ORIGINS

As detailed in the liner notes to the album Milk and Honey, early one morning in the summer of 1980, Yoko Ono awoke with the song ‘Let Me Count the Ways’ in her head. She subsequently called her husband, John Lennon, who was having a working vacation in Bermuda, and played the song for him.

Ono’s new song was inspired by Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 43 from Sonnets from the Portuguese. It begins “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.”

The Lennons believed, perhaps jokingly, that they had a connection to Elizabeth Barrett Browning and her husband Robert Browning. Ono said, “…back when we were living in England in Ascot, John was reading this book about Robert and Elizabeth Browning. He said to me, “We’re just a reincarnation of Robert and Elizabeth Browning.” (laughs) I said, “Maybe.” It was very funny because Elizabeth was older than Robert and I was older than John.” [1]

Ono suggested that Lennon write a song inspired by a Robert Browning poem, and he asked to have the office to send a copy of Robert Browning’s work. However, that was not necessary.

“John called me that afternoon “Hey, you won’t believe this!” He explained that he was watching the TV, a fifties film of a baseball player. In the film, John saw the girlfriend send a poem to her baseball player, a poem which was one by Robert Browning called ‘Grow Old Beside Me.’ “Can you believe that?….so anyways, this is my version.”[2]

Lennon then played his new song, ‘Grow Old With Me.’ Lennon’s lyric sheet for the song is dated July 5, 1980, Fairyland, Bermuda. Lennon was staying at Villa Undercliff at this time.

In 2020, Beatles scholar Kenneth Womack identified the movie Lennon was watching as 1978’s A Love Affair: The Eleanor and Lou Gherig Story.[3] The movie cites the Robert Browning poem ‘Rabbi Ben Ezra.’ It begins ‘Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be.’ These are the opening lines of Lennon’s song.

According to Ono, ‘Grow Old With Me’ and ‘Let Me Count the Ways’ were considered the “backbone” of Double Fantasy, Lennon’s first album of new material since 1974.[2] The couple discussed the album cover for Double Fantasy having two portraits, one of Lennon as Robert Browning and another of Ono as Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Their hands would come out from the painting and be holding.[2]

George Small, who played keyboard on Double Fantasy, explained, “The original concept for the cover was supposed to be a photograph or painting of Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning with their faces cut out and John and Yoko’s superimposed over them. It was gonna have that sepia, early photography kind of look.”[1]

The couple “kept discussing” how ‘Let Me Count the Ways’ and ‘Grow Old With Me’ would be arranged. Ono said, “For John, ‘Grow Old With Me’ was one that would be a standard, the kind that they would play in church every time a couple gets married. It was horns and symphony time.”[2]

However, there was a time crunch, as Double Fantasy needed to be released in time for the holiday season. With the couple already planning a follow-up album called Milk and Honey, they decided to push the two songs to that album to avoid doing a “rush job.”[2] ‘Grow Old With Me’ was never completed.

On December 25th 1980, less than three weeks after Lennon’s assassination, Ono received a surprise Christmas gift he had held for her. It was a portrait of Elizabeth Browning with original handwriting from her framed side by side.[2]

[1] Sharp, Ken. Starting Over: The Making Of John Lennon and Yoko Ono's Double Fantasy. Jetfighter. 2010. p. 80. Kindle Edition.

[2] Milk and Honey album liner notes, 1984.

[3] Dalya Alberge. How a TV baseball movie inspired late Lennon love song. The Guardian. October 4, 2020.