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IT'S ALL TOO MUCH!
There is much more AI-ing to do with Beatles Music than just "Now and Then"
by Rip Rense
June 24, 2024 (This article first appeared in Beatlefan.)
Number-one priority for applying
artificial intelligence (AI) “demixing” to The Beatles’ catalogue? Easy:
Creating a completed, polished Beatles version of George
Harrison’s “All Things Must Pass.”
Yes, thanks
to MAL 9000, the program devised by Peter Jackson for “The Beatles Get
Back,” it is entirely do-able.
The Beatles
made several passes at the song during the “Get Back” sessions, which
include bass, drums, guitars, organ, and glorious harmony vocals. One in
particular, from Jan. 6, 1969, should form the basis of the finished
version. What’s more, Harrison went into EMI on his 26th birthday, Feb. 25,
1969, and recorded two takes of a superb electric-guitar-accompanied solo
version (one was released on Anthology 3.)
Using the
solo studio take, and separating the mono Get Back session “All
Things Must Pass” rehearsal into individual tracks with AI---cherry picking
the best vocals and instruments---there is a Beatles recording of this song
to be made that would be as finished as anything on the “Let it Be” album.
The band was thisclose to doing a proper studio take, yet the song
was, in the instability of group’s last months, allowed to fall between the
cracks, not to be revived until Harrison did it for his solo 1970
triple-album of the same name.
“All Things
Must Pass” is certainly the biggest “one that got away” in The Beatles’
story. There is no other unfinished song in the group’s oeuvre that is a
more viable, compelling candidate for rescue, and not merely because
ingredients exist to create a finished version. “ATMP” is simply one of
Harrison’s signature, summary works, and had it been recorded by The Beatles
with George Martin producing (think: “Something”), would likely have been
even more so. Ian MacDonald, author of the critical history of The Beatles,
"Revolution in the Head," described it as "the wisest song never recorded by
The Beatles,” while Harrison biographer Simon Leng considers it "perhaps the
greatest solo Beatle composition.”
It was, of
course, fully intended to be part of the “Get Back” (later “Let it Be”)
album---famously name-checked in the title list of new works recited by
Lennon in a version of “Dig It.”
This is just
the tip of AI Beatles iceberg, thanks to MAL 9000 (named in honor of the
Beatles’ famed right-hand man, Mal Evans, in a takeoff on “HAL 9000” from
“2001: A Space Odyssey.) It’s a given that producer Giles Martin will
continue to make use of MAL with the forthcoming “Rubber Soul” boxed set,
where single tracks with multiple instruments/voices will be “de-mixed” into
discrete tracks, then remixed for greater depth and detail (as Martin did
with “Revolver” and some early mono songs on the “red” and “blue”
re-release.) But there is much other AI work to be done. Here is a general
look at projects that could, and I believe should, be on the way in coming
years.
*The
Get Back Sessions: These famous/infamous sessions are both a morass
and a treasure trove. In the sixty filmed hours (mono sound) and the
approximately 130 recorded overall hours are fragments, jams, endless
goofing off, half-hearted stabs at songs, laziness, sloppiness, casually
performed oldies, and, yes, disciplined shaping of new work. Four hundred
songs, all told, whether finished or fragment. The sixty filmed hours are
all mono, and this is where MAL can, quite miraculously, spruce things up
into fat, sassy, multi-track mixes of multi-track studio quality. One
ironclad rule: embryonic ideas for songs, beginning with the one-take,
unfinished jam with almost zero lyrics, “Watching Rainbows,” should be
excluded! (Recent articles on line by alleged “authorities” absurdly talk
about “Rainbows” as if it is a finished, lost gem.)
Priority should be given only to songs that sound the most
complete, such as, for random example, the low-key Buddy Holly “suite” of
“Maybe Baby,” “Crying, Waiting, Hoping,” and “Mailman, Bring Me No More
Blues,” the terrific rock version of “Two of Us,” the performance of
“Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” in the “Let it Be” film, the unfinished Lennon
tune,“Suzy Parker,” the relaxed oldies medley of “Rip it Up/ Shake, Rattle
and Roll/ Blue Suede Shoes,” “Honey Hush,” and many more. There are also
countless proto-versions of Beatles fare, including “I Me Mine” with the
great flamenco-style guitar riff, a slow “She Came In Through the Bathroom
Window,” the enervated rehash of “Across the Universe,” run-throughs of and
some Lennon-McCartney oldies, such as “Wake Up in the Morning.” I would vote
for the early, shuffle version of “Dig it,” where Paul hilariously mentions
everyone from Betty Grable to Clark Kent---and original instrumentals
including Paul’s piano quasi-adaptation of Samuel Barber’s “Adagio For
Strings,” and his own “Palace of the King of Birds” jam. Can Harrison’s
quiet, gentle solo acoustic versions of songs by Bob Dylan, and his own work
“(Let it Down”) be AI-salvaged? Sifting through this material and choosing
the “best” would be a gargantuan project, and merit at least a double-CD
set. But it could make for a unique new album---The Beatles at their
ease---and an indispensable part of the group’s catalogue. A finished
Beatles version of “All Things Must Pass” might find a home here, as the
crowning glory.
*Live at the Star-Club: Peter Jackson is on the
record as wanting to give this invaluable look at the early Beatles the MAL
treatment. “I'd love to take the Star Club tapes, best quality, and use our
machine to basically split them apart, and also. . .take an echoey, amateury
recording in a club and make it sound like it was in a studio,” Jackson told
Beatles author Robert Rodriguez in 2022. Is he working on it now? Unknown.
But he---or someone---should be. Performed in Hamburg at one of the band’s
former showcase clubs on or near Dec. 31, 1962, and released in various
legally contested configurations over the years, 33 songs were recorded by
the club’s manager, Adrian Barber, using a Grundig reel-to-reel and a single
microphone. Despite the dicey sound quality and various Beatles poo-pooing
the performance as half-hearted, the concert is tight, well done, great fun,
and features Ringo just four months into his Beatles tenure. Said Jackson:
“Can you somehow get this computer to transform the quality of the sound. .
.from the room sound and make sound like it was recorded at Abbey Road or
something? And the (sound) guy said yeah, it would take a little bit of
doing, but in theory, it's possible.” If accomplished, this would instantly
become the most historically important live Beatles recording (especially if
the blistering Harrison-sung “Red Hot,” a 1955 hit by by Billy “the Kid”
Emerson, is included.) But. . .
*Radio:
All 275 live in-studio mono recordings of 88 different songs broadcast on
the BBC (including 36 songs never recorded for Beatles albums) are now
fodder for multi-track AI stereo. Will Apple and Universal re-release all
the BBC material, remixed? It does not seem likely, but certainly those 36
songs never on the original albums would seem a natural project. Imagine
hearing them close to, or indistinguishable from, studio presence, and it
becomes tantamount to having three new early/mid-60’s Beatles albums. That’s
a wow. Just hearing the tinny Lennon-McCartney rarity, “I’ll Be On My Way”
improved to near-studio ambience would justify the project, in my view.
Historical value: restoring the BBC broadcasts of live performances in early
1962 with Pete Best. They are: March 7, the Playhouse Theatre, Hulme,
Manchester, with “Dream Baby” (Roy Orbison), “Memphis” (Chuck Berry),
“Please Mr. Postman” (Motown), “Ask My Why” (Lennon-McCartney), the rarity,
“A Picture of You” (originally by Joe Brown); and June 15, the Playhouse
Theater, with “Ask Me Why,” the standard, “Besame Mucho,” and “A Picture of
You.”
The Escher Demos: Yes, these 27 songs written for
what became the “white album” (19 made it), recorded in mono in 1968 at
Harrison’s home in Escher, were finally released as part of the “white
album” boxed set in 2018, thank goodness. Is it too fine a point to
re-release them in MAL’ed multi-track stereo mixes? I think not. Doing so
would imbue them with big, full, detailed sound, effectively a live
acoustic Beatles performance in your living room. Wouldn’t it be grand for
this to be released in maximum quality, rather than a batch of mono tracks
buried in a boxed set as a curio? This is gold.
Other
Demos:
There are countless Beatles demos from the early days to the late. Some have
cropped up on Giles Martin-produced boxed sets, and some on Anthology
(and, of course, bootlegs), and they vary greatly in sound quality. Even
without MAL, a comprehensive survey of the demos---always of charm and
historical significance---is long overdue. “Demixing” and remixing in
state-of-the-art sonic enhancement would make such a collection an
invaluable Beatles experience. Think: the sketches for Van Gogh paintings.
Perhaps there would be more revelations a la the Lennon demo for a
plaintive ballad that morphed into “Yellow Submarine.” How about that early
demo of "What Goes On?" tht is so different from the Rubber Soul
version? Maybe the legendary Paul song, “Etcetera,” long in his possession,
might make its debut, along with other discoveries. The many songs the band
gave to other artists, from “Bad to Me” (Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas) to
“I’m in Love” (The Fourmost) to “World Without Love” (Peter and Gordon) to
“Goodbye” (Mary Hopkin) to “Sour Milk Sea” (Jackie Lomax) are essential.
Even parts of that home jam from 1960 (with Stu Sutcliffe fumbling around on
bass on a couple numbers) might have a salvageable moment or two. And
although they weren’t demos, strictly speaking, the Quarrymen’s 1958
make-your-own-record takes of “In Spite of All the Danger” and “That’ll Be
The Day” could fit here. (Note: Peter Jackson is on the record as wanting to
AI both.)
*Other
Live Concerts: Every mono live recording of the group on tour is now
up for AI grabs. All can now be multi-tracked and, uh, de-screamed---from
Hollywood Bowl to Tokyo to Munich. This is not to say that all such concerts
should be done. Perhaps a highlights---best of---package would be the way to
go. Then there are more historically interesting possibilities: the Cavern
Club rehearsals in ’62, shortly after Ringo joined (plus the filmed-for-TV
“Some Other Guy” and “Kansas City”); the July ’62 Cavern Club complete
performance (with Pete Best), reportedly owned by McCartney; the recently
discovered hour-long 20-song set from Stowe (boys’) School in
Buckhinghamshire April 4, 1963 (screamless---with genuine fans yelling out
requests!); the July 7, 1957 Quarrymen performance where 15-year-old
McCartney watched 16-year-old Lennon (and later was introduced to him, thank
goodness).
*Television:
The better performances from the excellent “Blackpool Night Out” shows, the
New Musical Express Pollwinners Concerts from 1964 and ’65, “Morecombe and
Wise,” “Shindig,” “The Ed Sullivan Show,” “Ready Steady Go,” “Lucky Stars,”
“Royal Variety Show,” “Drop In” (Sweden), the Washington Coliseum concert
(perhaps the low-volume microphone problems can be fixed!). . .yes, all can
now be MAL’ed and turned into multi-track stereo. It would be tough to
choose highlights only; the sensational Washington show alone begs for full
release.
New Beatles songs:
What?
Wasn’t “Now and Then” the last new Beatles song? Well, it depends on how
you define the term. In what Jackson likes to call “fan-boy stuff,” there
are opportunities to create---yes, create---what can be described as new
Beatles songs. No, this does not mean artificially imitating voices and
instruments, perish the thought. Two examples come to mind: using AI to
remove Harrison’s vocal from the demo for his terrific song, “Sour Milk
Sea,” (given to old Liverpool crony Jackie Lomax, as one of Apple's first
releases by new artists), enhancing it, and replacing the Jackie Lomax
vocal. As is well known: Ringo, Paul, George, Eric Clapton, Nicky Hopkins
are on the Lomax recording. Would this constitute a Beatles song? Not
strictly speaking, but easily fits the bill in a “white album” sense, when
there were guest musicians and not every Beatle on each track. Similarly,
McCartney’s vocal on the demo for his wonderful, “Goodbye,” could replace
Mary Hopkin’s in the official 1968 version, which features Paul on
multi-instruments, and warm arrangement by Richard Hewson (who did “The Long
and Winding Road” and “Across the Universe.”) Again, a “white album”-ish
undertaking.
Lennon ‘70s Demos:
Fans
using basic AI programs have removed and enhanced Lennon’s voice from the
scores of home cassette recordings he made in the ‘70’s. The net results
(which can be heard on Youtube): every vocal can now be rendered in
studio quality, or very close to it. What does this mean? Only that
there are new Lennon albums to mined here. Sean Lennon should prioritize
this as a project. With the most finished songs, it’s a matter of arranging
and recording musical backing. A multi-instrumentalist, Sean could do this
himself, or bring in musicians of his choice, including old friends of his
father, such as Paul, Ringo, Elton John, Eric Clapton, Jim Keltner---and,
yes, Julian. Giles Martin string arrangements seems a natural. With the
fragmentary or unfinished songs, creative thinking might find ways to link
some of them, creating new songs, or even small suites. This must happen;
Lennon deserves no less. His lost gem, “Memories,” alone, proves this point
(read my article about “Memories” here:
http://riprense.com/lennonslostsong.htm
.)
Otherwise, these recordings will forever be in a bootleg Twilight Zone, the
newest example being a 12-CD box(!) called “The Househusband Years.”
Whether any
of these projects is realized seems based largely on profit
consideration---not a sense of properly preserving, curating, and issuing
the historic music left behind by the group. Apple/Universal seems set on
the one-boxed-set-per-year format, released just before Christmas, rather
than imaginatively serving Beatles history and fans. Ideally, there should
be a plan to execute each one of the above AI projects over the next five
years, with possibly two releases per year---including Giles Martin’s
ongoing album remix projects. Why?
The answer, aside from the obvious endless fascination with The
Beatles, and love of their work, is grounded in a desire to, in effect, keep
the band's music alive, vital. As opposed to, say, treating their work like
archival pieces. Once upon a time, Beatles music was the most uplifting
stuff in the world, a new kind of medicine for melancholy, and I don’t think
it’s maudlin to say that the world could use this medicine again. As much as
it can get.
Links:
All Things Must Pass (Beatles, Jan. 6, 1969.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YS97PVKy-XU
All Things Must Pass (Harrison, solo, in studio.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ODEhwaU2Uw
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