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THE FULL SCOOP ON THE "FINAL" BEATLES
SONG,
"NOW AND THEN". . .
By Rip Rense
copyright 2023 Rip Rense, The Rip Post, all rights reserved.
updated 7/23/23
THIS JUST IN:
PENN JILLETTE HEARS THE SONG,
REPORTS ABOUT IT
A new Beatles song in 2023? More specifically, a “final Beatles song,”
as Paul McCartney termed it, in 2023. . .
Whoever would have imagined such a thing? Who would have imagined such a
thing after the fiendish murder of John Lennon in 1980? Who would have
imagined such a thing, for that matter, after the group broke up in
1970?
Yet the song, “Now and Then,” is reality, thanks to: Yoko Ono (90), Paul
McCartney (81), Ringo Starr (83 July 7), the late George Harrison,
producer Jeff Lynne, Lennon, producer Giles Martin, late Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick, and
artificial intelligence.
But here’s a shocker: There is not just one, but four potential
AI-enhanced Beatles songs, including the forthcoming Lennon work teased
by McCartney, “Now and Then.” This could make for nothing less than a
Beatles reunion EP. (See accompanying sidebar.)
Originally made on a cassette recorder by Lennon at the Dakota in New
York in 1978, “Now and Then” was more a piano-accompanied sketch for a
song, with three sections, than a finished work, and it was as far as
Lennon took the proceedings.
Still, in 1994, the piece was one of four Lennon home recordings Ono
presented to McCartney, Harrison, and Starr for completion, with Lynne
producing, as part of a reunion project for The Beatles
Anthology, the three double-CD sets of Beatles outtakes, forgotten
songs, alternate versions, pastiches.
The other Ono-chosen reunion songs were: "Grow Old With Me," "Free as a
Bird," "Real Love." The so-called “Threetles” rejected "Grow Old. . ."
reportedly because they---especially Harrison---found it too sad, given
the death of Lennon at only 40.
For “Bird” and “Real Love,” Lynne tried to enhance Lennon's low-tech,
low-fi vocal, but with little success. Critics called the results "ghostly." Lennon’s voice had been spread across all tracks, almost as if vaguely
hovering behind the music. What's more, Lynne's production on
“Bird” featured his trademark massive snare sound, with each Ringo drum
part recorded separately with a click-track. This prevented Starr from
actually sitting at his kit and finding his trademark groove. (Beatles
producer George Martin declined to work on the project for reasons of
hearing and/or disapproval, depending on what you read.)
Despite gorgeous slide guitar by Harrison, added lyrics by McCartney and
Harrison,
poignantly revived Beatles harmony vocals (and George and Paul singing
solo lines on "Bird”), neither of the two songs reached number one. “Bird”
hit only number six on Billboard, and “Love” was not even aired by the
BBC.
Harrison, stung by the poor reception to the first two songs,
pulled the plug on “Now and Then”---which was encumbered by another hazy
lead Lennon vocal, and a low buzzing sound that technology could not
remove. (George was also reportedly underwhelmed by the song
itself---but then, the famously dour Beatle criticized McCartney as a
bass player.)
Yet the “Threetles,” as Lynne told me in a 2005 interview, did spend at
least one entire day working on “Now and Then”---enough to have recorded
instruments and vocals. My sources say that all four Beatles play and
sing on the track, yes, including Ringo.
That’s where things stood until around 2007, when, my sources also
inform, McCartney gave the track to his then-producer, David Kahne (Driving
Rain, Memory Almost Full), for undisclosed work. Starr recently
confirmed that all four Beatles indeed play and sing on the track
(complete with newly recorded drums and bass)---and that McCartney and
Giles Martin recently flew to Los Angeles to add a string section. Famed
magician and Beatles devotee Penn Jillette claimed in a recent podcast,
following a private listen to the song with Martin, that "Now and Then"
also has horns, uses a "de-aged" McCartney vocal, and three-part
harmonies from an outtake of the 1969 song, "Because," key-corrected for
"Now and Then." None of Jillette's claims could be substantiated.
McCartney repeatedly spoken of releasing the song in interviews over
the years, and there was speculation that he was holding it for
issuing after his passing.
Credit for finishing what Paul calls this “final Beatles song” must
start with director Peter Jackson, who devised the AI program for "The
Beatles Get Back" DVD/CD (dubbed “Mal 9000” after the late Beatles
roadie, Mal Evans, in winking tribute to the neurotic computer “Hal
9000” in “2001: A Space Odyssey”). For the first time, mono recordings
were broken into discrete parts, enabling specific enhancement and
multi-track mixing. Lennon’s fuzzy “Now and Then” vocal and a tape buzz?
Repaired. McCartney said Lennon's voice has now been
"purified."
“We were able to take John’s voice and get it pure through this AI,”
McCartney told the BBC. “Then we can mix the record, as you would
normally do. It gives you some sort of leeway.”
Note: the song does not include artificial vocals or instruments.
“Nothing
has been artificially or synthetically created," McCartney stressed.
"It's all real and we all play on it. We cleaned up some existing
recordings."
His use of plural, "recordings," suggests that more than "Now and Then"
is being restored---possibly including the other three reunion tracks.
The predictable social media snarkiness over the new song should be
erased by one comment from the late Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick, who
handled the '95 reunion sessions. He told me some years back:
"It would be nice to get it finished. Paul's up for it. . .The chorus is
great... it would make a great record."
Lynne seemed to concur. As he told me:
“It was a very
sweet song; I liked it a lot, and I wish we could have finished it."
If those comments are not enough to allay the fretting of fans, there is this Tweet
from Lennon’s son, Sean:
“I’ll just say the track turned out beautifully and I
think everyone will be happy.”
So. . .
Why not "purify" the Lennon vocals on the other three reunion tracks?
It could make for an EP, at last fulfilling the declining Ono’s wish that all four Lennon demos
that she selected be finished as Beatles works. Yes, the woman who has
long been singled out for breaking the group up. . .would be
the catalyst for completing its poetic reunion.
Here is how it could work:
“FREE AS A BIRD”:
The "ghostly" Lennon vocal (see accompanying story) that
fetched so much criticism would be eliminated! Lennon could be given
proper presence, full fidelity, at long last. (Note: a later remix by Lynne done for
“The Beatles 1” DVD improved matters slightly, but AI would solve the
problem entirely.) What’s more, Lennon could now harmonize with
McCartney on the lines, “Whatever happened to the life that we once
knew?” (written by Lennon), via AI. Right: John and Paul singing
together again---the mind boggles. Icing on the cake would be if Ringo
were allowed to re-record his drum part while sitting at his kit,
enabling him to find his groove. (Lynne recorded it piecemeal, with
Ringo following click tracks, of all things un-Beatle.) Pipe dream: a
small string accompaniment to add grace to the proceedings.
“REAL LOVE”:
Again, Lennon's voice can be repaired. For “The Beatles 1” DVD remix,
Lynne did boost the vocal somewhat, and added many more Harrison guitar
fills. But AI could make a definitive
improvement here. For my taste, Ringo should be allowed to redo his drum
part, straight through, without overdubbing fills.
“GROW OLD WITH ME":
Like "Now and Then," this could be another rescued gem. After
"The Threetles" passed on this song, Ono asked Beatles producer George Martin
to create an arrangement for it. Martin wrote a lovely string
accompaniment, with flute, but the sound quality of Lennon’s home demo
was crude, tinny, with a toy rhythm box intruding. It was, nonetheless,
released on John Lennon Anthology in 1998. AI would render the
vocal near perfect---and rhythm box erased! If Paul and Ringo were to
add bass, drums, backing vocals, so much the better. (Note to purists:
many Beatles songs featured only one, two, or three Beatles, and it was
Harrison who most objected to this one.)
"NOW AND THEN":
All four Beatles play and sing on this "final" Beatles record.
McCartney reports that AI has removed the terrible tape buzz from the
original demo, and Lennon's hazy vocal has been sharpened and
focused---"purified" was his word. The news that Giles Martin and
McCartney have added a string part is icing on the cake.
Just why did Ono make a special point of choosing “Now and Then,” in the
first place? As she told me in this touching statement from 1995, it was
done for “therapeutic reasons.”
“I thought this was a song which would release people from
their sorrow of losing John,” she said. “By listening to the song, they
will eventually be able to release their sorrow, and arrive at an
understanding that, actually, John is not lost to them. People who loved
John are growing with John---by carrying their memory of John in their
hearts. Paul, George and Ringo lost a great friend as well. If they sung
this song from their hearts it would have helped many people around the
world who felt the same.”
“Now and Then”---titled “I Don’t Want to Lose You” at the time---did
have a brief performance life when Ono presented it for use in
“Lennon---The Musical,” which played a one-month run in 2005 at the
Broadhurst Theater on Broadway in New York. Said Don Scardino, writer
and director of "Lennon:”
“(This) may be the saddest, most poignant love song he
ever wrote.”
How the song will be released---and how it should be
released---are the remaining questions.
Current rumors are that it will accompany Martin/Sam Okell-remixed
versions of the popular 1973 compilations known as the "red" and "blue"
albums. There is also a rumor that The Beatles Anthology might be reissued
this fall, in new mixes, with updated technology (presumably including
AI-aided sonic enhancements), but to stress, this is unconfirmed.
Seeing as “Now and Then” originally was to have accompanied volume three
of Anthology in 1996, it would make sense in that context. (One
hopes that, if this is the case, AI will be used to update the
sound quality on many Anthology tracks, including the Decca
auditions, demos, and the very dicey sound quality of the 1965
Lennon-McCartney number, “That Means A Lot.”)
Another rumor: the song would somehow accompany an AI-enhanced recording
of the rollicking late December, 1962 concert by The Beatles (with Ringo) at the
Star Club in Hamburg, Germany. As Jackson told interviewer Richard
Rodriguez:
“One of the things I want to do, and I've
mentioned this
to people at Apple is---like most people I've got a lot of bootlegs of
the Star-Club tapes, and. . .I've been wondering. . .I'd love to take
the Star Club tapes and use our machine to basically split them apart. .
.Is there any way this AI could take an echoey amateur recording in a
club and make it sound like it was a studio? Could you somehow get the
computer to transform the quality of the sound. . .and make it sound
like it was recorded in Abbey Road or something? Now if they turned out
quite well, then those Quarry Men tapes (rehearsals by the
proto-Beatles, and primitive studio recordings of “That’ll Be The Day”
and the McCartney-Harrison song, “In Spite of All the Danger”) would be
an obvious one to do.”
Whether the ongoing AI miracle adds up to one “final” Beatles reunion
song, or one final Beatles reunion EP,
remains to be seen. Either way, as Lennon sang in one
of his last recordings:
Nobody told me there would be days like these. .
.Strange days indeed. . .
RENSE
"GET BACK" COVERAGE:
DISNEY
MICKEY MOUSES
"THE BEATLES GET BACK" DVD/BLU-RAY
REVIEW:
LET IT BE---
Six different albums, seven different producers. . .one opinion
A Slightly Personal History of the "Get
Back/Let it Be" Project
Sidebars:
exONOrated?. . .Was the Harrison affair due to an affair?. . .more. . .
"Get
Back/Let it Be" rights and wrongs!
How many "Get Back/Let it Be" covers
are there? This many!
Get Back coverage, front page
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"Now and Then"