无意中看到Robert Browning的诗句“Grow Old With Me”，很自然想到了Lennon的同名歌曲，我原以为只是巧合而已，随手查了查，原来Lennon这首歌曲的灵感竟来源于此 ！
1980年的夏天，Yoko清晨起床，借Elizabeth Barrett Browning诗的灵感创作了Let Me Count The Ways，迫不及待的通过电话演奏给Lennon，Lennon非常喜欢这首歌曲，于是Yoko让Lennon也创作一曲，与之呼应。下午的时候，Lennon看电视时恰巧提及Robert Browning的诗Rabbi Ben Ezra，于是灵感迸发，写下了Grow Old With Me，急忙电话给Yoko听。现实中，Robert Browning和Elizabeth Barrett Browning是夫妻，Lennon和Yoko也是夫妻，两对夫妻，隔着一个世纪的时光。
Yoko的描述远比我生动：
"One early morning in the summer of 1980, I woke up with 'Let Me Count The Ways' ringing in my head. I called John who was then in Bermuda and played it over the phone. 'How d'you like it?' 'I really like it. It's beautiful.' 'How about you writing one with a Robert Browning line and we'll have portraits of us as Elizabeth and Robert on the cover?'
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 anyway, this is my version.' John proudly played his song over the phone. That's how our two songs happened."
Yoko还提到"standard, the kind that they would play in church every time a couple gets married"，每次参加朋友婚礼时，我心里也都会响起这首歌，那种情感深度和朴素自然，远胜过当下流行的陈词滥调。
Grow Old With Me和Let Me Count The Ways本打算收录于1980年专辑Double Fantasy中，但由于时间紧迫，Lennon和Yoko决定推后收录到下张专辑Milk and Honey中。生命中最不幸的事情发生了，1980年12月Lennon突然离开了人世。1984年专辑Milk and Honey发行，据Lennon离开已经四载。
Double Fantasy和Milk and Honey是Lennon后期作品中我最喜欢的两个专辑，音乐和唱片封面都是如此动人。取下书架上封尘已久的Double Fantasy和Milk and Honey，又一次倾听Lennon和Yoko的故事。
