Mid-Life Crisis Songs #79: 50 Is The New 40

I keep harping on about turning 50, and I know to most of you that milestone is just a pebble in the past, so I'm sorry... but I don't know why, it's taking some coming to terms with. Maybe this really is the Mid-Life Crisis, and everything beforehand was just the warm-up act. God help me.

Tom T. Hall certainly isn't helping, with his song I'm Forty Now, released in 1975 when he was... well, 39, according to Iffypedia. 

There were barefoot dreams of catching outlaws

There were school dreams of catching footballs

There were young dreams of finding great romance

There were armies and I took the chance

There were avenues of glory and some deep despair

That put subtle shapes of silver in my hair

Well, I'm forty now and I'm a man 

But I can't resist the urge to put dreams in my plans

So many hopeless dreams and I broke some vows

Maybe life begins for me I'm forty now

I mean, the idea that I should have been listening to this ten years ago, that's blowing my mind. But half a century ago, forty was the same as fifty is today, I reckon. So really, this song is bang on for me right now. 

"ONCE upon a time, hitting the big 50 was seen as the first step to retirement. Now, it looks more like a passport to freedom, as youthful 50-somethings take advantage of better health, better finances and plenty of energy, to make 50 the new 40."

That's from the Daily Mirror Online, so take it with a pinch of salt. And it was written in 2007, when I was 35 so...

I think I'll quit while I'm ahead.