Lyrics to
Old Man

This version of Old Man was released by Zz Top in 1971.

Our About Zz Top page at Decade Lyrics includes the lyrics for Old Man from 1971 as well as all of the other lyrics from Zz Top that we have in our lyrics database.

Here's more interesting things in songs and lyrics tied to Zz Top or about the 1970s in general.

Old man sleepin’ the hot day away,
while he dreams a thousand yesterdays.
‘Cause he’s had so many come his way.
All he cares about is somewhere to lay his head tomorrow.

Old man sits and thinks about his home.
Doesn’t matter ’cause he’s all alone.
What he’d give to get back on his own.
Curses his body ’cause it’s old and it gives no transportation.
He sits in his one room shack alone but it provides no consolation.

What a shame,
his time is nearin’.
His eyes won’t let him see
the skies are clearin’.
Someone tells him
without his hearin’.
It’s no news to those who’ve been around
while things are changin’.

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Zz Top has released many songs over the years besides Old Man. Zz Top released songs from 1971 to 2003 spanning across albums like ZZ Top's First Album, Rio Grande Mud, Tres Hombres, Fandango!, Tejas, Deguello, El Loco, Eliminator, Afterburner, Recycler, Antenna, Rhythmeen, XXX, and Mescalero. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by Zz Top.

If you're a fan of the music of the 1970s looking for more songs from 1971 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and Old Man by Zz Top

The lyrics for Old Man are made up of the words, verses and background chorus for the popular 1971 song by Zz Top. Like a lot of songs, the lyrics to Old Man have both direct meanings and metaphorical context hidden within the song's words. All of the meanings are only truly known by the creators of the lyrics for Old Man - Zz Top and any of the writers who worked with them on the song.

If you have an interest in the structure of words and phrases, you can dissect the lyrics to Old Man by Zz Top in multiple ways. The word "lyric" itself derives from the Latin word lyricus, with the actual English word lyrics applied to the definition "words set to music" listed in Stainer and Barrett's 1876 Dictionary of Musical Terms. Continuing the chain, the Latin word lyricus derives from the Greek word λυρικός or lyrikós. This somewhat means "poetry accompanied by the lyre" or "words set to music." You can easily see that by looking at the background of the word lyric, that the "lyrics to Old Man" means the words set to the music of Old Man, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by Zz Top. The singular form "lyric" is still used to mean the complete words to a song. However, the singular form lyric is also commonly used to refer to a specific line (or phrase) within a song's lyrics. Hence, by this analysis of word structure, you could say that the lyric to Old Man and the lyrics to Old Man are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of Zz Top who came here looking just for the lyrics to Old Man, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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