John Lennon never wanted to return to the Beatles. “I don’t believe in Beatles,” he sings in “God,” 1970. “The dream is over.” And there is nothing to suggest that he disagreed in December 1980. In conversation with Andy Peebles, he said that in New York City he was able to go out on the streets, to bars and restaurants and movie theaters. He went to the disco. Then he heard “Rock Lobster” by the B-52’s and shouted, “Jesus! Call mother! She did it. They imitate her down to the last detail.” The mother was Yoko Ono.
The last thing we heard from John Lennon was the greeting to BBC listeners: “Beep, beep, tut tut.”
Before “Double Fantasy,” his last album, he hadn’t recorded a record in five years. In the short film for “Now And Then,” his son Sean says that he no longer wanted to tour or do any promotion, but that he recorded demos on cassettes in his apartment in the Dakota Building.
One of these pieces was “Now And Then,” sung to the piano in 1977. It has a simple, beautiful melody in the vein of “Imagine” and the demo of “Grow Old With Me” that appeared unedited on the posthumous “Milk And Honey” in 1984.
Yoko Ono gave the cassettes with Lennon’s demos to Paul McCartney, who edited “Free As A Bird” and “Real Love” for the 1995 “Anthology” with George Harrison and Ringo Starr. All of these pieces were audibly unfinished, and Lennon didn’t use them for “Double Fantasy.”
“Now And Then” could not be completed
With “Now And Then” in 1995 it was not possible to clearly separate the singing from the piano playing. They gave up. George Harrison had played a slide guitar solo. During Peter Jackson’s editing of the 2021 film “Get Back”, McCartney noticed the possibilities that artificial intelligence opens up. Lennon’s voice could now be isolated on the tape.
Paul called Ringo. Ringo said, “Let’s do it.”
Paul played a bass motif, sent it to Ringo, and Ringo played drums.
In his voiceover in the short film, McCartney says in a somewhat thick, shaky voice: “We often had strings on our songs. ‘Yesterday’. ‘I Am The Walrus.'” He doesn’t say here that he didn’t want Phil Spector’s strings on “Let It Be” and “The Long And Winding Road.” Giles Martin conducted the string section for “Now And Then” at Capitol Studios in Los Angeles, who were not allowed to know that they were working on the Beatles’ final song.
Which is not a Beatles song, although McCartney wrote a small passage and sings along. He thinks Lennon would have said to the edit, “Yeah!” Or maybe he would have said “Nah!” John Lennon was a moody man.
It’s nice to see the Beatles recording “Get Back” and in “Yellow Submarine.” It’s nice to hear John Lennon’s voice. Sean Ono Lennon says his father was always interested in new recording technology. “(Just Like) Starting Over”, “Woman” and “Watching The Wheels” don’t sound like that. He had dedicated “Starting Over,” the first single from “Double Fantasy,” to Gene Vincent and Elvis Presley.
More about the Beatles and “Now And Then”
Paul McCartney wants to save the time when they were all friends.
John Lennon had a British porcelain tea set and wanted to go back to England to see Aunt Mimi.
“Woman, I know you understand/The little child inside the man.”