Daily Jam - My Autumn's Done Come

Someday I’ll finally be too tired to go out. I’ll be too tired to meet with friends or talk with strangers. I’ll be too tired to run, or dance, or explore. Instead, I’ll sit back in a comfy chair as my joints crack, resting my weary body, probably enjoying a cocktail, watching the leaves turn brown and fall from the trees, as my own hair gets whiter and sparser on the top of my head. For a little while, I’ll be content. And then I’ll eventually close my eyes. And go to sleep.

Though he was only 37 years old when he wrote and recorded it, and would go on to live for another 40 years and change, Lee Hazlewood’s “My Autumn’s Done Come” is probably the best ode to old age ever written. First appearing on the 1966 album The Very Special World of Lee Hazlewood, there is something so gentle and accepting within its melancholy calm, refrains of a life without regret, a shedding of unimportant things, a focus on simpler pleasures, and no fear of death. And the orchestra swirls.

Hazlewood’s brilliant career as a producer, composer, and musician is littered with scores of landmark releases and broad experimentation. Whether it be his psych-country-pop albums with Nancy Sinatra, his rockabilly guitar twang with Duane Eddy, or his orchestral-pop work with Hollywood, the man’s sound was truly his own, incredibly distinguishable from his contemporaries, and exceedingly difficult to pin down or label. Hazlewood was never quite country, never quite psychedelic rock, never quite old standard, though he certainly waded through all of those genres and more. “My Autumn’s Done Come” plays on all of them.

An almost somber piano and guitar melody plays as soothing chorale vocals swoon in the background. Strings gradually ebb and flow as a deep and salty voice sets the scene. An aging man takes his seat. The song sounds like being too tired to even bother anymore, like a passive apathy, but without the pessimistic aftertaste. It is beautiful. It is inevitable. So just let the time wash over you…and try to smile.

Check it out below, our Daily Jam.