Rock

Paul McCartney And Ringo Starr Reunite To Cover “Grow Old With Me” By John Lennon

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In 2019, Ringo released a new album ‘What’s My Name’. That’s when the two remaining Beatles Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney worked together again. The album featured John Lennon’s ‘Grow Old With Me’ which featured Paul McCartney on bass and backing vocals.

‘Grow Old With Me’ was first released posthumously in 1984 on Lennon’s final album ‘Milk and Honey’. It was written before his death in 1980. The idea of cover was there way back in the 90s, but it has finally happened. Ringo is on drums and vocals, while Paul is on bass.

The song is a great listen so be sure to hear it down below.

In an interview with Billboard, he explained how he found the song recently. Ringo got ahold of the song when producer Jack Douglas introduced him to a demo version of Lennon’s ‘The Bermuda Tapes’.

In a newer interview with GQ he explained, “I was really emotional when Jack Douglas, the producer who produced John, mentioned it to me. 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!'”

Starr also talked about how emotional it was for him. Lennon was shot dead on December 8th, 1980 and that broke him. He stated,
“When I first heard that, I did get a little emotional to hear his voice mentioning my name, because I’m an emotional guy.”

“Anyway, he recorded all the other tracks, but this track he hadn’t recorded. He’d done a demo, that’s all and I had never heard of the song and had no awareness of it at all. But I thought that it was a beautiful song. I decided I was going to do it and thought it was really important.”

That’s when Starr talked about Paul’s part on the song.

“I did the vocals first and then I wanted real friends to come and play with me, I thought the only guy who could really play bass on this for me was Paul. And Paul happened to be coming into town.”

“He is the most melodic player, I love playing with him. He played beautiful and then he sang with me, that was nice too. [But] he’s been on five or six on my albums, so it’s not like the only time he’s ever played with me.”

There was also sentiments behind the song. Starr explained,

“I’m an emotional person. And I just loved this song. I sang it the best that I could. I do well up when I think of John this deeply. And I’ve done my best. We’ve done our best. The other good thing is that I really wanted Paul to play on it, and he said yes. Paul came over and he played bass and sings a little bit on this with me. So John’s on it in a way. I’m on it and Paul’s on it. It’s not a publicity stunt. This is just what I wanted. And the strings that Jack arranged for this track, if you really listen, they do one line from ‘Here Comes the Sun’. So in a way, it’s the four of us.”

Here’s the Tracklist of ‘What’s My Name’

  1. Gotta Get Up To Get Down
  2. It’s Not Love That You Want
  3. Grow Old With Me
  4. Magic
  5. Money (That’s What I Want)
  6. Better Days
  7. Life Is Good
  8. Thank God For Music
  9. Send Love Spread Peace
  10. What’s My Name

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