"Grow Old with Me" is one of the final songs written by John Lennon. It was first recorded by Lennon as a demo while in Bermuda. A handwritten lyric sheet for the song is dated July 5, 1980 Fairyland Bermuda.[1] The song was first released on the posthumous album Milk and Honey in 1984. It was also rumored to be among the songs planned as a possible reunion single by his former bandmates during the making of The Beatles Anthology.[2]
Lennon and Ono had for some time admired the poetry of Robert and Elizabeth Browning. In fact, they thought they might be the couple reincarnated.[3] The two songs were purposely written with the couple in mind.
Ono woke up one morning in the summer of 1980 with the music of "Let Me Count the Ways" in her head. She rang Lennon in Bermuda to play it for him.[3] Lennon loved the song, and Ono then suggested to him that he should write a Robert Browning piece to accompany it. They discussed having portraits of themselves as the Brownings on the cover of the album.[3]
Lennon asked to have a collection of Browning's works sent.[3] However, that afternoon, Yoko says in the liner notes to "Milk and Honey," John was watching TV when a film came on which had the poem "Rabbi Ben Ezra" by Robert Browning in it. Inspired by this turn of events, Lennon wrote "Grow Old with Me" as an answer to Ono's song, and rang her back to play it to her over the phone.[4]
In October 2020 it was reported that the baseball film which Lennon had been watching in Bermuda was A Love Affair: The Eleanor and Lou Gehrig Story, about baseball player Lou Gehrig, who died of a rare nervous system disorder which later came to bear his name in popular media. Kenneth Womack made the discovery "after watching dozens in search of the mysterious film in question, I began to study TV guides from that period. John was a regular subscriber." Upon realizing A Love Affair had been screened at the time Lennon was staying in Bermuda, Womack made the connection, concluding: "The mystery, quite suddenly, was solved".[5][6][7]
Musically, the earliest inspirations for “Grow Old With Me” trace all the way back to the summer of 1976 when Lennon wrote an un-released song called “Tennessee.” That song was inspired by reading works of playwright Tennessee Williams, specifically “A Streetcar Named Desire.” [8]
“Over the next several months” according to The Lost Lennon Tapes host Elliot Mintz, that song morphed into another un-released song called “Howling at the Moon.” [9] Later, after reworking the “Tennessee” lyrics and putting those verses together with “Howling At The Moon,” Lennon retitled the song “Memories.” [9]
The opening chords and cadence of what would become “Grow Old With Me” can clearly be heard in Take 2 of “Memories.”[9] What would become the descending ending chords of “Grow Old With Me” can also first be heard on that take.
The song “Memories” was top of mind as Lennon worked in Bermuda on a collection of old songs while also writing new ones. Womack writes, “During this same time, Lennon resuscitated his song fragment for "Memories," for which he double tracked the lead vocal and supplemented his original Dakota piano instrumentation with an improvisational acoustic guitar part.”[10]
Significance
The two new songs, "Grow Old with Me" and "Let Me Count the Ways" were originally meant for inclusion on Double Fantasy. In fact, they were envisioned as the "backbone" of the album.[3] However, Lennon and Ono, working on a tight deadline to get the album finished and released before Christmas, decided to postpone recording the songs until the following year (1981) for the planned Double Fantasy follow-up album, Milk and Honey.[3] This never happened owing to Lennon's murder in December 1980.
Had the song been finished and recorded, Lennon and Ono envisioned "Grow Old With Me" as a "a standard, the kind that they would play in church every time a couple gets married" according to Ono.[3] It was intended to have horns and a symphony as accompaniment.[3]
“Grow Old With Me” had particular importance for Lennon and Ono collaborating on “Double Fantasy” and “Milk and Honey.” Womack writes, “In terms of the couple’s collaboration, things began once and truly to unfold when Yoko shared her new song, ‘Let Me Count the Ways.’” [11] Womack also says of Lennon “He was especially enamoured with the religiosity inherent in of the middle-eight, singing about a "world without end.”" [12]
Of growing older, Ono said in a 1984 interview, "He was looking forward to it. He was always talking about, won't it be great when we're 80 and don't have to struggle any more, sitting in a rocking chair, getting letters from Sean."[13]
Recording
The song was originally written and recorded with an acoustic guitar accompaniment.[12] An assistant brought Lennon’s Ovation guitar to the island the month prior.[14] Presumably this guitar was used on the original demo recordings. Back in New York at the Dakota, Lennon recorded demos of the song on piano along with a rhythm box.[12]
At the time “Grow Old With Me” was written and the initial demos were made, Lennon was recording on a Sony CF-6500II boom box, referred to as the ZILBA’P, which had been purchased in Bermuda.[15] He also used a National Panasonic RS-4360 DFT, specifically to double track songs.[16]
Overall, several home recordings of the song were made by Lennon. However, all except the one released on Milk and Honey "disappeared."[3] Recorded in the couple's bedroom on a cassette with a piano and rhythm box, this version was the last recording ever made of the song by Lennon and Ono.[3]
In 1998, at Ono's request, George Martin created an orchestrated version of the recording, which was released on the John Lennon Anthology box set. The orchestration was recorded at Abbey Road and mixed at Air Studios according to album notes. Martin's son, Giles Martin, plays the bass added to this version.[17] The 1998 version was later included on the compilation Working Class Hero: The Definitive Lennon.
In 2009, an acoustic version and an alternative piano arrangement came to light and now circulate among Lennon collectors. Some of these versions are available on YouTube.
In 2020 a new mix of the "orchestrated version" was released on the compilation Gimme Some Truth. The song was mixed by Sam Gannon.[18] The John Lennon Twitter account said that the version "used AI technology to isolate John's vocals from the piano and allowed Sean and the team to clean it up further and have more control in the mix."[19]
The version has other differences from its predecessors. Sean Lennon said “On ‘Grow Old With Me,’ I wound up having to do a kind of a hybrid of all these three different versions...I made some decisions there arrangement-wise that hadn’t been before.” [20]
Engineers – Andy Strange, Peter Cobbin, Steve Orchard
Assistants – Ricky Graham, Chris Clark
Audio restoration – Tony Cousins, Crispin Murray (Metropolis Mastering)
Promotion
In 1984 Stanley Dorfman directed a music video for the song. The video featured home movies of Lennon and Yoko Ono walking in Central Park, Lennon dancing, and other intimate moments from Lennon's personal film archive.[21] The video was subsequently contained on the 1992 release The John Lennon Video Collection.
Shortly before the release of "Milk and Honey," Yoko Ono is said to have commissioned 70 hand-crafted wood boxes made of Bermuda cedar as Christmas presents for friends and "a select few radio and music personalities."[22] The boxes had an engraved silver plaque that reads "MILK & HONEY, LOVE, YOKO & SEAN, XMAS '83, N.Y.C." The box contained a casssette player that played the home recording of Lennon singing "Grow Old With Me."[23]
Reception
Rolling Stone critic Don Shewey said in a 1984 review that the song had the "stately feel of 'Imagine'" but noted that it was unlikely to become the standard Lennon hoped.[24]
In 2013, Ultimate Classic Rock critic Stephen Lewis rated "Grow Old with Me" as Lennon's 2nd greatest solo love song, calling it "as sparse and soul-baring as anything Lennon had done since 1970's Plastic Ono Band.[25] In 2024, Far Out critic Tim Coffman rated it as Lennon's 3rd greatest deep cut, calling it "one of his most stunning ballads, having the same emotional vulnerability of his last album with a Beatles-esque melody behind it."[26]
Attempted Beatles version
In 1994, Yoko Ono gave Paul McCartney cassettes containing demo recordings of four of John Lennon's unfinished songs: "Grow Old with Me," "Free as a Bird," "Real Love" and "Now and Then." McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr allegedly attempted to work on "Grow Old with Me" in a similar way that they had with the other Beatles "reunion" songs.[2] "Free as a Bird" and "Real Love" were the only ones completed. They did work on "Now and Then" but abandoned it at the time because Lennon's original demo required too much work to bring it up to the standard needed for an official release.[27] It was eventually finished and released in 2023.[28]
However, Jeff Lynne, who produced "Free As a Bird" and "Real Love," told Beatlefan in 1995 that "There were three tracks altogether" that the surviving Beatles worked on. He was specifically asked if they had worked on "Grow Old With Me" and replied "No. It was only the three."[29] This was prior to the release of the first two songs.
In the same issue of Beatlefan, McCartney confirmed that "Grow Old With Me" was among the songs that Ono presented for consideration. When asked if the surviving Beatles planned to work on the song, McCartney said "No. I don’t think so, no. We’re not that keen on that one."[30] In a 2012 documentary on Jeff Lynne, McCartney reconfirms “There were three that we liked: ‘Free As a Bird’ and ‘Real Love.’ So those are the two that we did. And there was another one that we started working on…” That third song eventually became “Now and Then.” [31]
Ringo Starr, who recorded the song for a solo album in 2019, told GQ magazine he only learned of the song's existence that year. "I had never heard of the song, and had no awareness of it at all."[32] While this seems likely to be an error in memory, as it is well-established that the song was given to the surviving Beatles in the '90s, it further supports the notion that they did not work on the song.
Ringo Starr's version
Lennon is alleged to have intended to give the song to former bandmate Ringo Starr to record.[33] In the aftermath of Lennon's death Starr could not go through with it.[33] However, this assertion is contradicted by Starr's statement that he had "no awareness" of the song until shortly before he recorded it in 2019.[32]
Lennon had given Starr tracks for a 1981 album that became "Stop and Smell the Roses." However, those songs are said to be “Nobody Told Me” and “Life Begins at 40.” It would seem those were the songs Starr could not go through with, with Starr saying in a 1981 interview of the Lennon songs “I won’t use them now…they won’t be on this album.” [34] Additionally, Ono said "Grow Old With Me" was originally intended to be the "backbone" of "Double Fantasy" album before being moved to "Milk and Honey."[3] This makes it seem unlikely the song was intended to be given away for a separate album by Starr released the same year "Milk and Honey" would have been were it not for Lennon's death.
Starr said he learned of the song's existence in 2019 from producer Jack Douglas.[32] Douglas told Starr his name was referenced on the so-called Bermuda Tapes. "At the beginning (of the demo, you can hear John say), “Oh, this would be good for Richard Starkey... this would be great for you, Ring!” [32] However, Lennonology notes that it is only before the song "Nobody Told Me" that Lennon can be heard making such a statement.[35] In what he announces as Take 2 of that song, Lennon says, “This one’s probably for Mr. Richard Starkey, late of the Beatles…This one’s gotta be for Ringo.” [36]
Additionally, Jack Douglas recalls the conversation with Ringo differently. He says Ringo told him “‘I had a bunch of John’s memorabilia in a box and when I moved, the box disappeared. I don’t have that cassette from Bermuda anymore.'” Douglas had a copy of the tape and supplied it to Ringo, also having it transferred from cassette. [37]
Starr covered "Grow Old with Me" for his 2019 album What's My Name.[33][38]Paul McCartney sang backing vocals and played bass, with Starr saying "I thought the only guy who could really play bass on this for me was Paul."[32]
Douglas, who produced Lennon's Double Fantasy and Milk and Honey, arranged strings – including a George Harrison musical reference. "And the strings that Jack arranged for this track, if you really listen, they do one line from 'Here Comes the Sun,'" Starr said. "So in a way, it's the four of us".[39] Of his version, Starr said "I did the best I could."[40]
As of 2024, the song has been covered by over 30 artists. This includes pop, rock, country, gospel, and instrumental versions.
The earliest known covers were made in 1990. Morgan Fisher covered the song on the album "Echoes of Lennon," Peter Randall on the album "Better Times."
Glen Campbell recorded it on his 2008 album Meet Glen Campbell and stated in interviews that he received permission directly from Yoko to record it. He stated, erroneously, that it had never previously been recorded. Campbell also recorded a live version in 2008 that was subsequently released on the "Live from Troubadour" album in 2021. He says in the intro that Ono brought him the song and that it had "never been played, never been recorded."
The Beatles, also referred to colloquially as the White Album, is the ninth studio album and only double album by the English rock band the Beatles, released on 22 November 1968. Featuring a plain white sleeve, the cover contains no graphics or text other than the band's name embossed. This was intended as a direct contrast to the vivid cover artwork of the band's previous LP Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967). The Beatles is recognised for its fragmentary style and diverse range of genres, including folk, country rock, British blues, ska, music hall, proto-metal and the avant-garde. It has since been viewed by some critics as a postmodern work, as well as one of the greatest albums of all time.
John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band is the debut solo studio album by English musician John Lennon. Backed by the Plastic Ono Band, it was released by Apple Records on 11 December 1970 in tandem with the similarly titled album by his wife, Yoko Ono. At the time of its issue, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band received mixed reviews overall, but later came to be widely regarded as Lennon's best solo album.
Apple Records is a British record label founded by the Beatles in 1968 as a division of Apple Corps Ltd. It was initially intended as a creative outlet for the Beatles, both as a group and individually, plus a selection of other artists including Mary Hopkin, James Taylor, Badfinger and Billy Preston. In practice, the roster had become dominated by the mid-1970s with releases of the former Beatles as solo artists. Allen Klein managed the label from 1969 to 1973, then it was managed by Neil Aspinall on behalf of the Beatles and their heirs. Aspinall retired in 2007 and was replaced by Jeff Jones.
Double Fantasy is the fifth studio album by John Lennon and Yoko Ono, and the final one to feature Lennon before his death. Released in November 1980 on Geffen Records, the album marked Lennon's return to recording music full-time, following his five-year hiatus to raise his son Sean. Recording sessions took place at the Hit Factory in New York City between August and October 1980. The final album features songs from both Lennon and Ono, largely alternating between the two in its track listing. Other tracks recorded by Lennon from the sessions were compiled by Ono for release on Milk and Honey in 1984.
John Lennon Anthology is a four-CD box set of home demos, studio outtakes and other previously unreleased material recorded by John Lennon over the course of his solo career from "Give Peace a Chance" in 1969 up until the 1980 sessions for Double Fantasy and Milk and Honey.
"What Goes On" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles, featured as the eighth track on their 1965 album Rubber Soul. The song was later released as the B-side of the US single "Nowhere Man", and then as the tenth track on the North America-only album Yesterday and Today. It is the only song by the band credited to Lennon–McCartney–Starkey and the only song on Rubber Soul that features Ringo Starr on lead vocals. The song reached number 81 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in 1966.
"Real Love" is a song written by the English musician John Lennon, formerly of the Beatles. He recorded six demos of the song in 1979 and 1980 with "Real Life", a different song that merged with "Real Love". In 1988, the sixth take was posthumously released for the documentary soundtrack Imagine: John Lennon. In 1995, his demo was completed by his former Beatles bandmates as part of the Beatles Anthology project, along with "Free as a Bird".
"Come Together" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles, written by John Lennon and credited to Lennon–McCartney. The song is the opening track on the band's 1969 album Abbey Road and was also released as a double A-side single with "Something". The song reached the top of the charts in the United States and Australia but peaked at No. 4 in the United Kingdom.
"The Ballad of John and Yoko" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles that was released as a non-album single in May 1969. It was written by John Lennon and credited to the Lennon–McCartney partnership, and chronicles the events surrounding the wedding of Lennon and Yoko Ono. The song was the Beatles' 17th UK number-one single and their last for 54 years until "Now and Then" in 2023. In the United States, it was banned by some radio stations due to the lyrics' reference to Christ and crucifixion. The single peaked at number 8 on the US Billboard Hot 100. The song has subsequently appeared on compilation albums such as Hey Jude, 1967–1970, Past Masters, and 1.
Milk and Honey is the sixth and final studio album by John Lennon and Yoko Ono, released in January 1984, three years after Lennon’s murder. It is Lennon's eighth and final album, and the first posthumous release of new Lennon music, having been recorded in the last months of his life during and following the sessions for his 1980 album Double Fantasy. It was assembled by Yoko Ono in association with the Geffen label.
"Oh! Darling" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles, appearing as the fourth song on the 1969 album Abbey Road. It was written by Paul McCartney and credited to Lennon–McCartney. Its working title was "Oh! Darling ". Although not issued as a single in either the United Kingdom or the United States, a regional subsidiary of Capitol successfully edited it as a single in Central America, having "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" as its B-side. It was also issued as a single in Portugal. Apple Records released "Oh! Darling" in Japan with "Here Comes the Sun" in June 1970.
"Why Don't We Do It in the Road?" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles, released on their 1968 double album The Beatles. Short and simple, it was written and sung by Paul McCartney, but credited to Lennon–McCartney. At 1:42, "Why Don't We Do It in the Road?" comprises 34 bars of a twelve-bar blues idiom. It begins with three different percussion elements and features McCartney's increasingly raucous vocal repeating a simple lyric with only two different lines.
"Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1968 double album The Beatles. It was written by John Lennon and credited to Lennon–McCartney. The lyrics contain sayings the Beatles heard from Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, with whom they studied Transcendental Meditation in India in early 1968. In his subsequent comments on the song, Lennon said it addressed his bandmates' initial reaction to his relationship with Yoko Ono. Recorded early in the sessions for the White Album, the track typifies Lennon and the Beatles' return to a rock sound in 1968 after their psychedelic period.
"Cry Baby Cry" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1968 double album The Beatles. It was written by John Lennon and credited to the Lennon–McCartney partnership. The coda of the song is a short segment referred to as "Can You Take Me Back", written by Paul McCartney, which was actually an outtake from the "I Will" session.
"Old Brown Shoe" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles. Written by George Harrison, the group's lead guitarist, it was released on a non-album single in May 1969, as the B-side to "The Ballad of John and Yoko". The song was subsequently included on the band's compilation albums Hey Jude, 1967–1970 and Past Masters, Volume Two. Although "Old Brown Shoe" remains a relatively obscure song in the band's catalogue, several music critics view it as one of Harrison's best compositions from the Beatles era and especially admire his guitar solo on the track.
"I'm the Greatest" is a song written by English musician John Lennon that was released as the opening track of the 1973 album Ringo by Ringo Starr. With Starr, Lennon and George Harrison appearing on the track, it marks the only time that three former Beatles recorded together between the band's break-up in 1970 and Lennon's death in 1980. Lennon wrote the song in December 1970 as a wry comment on his rise to fame, and later tailored the lyrics for Starr to sing. Named after one of Muhammad Ali's catchphrases, the song partly evokes the stage-show concept of the Beatles' 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
"Free as a Bird" is a single released in December 1995 by English rock band the Beatles. The song was originally written and recorded in 1977 as a home demo by John Lennon. In 1995, 25 years after their break-up and 15 years after Lennon's murder, his then surviving bandmates Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr released a studio version incorporating the demo.
"Nobody Told Me" is a song by John Lennon. The B-side features Yoko Ono's "O' Sanity"; both are on the Milk and Honey album. The promo video for the single was made up of clips of footage from Lennon's other videos, as are most posthumous Lennon videos.
"Touch Me" is a song written by Yoko Ono that was first released on her 1970 album Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band. An edited version was later released in the U.S. as the b-side to John Lennon's single "Power to the People."
What's My Name is the 20th studio album by English singer-songwriter Ringo Starr. It was released on 25 October 2019 through Roccabella and Universal Music Enterprises. The album was again recorded at Roccabella West, Starr's home studio, and features collaborations with Joe Walsh, Benmont Tench, Edgar Winter, Steve Lukather, Richard Page, and Warren Ham. It also includes a cover of John Lennon's "Grow Old with Me", on which Starr invited Paul McCartney to sing and play bass guitar, and a solo version by Starr of "Money ", a Motown song previously recorded by the Beatles. Starr has stated that What's My Name will likely be his last full-length album, with plans to release EPs in the future instead.
↑ Womack, Kenneth (2020). John Lennon 1980: The Last Days in the Life. Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-1-78760-1369. p120
↑ Womack, Kenneth (2020). John Lennon 1980: The Last Days in the Life. Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-1-78760-1369. p123
↑ Womack, Kenneth (2020). John Lennon 1980: The Last Days in the Life. Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-1-78760-1369. p127
↑ Womack, Kenneth (2018). Sound Pictures: The Life of Beatles Producer George Martin (The Later Years, 1966–2016). Chicago: Chicago Review Press. ISBN 978-0-91277-774-0. p. 475.
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