What is The Oldest Song?

Good morning John. Earlier this week I was
listening to some oldies and I was like ‘These

are oldies, but how old is the oldest song?’
On the scale of things, really, oldies are

newies. They’re very new. Of course, this
is an impossible question to answer. The oldest

song was probably sung by a bird, maybe a
dinosaur, you don’t know! But I don’t

think anybody else has got, like, the music
in their soul.

(Singing) ‘Music gonna make you wanna move
it all night long, all night long!’

It’s just us, and it is innate, like there
are no cultures on Earth that do not sing.

All humans sing that, well… all cultures
sing. There are some humans, particularly

ones named John Green, who probably should
maybe just not.

Definitely the first human songs are well
and truly lost. They were probably improvised,

so the first melody was probably lost immediately
after it was created. But the oldest song

that we can still play today is called Hurrian
Hymn #6. It’s incomplete but it was pressed

into cuneiform tablets 3500 years ago and
you can still listen to it. There’s clips

of it on YouTube. That’s amazing! Archaeologists
can let us get a glimpse at what the past

looked like: the buildings and the tools people
used and their pots and their weapons, but

being able to hear back in time... For some
reason that makes these people who existed

distantly in the past much more real to me
and, like, much more human to me.

However, the oldest song that we have in its
entirety is a brief composition. The coolest

thing about it is not only is it music, it
also the lyrics, which is really unusual.

It’s on a burial cylinder, probably placed
into the grave of a man’s wife by the man.

It was not originally played with an acoustic
guitar accompaniment, but that is how I’m

gonna play it because I don’t have a lyre
nor do I nor how to play one.

Hoson zēs phainou
Mēden holōs sy lypou

Pros oligon esti to zēn
To telos ho chronos apaitei

Hoson zēs phainou
Mēden holōs sy lypou

Pros oligon esti to zēn
To telos ho chronos apaitei

While you live, shine on
Be joyous and dance

And seize the day
We’re only here until we’re gone

And time, time demands to be paid

Hoson zēs phainou
Mēden holōs sy lypou

Pros oligon esti to zēn
To telos ho chronos apaitei

That’s the oldest song we have, and the
theme is basically YOLO. The more things change!

I have some news. In the scope of musical
history, the first album of Hank Green and

The Perfect Strangers, which is called Incongruent,
is not going to be significant. It is, however,

going to come out at the end of April or beginning
of May, and I’m very excited about it, it

rocks. I feel weird talking about how great
my album is but you will hear more of it.

There’s already some of it on my Tumblr.
If you want to check that out there’s a

song called ‘I F$*%king Love Science’
and it is available to pre-order at dftba.com.

John, I will see you on Tuesday.

(Song at end)

T-shirt and jeans that’s right
It doesn’t mean anything

People who don’t know that I
Try not to say too much just with my clothes

If you wanna get to know me, man
We’re gonna have to talk about…