Regret is often a moot point. When you can’t go back and change something, is there really any point in mulling over it? Of course, if the answer were ‘yes’ to that question, it would solve a whole lot of suffering.
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Even a perfect track record from the outside looking in doesn’t stop someone from harboring regret. Even someone of Paul McCartney‘s track record can’t escape it. Macca’s regret comes in the form of an indisputable Beatles classic: “When I’m Sixty-Four.”
Give me your answer, fill in a form
Mine for evermore
Will you still need me, will you still feed me
When I’m sixty-four
This sonic gaze into the future has been beloved by many a Beatles fan. Despite McCartney being quite young when he wrote this tune (which explains how weathered he thought he’d be at 64), it’s still a fairly sound statement on enduring love.
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You’ll be older too
And if you say the word
I could stay with you
Nevertheless, McCartney has several issues with the song when looking back. “[If I were to write it now] I’d call it ‘When I’m 94.'” It’s probably a more apt title for a song about never leaving home and occupying oneself with knitting and “wasting away.”
According to McCartney, he’s not alone in that opinion.
“I once ran into a lady who played piano at old people’s homes,” McCartney wrote in his book, The Lyrics: 1956 To The Present. “She said, ‘Mr McCartney, I hope you don’t mind, but I’ve had to update ‘When I’m Sixty-Four’ to ‘When I’m Eighty-Four.’ Sometimes even ‘When I’m Ninety-Four.’ Those people think sixty-four is rather young.”
Despite a young McCartney’s rather grim look of growing old, this song still manages to tug at the heartstrings. Revisit this Beatles classic, below.
(Photo by Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)
