Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).
When I Get Old (1996)
Once you get to a certain point in life, birthdays cease to be a big deal. Sure, you still have the big milestones, but the ones in between kind of just happen. Still, they're celebrations and they're to be enjoyed, but there's also that sense of mortality that hits you right between the eyes.
There's been plenty of songs about birthdays, but one that gets to the heart of the whole "getting old" conundrum is "When I Get Old" by the Descendents.
The Descendents were a power pop/surf punk band formed in 1977 in Manhattan Beach, California, by Frank Novetta, David Nolte and Bill Stevenson. After a few years of lineup changes, Milo Aukerman joined as lead singer in 1981. The band's 1982 debut Milo Goes to College was a punk-pop classic, with a nerdy-looking caricature of Aukerman serving as the group's mascot. But the band was eventually put on hold when indeed, Aukerman went to college and Stevenson joined Black Flag.
The two rejoined the band in 1985 for the album I Don't Want to Grow Up and made two more albums before Aukerman left the band to pursue a career in biochemistry. Stevenson and members Karl Alvarez and Steven Egerton decided to form All, adding singer Dave Smalley. The band released seven pop-punk albums with Smalley and two other singers before Aukerman decided to get back into music.
Stevenson kept All going with singer Chad Price while working with Aukerman in the Descendents; in 1996, the Descendents released the album Everything Sucks, a short and punchy collection of pop-punk gems. Both bands signed to Epitaph.
On "When I Get Old," Aukerman wonders about his future (although the song was written by Stevenson and Alvarez).
"What will it be like when I get old?/Will I still hop on my bike/And ride around town?/Will I still want to be someone/And not just sit around?/I don't wanna be like the other adults/'Cause they've already died/Cool and condescending/Fossilized/Will I be rich, will I be poor?/Will I still sleep on the floor?/What will it be like when I get/What will it be like when I get/What will it be like when I get old?"
By this point, Aukerman and Stevenson were in their early 30s, so adulthood wasn't just some far-off fantasy.
"Will I sit around and talk about the old days?/Sit around and watch TV/I never want to go that way/Never burn out, not fade away/As I travel through my time/Will I like what I find?"
Aukerman went back to a career in molecular biology, returning occasionally to record and tour. In 2016, burned out by his career and laid off by DuPont, Aukerman returned to the Descendents full time, and the band released the album Hypercaffium Spazzinate. I saw them on this tour at the Royale in Boston. The band released another album in 2021 and remains active. As for the getting older part, Aukerman suffered a mild heart attack last year but had surgery and is back performing.
Milo's 61 now and I just turned 57 today. At the time "When I Get Old" came out, I was still in my 20s (barely) and the thought of getting old was the furthest thing from my mind. Now that it's actually here, I still feel pretty good, albeit a lot creakier than I was back then. Hopefully Milo and I will both be around for a long time.
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