.
 * In Phil Vassar's "Don't Miss Your Life", the narrator is on a plane working. The older man next to him says he used to be the same way, but then he missed all the important events in his kids' life. The narrator decides that as soon as the plane lands, he'll buy a ticket to go back home.
 * In "Waitin' On A Woman" by Brad Paisley, the narrator's waiting for his wife, and an old man sits down next to him and tells him affectionately how he's always waiting for his own wife, and he doesn't mind, and if he's the first to go, he'll still be waiting for her and won't mind how long she takes.
 * Kenny Rogers' "The Gambler" is about the narrator speaking to an older man on a train. The older man gives him advice about life, comparing life to a game of cards.
 * "Old Man and Me" by Hootie & the Blowfish is about the narrator speaking to an old man, who talks about his life and wonders who will walk with him in Heaven.
 * In "Minutes to Memories" by John Mellencamp, an old man on a bus speaks to the young man next to him. He advises him to live an honest life, being tough and being the best he can be. Toward the end of the song, it is revealed that the young man is the narrator, and that he's found that the old man's advice helped, so he's passing it on too.
 * "Love, Me" by Collin Raye is about the narrator's grandfather talking about his relationship with the narrator's grandmother, hours before she dies.
 * "Old Man" by Neil Young is about a young man telling an old man that they're not that different.
 * Tom T. Hall's "Old Dogs, Children, and Watermelon Wine" is an old man's view on the three worthwhile things in life.
 * "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" by Iron Maiden is based on the classic Samuel Taylor Coleridge epic poem where an old man's penance is to tell his bizarre supernatural tale of survival on the high seas to various individuals, in this case he stops a guest on their way to a wedding and mesmerizes them with his strange story.
 * "Can I Play With Madness", also by Iron Maiden, recounts a conversation between a young man struggling with nightmarish visions and an old prophet.
 * "The Mollusk" by Ween doesn't explicitly mention the age of the wise person speaking to the child about his newfound invertebrate...but from the context he is much older and experienced in the ways of questionably factual marine life knowledge.
 * Some examples of the last type of song - a daughter speaking with her father - include La Bella Franschescina and Mon Pere Mariez-Moi Donc.
 * A subversion in "Africa" by Toto: the narrator stops an old man specifically because he wanted a conversation, but the man didn't say anything.
 * Parodied in "Old Blevins" by the Austin Lounge Lizards. The song starts out sounding like it is going to be a standard "old man in a bar offers young man advice" song, but most of Blevins' dialogue is just "Blah Blah Blah" and the singer realizes that if he doesn't patch things up with his girl, he might end up just like Old Blevins.