‘Grow Old With Me’: The song Ringo Starr recorded as a tribute to John Lennon
A month before his tragic death, John Lennon was still busy putting the final touches on Double Fantasy. However, due to a strict deadline, two tracks due to appear on the record were left on the studio floor. At the time, Lennon was calm about saving them for a later date as he’d already begun planning his next album, Milk and Honey. However, his heartbreaking murder would prevent the LP from being completed as he’d envisaged.
Nevertheless, ‘Grow Old With Me’ and ‘Let Me Count The Ways’ appeared on Milk and Honey upon its release in 1984. The two tracks, inspired by poetry from Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, respectively, were written by Lennon and Yoko Ono in Bermuda during the summer of 1980.
Yoko, discussing the work, later said of John’s vision for ‘Grow Old With Me’: “For John, ‘Grow Old With Me’ was one that would be a standard, the kind that they would play in church every time a couple gets married. It was horns and symphony time.”
She continued: “But we were working against deadline for the Christmas release of the album, kept holding ‘Grow Old With Me’ to the end, and finally decided it was better to leave the song for Milk And Honey so we won’t do a rush job… ‘Grow Old With Me’ was a song John made several cassettes of, as we discussed the arrangements for it.”
Ultimately, the version of ‘Grow Old With Me’, which appeared on Milk and Honey, was far less polished than he wanted, but it does mark his final recording. The track was created alongside Ono in their shared bedroom with the assistance of only a rhythm box and piano.
In 2019, Ringo Starr paid tribute to Lennon by recording a version of ‘Grow Old With Me’, which included Paul McCartney on bass. Speaking about his decision to cover the track, the former Beatle told French radio station France Inter: “It was emotional, yeah. It’s still emotional in its own way. When Jack Douglas, the producer of John’s final records, he said to me out of the blue when I bumped into him, ‘Did you ever hear that cassette?’ Because the demos were on cassette.”
Ringo then explained how, on The Bermuda Tapes, Lennon says: “This would be good for Richard Starkey”.
He added: “I wanted to record it. I thought it was a beautiful song, and John had written it. So, I did that and the best vocals I can do.”
The drummer concluded: “There was a feeling when we were doing it, and then Jack, he’s put a line in it which relates to George (Harrison). So it’s like, ‘Wow, we’re all here’. We’re not all here, but we’re here in love.”
Although The Beatles weren’t in the same room due to the deaths of Harrison and Lennon, for a moment, Starr allowed himself to dream. The touching cover showed his affection for his former bandmates who didn’t get the privilege of growing old like him and McCartney. Although the duo are no longer here, they are never far from the thoughts of the last two surviving members of The Beatles.
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