The Beat
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Paul McCartney turns 64 next monthWhat could Paul McCartney possibly have known about being 60 when, as a teenager, he wrote one of his most famous songs, "When I'm Sixty-Four"? The Beatles later recorded the tune when McCartney was 24, and, from that youthful vantage, 64 could only seem a time of cute, dithering romance as a hedge against loneliness ("You'll be older too/And if you say the word/I could stay with you"), dead-end domesticity ("Doing the garden, digging the weeds,/Who could ask for more"), and a steady descent into mortality ("Yours sincerely, wasting away")—all with a wink and a nudge. London was swinging, and the Beatles were the avatars of a seismic youthquake. Come on—who was ever going to get old?
As it turns out, all of us. If not old, we have—the lucky ones—at least gotten older. Nearly 40 years after the release of "When I'm Sixty-Four," which appears on the Beatles' 1967 masterpiece, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, many of us are only a stone's throw from that number—as is the eternally cherubic Sir Paul, who turns 64 on June 18.
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The Beat
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When I'm Sixty-Four
written by Paul McCartney (at age 14)
If I've been out
till quarter to three,
would you lock the door?
Will you still need me,
will you still feed me,
when I'm sixty-four?
You'd be older too,
and if you say the word,
I could stay with you.
I could be handy
mending a fuse,
when your lights are gone.
You can knit a sweater by the fireside.
Sunday mornings go for a ride.
Doing the garden,
digging the weeds,
who could ask for more?
Will you still need me,
will you still feed me,
when I'm sixty-four?
Every summer we can rent a cottage in the isle of Wight
if it's not too dear.
we shall scrimp and save,
Grandchildren on our knees
Vera, Chuck and Dave.
Send me a postcard,
drop me a line,
stating point of view.
Indicate precisely what you mean to say.
Yours sincerely wasting away.
Give me your answer,
fill in a form, -
mine for ever more.
Will you still need me,
will you still feed me
when I'm sixty-four.
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