4 Songs That Artists Started To Resent as They Grew Older (But Ironically, We Love Them More as We Age)

Growing up inevitably means accepting that some of the things you said and did in your youth were actually really, really dumb. For most of us, these memories only live on through hidden-away photo albums, long-gone social media pics, or private journal entries. But for these five artists, these thoughts and feelings were distilled into songs.

And much like you probably wouldn’t want to broadcast the contents of your teenage diary to the rest of the world, these artists struggled with performing these tracks they wrote during their salad days in their adult years. Yet ironically, for the rest of us, these songs only appear to get better the older they (and we) get.

“Stairway To Heaven” by Led Zeppelin

Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant grew so weary of constantly singing “Stairway To Heaven” (or, at the very least, being asked to do so) that he once paid a radio station thousands of dollars in response to the station’s joke offer that someone would have to pay them if they never wanted to hear “Stairway To Heaven”. For the station and its listeners, it was a fun joke to boost fundraising calls. For Plant, it was a welcome reprieve that he was willing to drop some serious money on.

“Brown Eyed Girl” by Van Morrison

Van Morrison once said that singing “Brown Eyed Girl” started to lose its spark the older he got. He argued that singing a song he wrote in his 20s no longer resonated with him as an older man. But I’d argue that this is exactly why it still sounds good from a listener’s perspective. “Brown Eyed Girl” reminds us of a simpler time, when summer love was the biggest event of the season, and the world seemed full of romance, promise, and hope.

“We Didn’t Start The Fire” by Billy Joel

Speaking of nostalgia: “We Didn’t Start The Fire” is famously one of Billy Joel’s least favorite songs. As for me, though? With each passing year, the countless pop culture references Joe drops allow me to reflect on American society over the last several decades. The older I get, the more I realize these cycles and trends are more circular than they can feel when you’re in the thick of the moment.

“(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” by The Rolling Stones

In a 1975 interview with People magazine, Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger said he would “rather be dead” than be singing “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” when he was 45 years old. The rock vocalist was 22 when the song first came out and 32 when he made his comments to People. So, he had no way of knowing just how long the Stones’ career—and his track record of performing that song—would stretch. Still, the older I get, the more I relate to Jagger’s lamenting over rampant commercialism in my day-to-day life.

Photo by Jorgen Angel/Redferns