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Dawson Jones

Professor Diehl

Human Meaning

January 22, 2022

When I’m Sixty-Four/Something

The Beatles’ When I’m Sixty-Four marks a drastic change from their previous love songs.

Up to its release, the earlier love songs of The Beatles were primarily characteristic of a

romanticized and slightly naive perspective on love. This more adolescent take on love suited the

young girls who made up the majority of their fan base at the time. However the release of When

I’m Sixty-Four shows The Beatles willingness to experiment musically and portrays a very

different and more mature love story. This song also contrasts their later hit Something, which

topped the charts as the number one song on their famous Abbey Road album, which came out

only two years later but has an entirely different take on love songs, encompassing more of the

Ludus love type rather than the Pragma of When I’m Sixty-Four.

Main Body

The first two lines of the song, “When I get older, losing my hair… Many years from

now”, set the tone that the love being described is not the teenage, passionate fling, burning hot

but short-lived, often described in earlier songs but rather a life-long commitment to another

person. This Pragma form of love is further highlighted by allusions to acts of service and quality

time such as, “I could be handy, mending a fuse… You can knit a sweater by the fireside Sunday

mornings go for a ride Doing the garden, digging the weeds”. Even the idea of starting a family

together, “Grandchildren on your knee”, comes up. Showing just how serious the singer is about
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their relationship. These are things which might not mean all that much to a young couple in the

midst of Eros but are perfect representations of the kinds of meaningful acts done among long-

term married couples.

The old-timey, married-with-grandchildren vibe is further accented through the

instrumentation used in the song. The song has a very nineteen-twenties feel to it; with old blues

notes and hints of folk rock. You can practically envision the couple from whom the song is

centered around sitting on a porch in the country side, telling stories and watching their

grandchildren play. And lets be honest, if you’re familiar with the song it’s likely from seeing

this image played out in real life at your grandparents house.

Something, released just two years after When I’m Sixty-Four, has its own unique

approach to the traditional love story found in earlier Beatles works. While The Beatles early

love songs are sweet, innocent love ballads perfectly suited to their audience at the time, they

needed to age with their fanbase. Something does this by describing a stereotypically young-adult

romance. Where the primary attraction is physical Eros, “Something in the way she moves

Attracts me like no other lover Something in the way she woos me”. And the unsurety that

comes with that, “You're asking me will my love grow I don't know, I don't know You stick

around, now it may show”. The song is more intimate and mature than the early Beatles but

differs from later love songs. Whereas When I’m Sixty-Four portrays a long-term, committed

partnership between two lovers for life; Something is unsure, sexualized, and noncommittal. A

complete one-eighty from When I’m Sixty-Four.

Conclusion

These two songs are complete opposites in tone and message; and yet for this reason they

perfectly exemplify who The Beatles are and what they’re about. The Beatles range and
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versatility as artists are what makes them so legendary. The constant pushing of the envelope

through experimentation, be it in lyrics, tone, instrumentation or studio techniques, has cemented

them as arguably the greatest band of all time.