Grow Old With Me (3rd remix now up)

[Alessandro Rocchi]

Great job, thank you very much, Lord Reith!

[Rusty]

I've also done another mix with a double tracked John vocal. And also his tambourine but not nearly as loud or overbearing as on the mono demo. I think I prefer this one... see what you think.

Me too Lord. I'm sure John would have wanted it this way also.

[Rupert Pupkin]

Thanks very much guys, glad you enjoyed it.

I've also done another mix with a double tracked John vocal. And also his tambourine but not nearly as loud or overbearing as on the mono demo. I think I prefer this one... see what you think.

https://tinyurl.com/double-John

by the way are you doing an EP ? "How We Doing, HAL?"

Well I was just thinking of MAL and then I thought of John at the end of Hey Jude in Experiment In Television/Music! where he says that to George Martin.

I'm not sure if this was a real tambourine but rather John's drums rhythm box.
I love the double-tracked vocals. I love both versions.
Since the piano track are available as single-tracked vocals without the rhythm box, a version with John's "true" piano playing enhanced with A.I or EQ'ed is not possible ?
You perfectly got the end of the song as well as the intro (which was the same as "Memories"), with the right notes on piano (it even ends like "How ?" - John used to play this kind of end during the Imagine sessions)
What I really like is the strings arrangement; you find a perfect balance using something not "pompeux" like the "bag pipe" note by Lennon; but sounds like bag pipe. I really like your arrangement-melody that you did for this strings section during the fragile, delicate bridge of the song, which is very
Love on the drums goes right after the first verse (could have been louder) so the bass. Really this kind of bass playing (a-la Klaus Voorman) was what Lennon was waiting from Tony Levin (the way he plays bass on Woman says a lot (it's isolated on the Legend 5.1 mix) (initially I think that was Willie Weeks who was planned for the sessions).

[Lord Reith]

I'm not sure if this was a real tambourine but rather John's drums rhythm box.

No just an ordinary grade school tambourine. He rattles it at the end.

I love the double-tracked vocals. I love both versions.

Listened to the second version again today but did not like it much. Maybe it's the mix. I'll try a different mix.

Since the piano track are available as single-tracked vocals without the rhythm box, a version with John's "true" piano playing enhanced with A.I or EQ'ed is not possible ?

I did restore the demo into stereo on Evolver but it's the way the piano is so out of tune that is the problem. I can't understand why a multi millionaire was playing on a dreadful old banger like that one. Great for very old jazz and blues tunes but not for a delicate ballad.

You perfectly got the end of the song as well as the intro (which was the same as "Memories"), with the right notes on piano (it even ends like "How ?" - John used to play this kind of end during the Imagine sessions)

Yes I referenced "How?" at the end because I recognised the "Oh no-o" part from that song. Hadn't really thought about it before that.

What I really like is the strings arrangement; you find a perfect balance using something not "pompeux" like the "bag pipe" note by Lennon; but sounds like bag pipe. I really like your arrangement-melody that you did for this strings section during the fragile, delicate bridge of the song, which is very

Well it's nothing in any way clever, just some chords. But it's very much a big ask trying to get an arranger to write something like that. They naturally want to show off their abilities, so you end up with these very florid string sections that sound out of place. John kept Spector in check on the Imagine strings... poor Phil must have been chomping at the bit.

Love on the drums goes right after the first verse (could have been louder) so the bass. Really this kind of bass playing (a-la Klaus Voorman) was what Lennon was waiting from Tony Levin (the way he plays bass on Woman says a lot (it's isolated on the Legend 5.1 mix) (initially I think that was Willie Weeks who was planned for the sessions).

Klaus was the perfect player for John's solo stuff. He kept in the background but managed to put his stamp on it anyway.

[beatles2me]

Thank you Lord Volker

[El_Garnatí]

Thanks always Lord

[Rupert Pupkin]

I'm not sure if this was a real tambourine but rather John's drums rhythm box.

No just an ordinary grade school tambourine. He rattles it at the end.

I love the double-tracked vocals. I love both versions.

Listened to the second version again today but did not like it much. Maybe it's the mix. I'll try a different mix.

Since the piano track are available as single-tracked vocals without the rhythm box, a version with John's "true" piano playing enhanced with A.I or EQ'ed is not possible ?

I did restore the demo into stereo on Evolver but it's the way the piano is so out of tune that is the problem. I can't understand why a multi millionaire was playing on a dreadful old banger like that one. Great for very old jazz and blues tunes but not for a delicate ballad.

I think that the smartest part of the strings arrangement for "How?" was the strings+keyboard arrangement for the "You know life can be long and you got to be so strong". It's so powerful.
The main strings arrangement for "How?" always reminds me the part for "The Long And Winding Road".

"Grow Old With Me" :I think I like the single-tracked vocal version better (I have listen to both with headphones).
I'm not sure it's a real tambourine (I have noticed it since "Milk & Honey" came out). I'm almost sure that is John's drum-machine and that he changed the "drum" pattern near the end. Since it was a double-tracked take he did not play guitar over it or double the piano.
I don't remember if this was a Casio or a Sony drum machine and the exact drum machine it was but it was something very rudimentary even for the late 70's.
Fred Seaman played some percussions on some Bermudas demos (perhaps a jam with Julian with one day surfaced ?) such as (Darling) Beautiful Boy (Fred Seaman told the story in his book).
And yes, it's one of the paradox of someone like John Lennon; Beatles were so sophisticated in studio recording and you have someone who could afford an home studio (perhaps even record a studio album while being "confined" at the Dakota) and even though he bother to double-tracked the vocals of many of his demos through the seventies (I Know, I Know on Mind Games) to the Dakota demos.
Such a mystery.
These days almost every musician du dimanche with some money can have a home studio using a Mac way more sophisticated that Mr Lennon, but apparently John did not care. Humility ? Or nonchalance ? I don't believe he was lazy because he really took time to overdubs his demos. So he really took it seriously.
And I'm really surprised that someone like Yoko Ono who used to play classical music did not bother to ask someone to tune up the upright piano at the Dakota (that's probably the one he used; there are several photos taken with John playing this upright piano).

For "Grow Old With Me" I think John started to compose the song on guitar (we have 2 takes on HMC, probably the very first take on HMC "Borrowed Time", a further attempt on "At Home" HMC.
Lennon probably reworked later the song on piano, that's certainly at that point he "recycled" the piano intro of "Memories" (which was initially "Tennessee" with a bridge which reminds me "Carry That Weight" for the melody ("sometimes I see the daylight has come too soon...")

[RLester]

Gorgeous work, LR

[theboxinargentina]

Is Lennon a bit out of tune here? I really don't have great ears for that sort of thing and so am asking!

[georgefromhenley]

beautiful - i wished this were Paul on piano and bass and Ringo on drums. You did a great job.