Loudon Wainwright Iii - Older Than My Old Man Now Chords

[Intro]
E
     If I remain still, if I’m alone and silent long enough to hear the sound of my own blood,
E
or breathing, or digestion, above the rustling of leaves or the whirr of the refrigerator,
E
my father is likely to turn up. He just arrives unbidden in the long-running film of my thoughts,
E
like Hitchcock in his pictures, and he looks, for all these 40-plus years of disembodiment,
E
much like himself: big and sandy-haired with freckles on the backs of his hands;
E
perhaps a bit more diffident in the way he holds himself than I remember.
E
He doesn’t stay long, and as far as I can tell, his visits have no message.
E
Yet even though years of therapy have led me to make the dark-whistling claim
E
that he’s finally dead and gone, my father, who died when I was seventeen,
E                                                                                                 N.C.
continues to be my principle ghost, a lifelong eminence grise, and only my own end will finish it
 
 
[Interlude]
E
 
 
[Verse 1]
E
Older than my old man now
E
He died at 63, that’s way too young
E
Now you gotta feed me, now you gotta need me
E
And I feel like a faithless son
E
Sixty-four is awful old
E
You know what can happen next
E
Hey, I’m older than my old man ever was
E
And I’m trying to keep it in context
 
 
[Interlude]
E
 
 
[Verse 2]
E
Yes, I’m older than my old man now
E
His father died at 43
E
From now on it’s all gravy, I got twenty years more
E
Maybe, I guess we’ll have to wait and see
 
 
[Verse 3]
E
I wasn’t sure the day would come
E
I’ve been living underneath his thumb
E
But I don’t feel so free, I don’t even feel like me
                    B         E
Now that there’s no race left to run
 
 
[Interlude]
E
 
 
[Verse 4]
E
Yeah, I’m older than my old man now
E
I guess that means I kicked his ass
E
But just ‘cause you survive, that don’t mean you feel alive
E
And your demise will come to pass
 
 
[Verse 5]
E
Nobody’s sure exactly why
E
Everybody’s got to die
E
Still it comes as quite a blow, know when you got to go
E
And the world is gonna pass you by
 
 
[Outro]
E
Yes, I’m older than my old man now
E
Trying to keep it in context
E
Not only older than my old man ever was
                                B    E
But I’m guilty to have outlived my ex