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My Gen X Playlist: I Can’t Stand Up For Falling Down – Elvis Costello & the Attractions

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What makes you laugh?
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We met friends for dinner the other night. Invariably at some point in the evening, the conversation shifts to aches and pains. It seems we all have our stories. Whenever this happens, I think “Damn, we must be getting old” and I laugh inside. I laugh because I honestly don’t feel old.

Here are a few more I must be getting old moments that make me laugh or shake my head.

  • There was a time when the night began at 10 pm. Now, thats when I begin to wind down.
  • I’ve had coworkers that were half my age. There were even some that were born after the year 2000.
  • I read a blog that talked about driving a stick shift. I haven’t seen a manual transmission in ages. Do they still make them?
  • I recently retrieved my CDs from storage. The only problem is I donated my CD player and stereo system over fifteen years ago and have no way of playing them.
  • I found my old pair of basketball shoes. Why in the hell was I saving these? Running and jumping? I don’t think so.
  • The other day I was driving on the freeway and cars were passing me left and right. Am I the old guy on the freeway? The only problem is I was driving over 70 mph. When did that become grandpa speed?
  • When I see a young celebrity guest appearance on TV, 9 times out of 10 I ask, “Who is that?”
  • I find it increasingly odd that my nieces and nephews get all their news from TikTok. I find it even funnier that I had to look up the correct spelling of TikTok right now. Hey, there’s no letter “C” and it’s only one word. Go figure.
  • I recently was leaving Target. I stepped off the curb and somehow lost my balance and went sprawling face first. I’m lying on my stomach in the parking lot. Cars begin to back up waiting for me to pick my dumb ass up. My ankle is twisted a bit and I hobble out of the way as if nothing happened. My ego hurt more than my ankle. Good grief. I’m telling my buddy this story and he says, “That happens to me all the time.” We laugh, but he wasn’t kidding. Strangely, that made me feel better.

I think I’ll tap the brakes. If I continue, I may convince myself that I am actually old. And we can’t have that. That fall was bad enough…

Elvis Costello & the Attractions released I Can’t Stand Up For Falling Down in 1980. It turns out this was a cover of a soulful B-side R&B ballad. Costello reimagined the mood of the song entirely.

Costello’s version was drastically rearranged from the original, turning it from a slow soul ballad into an uptempo Northern soul-style dance track.

– Wikipedia

While Costello changed the tone, the gut wrenching lyrics remained the same. When I listen to the original version, all I can think of is this dude is hurting pretty bad. Me? I just tripped over my own feet, that’s all. My stumble is nothing compared to that guy’s fall. I’m more like the Attractions dancing in the background in Costello’s music video. I really don’t have it so bad after all.

–

For a complete playlist, please click here.

For the Spotify playlist, please click here.

I'm the living result
I'm a man who's been hurt a little too much
And I've tasted the bitterness of my own tears
Sadness is all my lonely heart can feel

I can't stand up for falling down
I can't stand up for falling down

Simple though love is
Still it confused me
Why I'm not loved the way I should be
Now I've lived with heartaches
And I've roomed with fear
I've dealt with despair
And I've wrestled with tears

I can't stand up for falling down
I can't stand up for falling down

The vow that we made
You broke it in two
But that don't stop me from loving you

I can't stand up for falling down
I can't stand up for falling down

16 thoughts on “My Gen X Playlist: I Can’t Stand Up For Falling Down – Elvis Costello & the Attractions”

  2. “Am I the old guy on the freeway?” Love that! Same thing happens here. If you aren’t driving 80 mph or more, people pass you like you’re standing still.

    I feel old when I can’t remember things as well, or when I make a comment and my kids say “What does that mean?” Ugh! At least I find comfort in knowing that other Gen Xers are having the same issues.

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  3. I know someone who bought a new car stick shift so that is still an option it seems. I so agree with you on all these points. I only know I am older because I can’t stay up late and my body both aches more and relieves gas far more 😅

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  4. Glad you’re OK! Falls can really set people back. Never too early to watch your step a bit more. I have a music friend who calls the inevitable conversation about aches & pains, “the organ recital” 😂great post.

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  5. A great track by Costello.

    Aging is a weird thing. Looking at oneself in the mirror and seeing such a difference from how we feel inside. 10 pm is pretty much our limit, too. It’s reading time now. Not getting up and going out for the evening time!

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  6. Hate to break this to you, but we Gen Xers are old. Millennials are in their 40s. That makes us old. Not geriatric, but old. Glad you survived your tumble with not much more than a sprained ankle and a bruised ego.

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  8. Sad song
    I hope you are ok
    Falling sucks. I’ve always been a bit of a klutz (a word no one uses anymore) so I know, so not fun, and in public, ugh! My granddaughter inherited the gene, only she jumps up quickly and says ‘I’m ok!’ I no longer jump right up!

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