Wednesday 11th March

The Beatles sung this on Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.  It was a much more old-fashioned song among all the psychadelia of Lucy and Rita and Within You Without You.  Paul wrote it, of course; he had a penchant for this sort of timeless melody whereas John was always pushing the boundaries.

“Will you still need me, will you still feed me – when I’m 64”

Well, I am 64 today – and hopefully one or two still need me, though I am still feeding myself, both physically and economically.  As a sixteen year-old when the record came out I couldn’t imagine what I would be like, what I would feel like at 64.  I heard the record on Radio Caroline first.  Kenny Everett had got hold of a promotional copy and he played every track one Sunday afternoon.  Even on Caroline this was probably against the rules, but then Kenny specialized in breaking the rules.  I can remember holding the tiny transistor radio to my ear on full volume as I listened to every song.  It was truly mind-blowing.  Actually “When I’m 64” passed me by; it was obviously a novelty song though, when I eventually taped a copy of the record from a friend on my reel to reel, I grew to quite like it.

So.  Sixty-Four.  And how does it feel? Not so bad actually.  My Grandad was the only person I knew who might be that sort of age and he was certainly an old man when he retired, as was my Nana.  People seemed to sink into old age, or rather to compose themselves, to carry themselves as elderly even when they were as young as fifty.  Nowadays you aren’t old until you are well into your seventies, and even eighty doesn’t mean you have to think of yourself as old.  There was a report in the Independent yesterday which said that as the mean age for both men and women would soon be approaching 90, who-ever was in Government in ten or fifteen years time would have a huge problem.  An ever ageing population would impose great burdens on an already hard-pressed NHS.  Maybe 60% of Government budgets would have to go on the retired.  Well, let’s hope that I won’t be using too much of it myself.