On Paul McCartney's Birthday

Paul McCartney turns sixty-four today.

Sixty-four.

I’ve seen around the ‘Net in reference to his impending divorce to Heather Mills a number of jokes made at McCartney’s expense playing on the lyrics to his song, “When I’m Sixty-Four.” Particularly these lines from the chorus:

Will you stil need me,
Will you still feed me,
When I’m sixty-four.

Ahem.

That McCartney is turning sixty-four and he’s also getting a divorce, these two facts have nothing to do with one another. More, people making the joke are completely misreading the song. It’s a song of youth–that there’s some eerie coincidence in numerology doesn’t mean that Paul McCartney deserves mockery. It’s a song about a young man, asking the woman he loves if she’ll still want him around “many years from now.” When McCartney married Heather Mills in 2002, his sixty-fourth year was hardly “many years from now.” McCartney wrote the song reportedly when he was sixteen.

Forget “When I’m Sixty-Four.” Instead, today listen to “Birthday” from The White Album. McCartney will thank you for it. 🙂