Grow Old with John, Paul and Ringo

A fan made mix of the instrumentation from Ringo Starr’s version of the song, coupled with John Lennon’s vocals from his home demos.

Description by the uploader:

It has often been suggested that when the Beatles were preparing the Anthology, Yoko provided more than just “Free As A Bird” and “Real Love” for consideration for reunion songs. Two other titles have been mentioned, an unreleased but bootlegged demo called “Now And Then” and “Grow Old With Me”, which had been issued on the posthumous “Milk And Honey” album. Neither were completed.

In October 2019, Ringo released his version of John’s demo of “Grow Old With Me”, which features on his album “What’s My Name”. This new version featured Ringo on drums and vocals and Paul on bass and backing vocals, with guitarist Joe Walsh joining them and new string arrangement by Jack Douglas (producer of John’s “Double Fantasy” album).

This is an attempt at presenting a version of what a Beatles version of the track could have sounded like. This uses the backing track from Ringo’s version and John’s vocal and piano from two alternate demos that have not been released officially. As Ringo’s version was recorded in the Bb and John’s original was in G, it was not possible to incorporate Ringo or Paul’s vocals (there was no magic “Strawberry Fields Forever” blend possible, the vocals were just way too slow!).

5 Responses

  1. absinthe says:

    Corny arrangement/guitar. I'll stick with John's lo-fi demo. That's part of its charm.

  2. Unknown says:

    If John and Ringo's versions were in different keys, how could the backing tracks on Ringo's version (Joe Walsh's guitar, string parts) match up to John's version, unless you adjusted the speeds on them?

  3. Popper says:

    If John and Ringo's versions were in different keys, how could the backing tracks on Ringo's version (Joe Walsh's guitar, string parts) match up to John's version, unless you adjusted the speeds on them?

    Digital software. You can so it yourself using Audacity.

  4. Darren says:

    I wonder… I wonder if Sir Paul has taken one of the John Lennon Demos bootlegs and played along with his old friend. Maybe even go so far as to produce a full recording? Just for the fun of it.
    Just one of those things I ponder sometimes.

  5. Steve says:

    John’s voice just always gets me in this song. I love the clarity of his vocal here. I do agree that the instruments are just too much

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