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| Culprit | Robbie Williams |
| Title | Old Before I Die |
| Year | 1997 |
| Written by | Desmond Child, Eric Bazillian and Robbie Williams |
| Submitted by | Dominic |
One of Robbie's better offerings, "Old Before I Die" has a very Oasis feel to it, no doubt because at the time he was keen to shed his Take That image and be seen as a credible "bad boy of pop". This also involved smoking a lot of cigarettes and gasp getting some tattoos.
All that, however, did nothing to overcome an extraordinary lack of clutch control as the song kangaroo-hops its way (no, that's not your audio player getting stuck) towards a new and distant key.
Interesting, isn't it, that "My Generation", whose "Hope I die before I get old" lyrics inspired this song, itself suffers from a succession of truck driver's gear changes. I wonder if this is a deliberate tribute?
Related stuff
This was a classic case of a pop star proudly proclaiming via their PR department that "Hey, I co-wrote some of the songs on my new album." It seems very likely that the person responsible for the key shift was Desmond Child, who co-wrote "Livin' On A Prayer".