It is music that bridges generations. Literally, because the new song by The Beatles released today has parts from 1977, 1995 and 2022. Sixty years after debut single ‘Love Me Do’, there is still a final chord from John, Paul, George and Ringo with ‘Now And Then’. .
It is a sweet, melancholic and compelling love song, written by John Lennon, who was murdered in 1980. He recorded the demo in 1977 in his New York apartment, with only his voice and piano. „I know it’s true,” he sings, “It’s all because of you. And if I make it through it’s all because of you.” It is very beautiful how McCartney’s voice, grooved by the years, joins in, years apart and yet still as fitting as two identical Lego blocks.
In 1995, the remaining Beatles Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr attempted to make a new version of ‘Now And Then’, as they did with ‘Free as a Bird’ and ‘Real Love’: all three demos of John Lennon that were refurbished in the recording studio, over which the three living Beatles played new parts. Those first contractions were released on the Anthologyalbums. But ‘Now And Then’ proved more difficult: Lennon’s demo was too gritty („Rubbish”, according to George Harrison) and Lennon’s vocals and piano part overlapped too much to separate them properly. If music is recorded in separate parts, you can also polish them separately later, but that was not possible here. The technology to get that mix right did not yet exist.
The number disappeared into a drawer. But not from McCartney’s mind. So then director Peter Jackson for making the film Get Back (2021) had software developed that could very neatly ‘demix’ a mixed song by separating all parts from each other, they also saw opportunities for ‘Now And Then’. It’s a form of artificial intelligence they used, but it’s not like music was created from scratch by a computer – a fear that arose among some fans when McCartney announced last summer that an AI Beatles song was on the way. Jackson’s program learns what a voice or instrument part sounds like and can therefore isolate it very precisely. Based on Lennon’s demo, it was able to extract a version from his original recordings without piano overlap and other imperfections. It sounds like it was recorded at Abbey Road yesterday. The same technique was used to dust off the album Revolver to beat for last year’s reissue.
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The group added strings, arranged by Giles Martin, the son of regular Beatles producer George Martin, who tried to follow his father’s style as much as possible. A funny detail is that the string players themselves did not know that they were working on a Beatles song, that had to remain secret. They thought they were making something for McCartney.
The fact that they are still releasing a song by him 45 years after Lennon’s death raises the question: is that possible? McCartney says yes in the documentary. “I did ask myself that question, but I was sure that if we could ask John he would say: yeah!” Son Sean Ono Lennon also thinks this way: “He would’ve loved that.” And Olivia Harrison, the widow of guitarist George, also gave her blessing. As Lennon sings: “And now and then, if we must start again. Well we will know for sure, that I will love you.”
‘Now and Then’ is part of the remixed and remastered versions of compilation albums 1962-1966 and 1967-1970, better known as Red and Blue. These have been expanded to 75 songs.