[Just Like] Starting Over (1980) – John Lennon

[Just Like] Starting Over was released 45 days before John Lennon was murdered on the 8th of December 1980. It was Lennon’s final single released in his lifetime. As my blogger friend Max mentioned in a recent post: Lennon has been dead longer than he was alive, which puts things into perspective..too much bloody perspective.

[Just Like] Starting Over was the first new release from Lennon after a 5-year absence from the music industry. It was chosen by Lennon not because he felt it was the best track on the album, but because it was the most appropriate following his five-year absence from the recording industry. He referred to it during production as the “Elvis/Orbison” track, as he “tongue in cheek” impersonated their vocal styles. 

I was fascinated by Starting Over growing up since it appeared on his posthumous compilation The John Lennon Collection. I don’t know how many times I put the needle down on this record (see image left), but it was a lot. We had one of those old wooden turntables which look like a dresser, and I remember sitting at the front of the fireplace and listening to it and starting over (reminiscent of the song). It was between Elton John, Don Williams, Abba and John Lennon in my early youth who I heard the most from.

[Intro]
Our life together is so precious together
We have grown – we have grown
Although our love is still special
Let’s take a chance and fly away somewhere alone

[Verse 1]
It’s been too long since we took the time
No-one’s to blame, I know time flies so quickly
But when I see you darling
It’s like we both are falling in love again
It’ll be just like starting over (over)
Starting over (over)

[Outro]
Our life together is so precious together
We have grown – we have grown
Although our love is still special
Let’s take a chance and fly away somewhere…
(Over and over and over)
Starting over

“All through the taping of “Starting Over,” I was calling what I was doing “Elvis Orbison”: “I want you I need only the lonely.” I’m a born-again rocker, I feel that refreshed, and I’m going right back to my roots.”

– John Lennon

Composition (from the Wikipedia article below):

Although its origins were in unfinished demo compositions like “Don’t Be Crazy” and “My Life”, it was one of the last songs to be completed in time for the Double Fantasy sessions. “We didn’t hear it until the last day of rehearsal,” producer Jack Douglas said in 2005. Lennon finished the song while on holiday in Bermuda, and recorded it at The Hit Factory in New York City just weeks later. The song was originally titled “Starting Over”; however, “(Just Like)” was added prior to its release because of its similarity to Dolly Parton’s “Starting Over Again” which had topped the US Country Charts earlier in the year. The chiming bell that opens the song was a deliberate allusion to the heavy tolling church bell that opens Lennon’s 1970 song “Mother”, illustrating how far Lennon had come in ten years.

Reference:
1. (Just Like) Starting Over – Wikipedia

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