John Lennon’s son also believes: “My father would have loved it because he was never afraid to experiment with recording technology.”
What would John Lennon say about the new and final Beatles song “Now And Then”? The track, which was released on November 2nd, is based on a demo version that the musician recorded in his New York home in the 1970s. He did not complete the work before his death in December 1980 – whether on purpose or due to lack of time remains unknown. Paul McCartney is still sure that his late band member would have “loved” the song.
With the help of artificial intelligence, the 81-year-old and Ringo Starr completed the song that Lennon wrote after the Beatles broke up in 1970. They isolated his vocals from the background piano playing and completed it with bass, drums, strings and an additional passage from McCartney.
In the documentary “Now And Then – The Last Beatles Song,” the remaining members of the Fab Four appear satisfied. Nevertheless, McCartney apparently had his doubts at first. “Is this something we shouldn’t do? Every time I thought that, I was like, ‘Wait a minute. Let’s say I had the opportunity to ask John. ‘Hey John, would you like us to finish this last song of yours?’ I’m telling you, I know the answer would have been ‘yes.’ He would have loved that,” explains the British musician in the short film.
And Sean Lennon, the son of the late composer, also believes that his father would have supported the project. “My father would have loved it because he was never afraid to experiment with recording technology. It’s really beautiful,” said the 48-year-old son of Lennon and Yoko Ono.
Paul McCartney is thrilled with the completed Beatles song and becomes emotional about the many memories that “resurface”: “My God, how lucky I was to have these men in my life and to work so closely with them to create such a body of work that in 2023 I’m still working on Beatles music. Craziness. We work with cutting-edge technology and this is something that would have been very interesting to the Beatles. ‘Now and Then’ is probably something like the last Beatles song. And we all played on it, so it’s a real Beatles record.”