3 Rock Songs From the 1960s That Feel Bigger as You Age

These three rock songs from the 1960s have all aged to perfection. That’s in part due to their timeless melodies and instrumentation. But the lyrics also convey timeless messages and hard-won truths. These hits may have come into our lives when we were young, but it’s only in adulthood that you can truly appreciate them.

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“God Only Knows” — The Beach Boys

This Beach Boys staple has the kind of beautiful simplicity that you can only really appreciate when you’re older. “If you should ever leave me / Well, life would still go on, believe me / The world could show nothing to me / So what good would living do me,” the lyrics to this 1960s rock song read. They reveal a painful reality that only those who’ve lived enough life to know the real weight of love loss can understand.

The first time you hear this song, it wows you, but it really only settles in after years of growing up alongside it. With every passing year, this song gets more and more poignant. “God only knows / what I’d be without you,” the iconic chorus reads. That earnestly straightforward sentiment hits harder in adulthood.

“The Weight” — The Band

“The Weight” is about responsibilities and the complexities of the world around us. Those are two ideas that younger listeners can’t fully grasp. After we mature, we see this song in a whole new light. The lyrics, “Take a load off, Fanny / And you put the load right on me,” mean much more when you’re old enough to have lived through tough decisions and heartache.

When you’re younger, you focus on the perfect harmony of this 1960s hit. When you’re older, you start to understand the importance of the lyrics. This song uses biblical allusions that highlight the decisions we all make and their varied effects. It takes many listens to truly uncover the wealth of advice in this song.

“You Can’t Always Get What You Want” — The Rolling Stones

Young people hear this phrase or its equivalent a lot. But we don’t truly understand the importance of desires and the limitations thereof until we’re older. That fact makes this Stones song the perfect song to help usher us into adulthood.

This song is a hit no matter how you look at it, but with a more mature ear, it becomes a hard-won lesson we could all use a reminder of from time to time.

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