Sad Song Saturday: John Lennon - Grow Old With Me (download) (submitted by Kevin A.)
Send your sad song suggestions to Raizin(at)gmail(dot)com.
Kevin says: I’ve always loved John Lennon. His ideology is inspiring and timeless, his antics are amusing, and he’s a fairly well-known musician. He wrote this song with Yoko in 1980, one of the last songs he wrote before he was killed. Behind his political views and outspokenness, Lennon only truly wished to live a life full of love. The lyrics speak for themselves:
“Grow old along with me
Whatever fate decrees
We will see it through
For our love is true
God bless our love”
I say: You know what makes me sad? (Besides the obvious fact that John and Yoko did not in fact grow old together?) All the vitriol and hatred still leveled against Yoko Ono by supposed fans of the man who loved her more than anything.
If you love John Lennon and you hate Yoko, not as an artist, but as a person, I think you’re — and I’m sorry, but there’s no other word for it — kind of gross.
It seems a little bit selfish, like you don’t want to share John Lennon, or like you love the idea of John Lennon more than the man himself — the perfect, ideal John Lennon is better than one who gets insecure and needs approval from others and needs love and gets restless and outgrows the Beatles. It’s like how you might get mad at Liz Phair for making her albums more shiny and accessible because that’s not Liz Phair, or Of Montreal for rewriting one of their best songs into an Outback Steakhouse jingle because, come on, guys . However, if you can’t see how much love Yoko brought into John’s life, how much she challenged him and inspired him and filled him with joy, then I would argue that you don’t really love the idea of John Lennon at all.
(This is an excellent essay on Yoko, which I recommend all Beatles fans at least skim.)
