Now and Then
2023 has been a wonderful year
for Beatle fans around the world. The year saw the release of what was dubbed
“the last Beatles song.” Aptly entitled “Now and Then,” the track was
originally written and recorded in demo form by ex-Beatle John Lennon in the late 1970s.
More than a decade later, in the early 1990s, Yoko Ono gave a copy of that
demo, along with two other unfinished Lennon songs—“Free as a Bird” and “Real
Love”—to the three surviving Beatles—Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo
Starr.
At the time, the three were
planning to embark on a major Beatles-related project that would later be known
as The Beatles Anthology—a collection of unreleased demos, outtakes, and live
performances of the band during its heyday— and they intended to release three
“new” Beatles songs to accompany this collection by recording new instruments
and vocals over some of Lennon’s unfinished demos.
While the surviving Beatles
succeeded in transforming “Free as a Bird” and “Real Love” into actual Beatles
songs—both were well-received by fans and critics alike— the same cannot be
said of the third demo, “Now and Then.” The difficulty was mainly due to the
poor sound quality of the demo, which Harrison reportedly called “f****
rubbish.” And so what was supposed to be released as the third “new” Beatles
song of the 90s was indefinitely shelved until such time that a technology that
could separate Lennon’s vocals from background noise and the piano
accompaniment was available.
That time came last year during
the production of “Get Back,” a new Beatles documentary that gave the audience
a glimpse of the creative processes and working relationships among the four
Beatles months before the band’s demise.
The said documentary employed hours of footage that were filmed in January
1969, showing the Beatles at work on their penultimate album, "Let it Be". In
order to remove the muddiness that characterized the audio of some of the
footages, the team of Peter Jackson, the man who helmed the production of the
documentary, and the guy responsible for bringing the Lord of the Rings Trilogy
to the big screen, developed an AI technology capable of separating components
of an audio material into different tracks.
The result was stunning;
conversations between the band members that were otherwise unusable due to
background noises could all of a sudden be heard with incredible clarity. So
stunning was the result that the technology was immediately put to use in the
remix of the band’s 1966 magnum opus, Revolver. Suffice it to say the remixed
edition of the album was received with universal acclaim upon release in 2022.
One has but to listen to the 2009 remastered version of tracks like “And Your
Bird Can Sing” and “For No One” and compare them to their 2022 iteration in order to see why.
But Paul McCartney had something else
in mind regarding the use of the new technology. He promptly gave Jackson’s
team a copy of Lennon’s demo of “Now and Then” and requested that Lennon’s
vocals be extricated and placed in a separate track using AI. The result blew
McCartney, and everyone who saw the short film about the making of “Now and
Then” — including me—away. John Lennon’s voice could not have been clearer if
he was right there in flesh and sang into one of the microphones. The
vulnerability and pain in his voice—all the details—are very palpable. Nothing
like his voice on “Free as a Bird” and “Real Love,” where he sounds like he was
singing from the grave. (I hope they do a remix of those songs using the new technology one of these days, and release them in an expanded and remixed edition of the compilation album “Past Masters.”)
Once Lennon’s voice was successfully
rid of all the noises, the two surviving Beatles resumed work on the song.
Ringo recorded a new drum track, and McCartney recorded the bass and slide
guitar. Then they added the rhythm guitar track that Harrison recorded in the
90s, making “Now and Then” a genuine Beatles song. Finally, Giles Martin, the
son of the late Beatles producer, George Martin, suggested using the vocal harmonies from
“Because,” “Here, There, and Everywhere” and “Eleanor Rigby” to further give
“Now and Then” an unmistakable Beatles feel. Because hey, it’s the Beatles, so
it had to have the Beatles harmony!
But despite the commercial
success of the single, some people are not impressed by the “last Beatles song.”
They claim that “Now and Then” is not a Beatles song in the truest sense, and
that it only serves to tarnish the band’s legendary legacy.
One of the reasons for this view
is that the track supposedly doesn’t hold a candle to other Beatles classics— “Strawberry Fields”, “Hey Jude”, “Let it Be”, “Ticket to Ride”, to name a few. They say
the Beatles never released any material that was subpar, and “Now and Then” was
mediocre at best. Many Beatle fans have expressed a similar sentiment on social
media.
Another criticism was that the
song doesn’t sound anything that the Beatles had done, that it doesn’t fit in
any of the Beatles albums or period. Some say it sounds more like a late 70s John
Lennon song (e.g. “Grow Old with Me”, “Woman”). Still others opine that it
would fit perfectly in a present-day Paul McCartney album than in anything.
Much has also been made of George
Harrison’s objection to the song. Some critics have argued that since George
Harrison did not think highly of the song, it should never have been put out in
the first place. They say that if one of the Beatles did not like the song, it
cannot be called a true Beatles track.
While I acknowledge that these
criticisms do have a point, they suffer from a common mistake. They fail to put
the song in the context of the Beatles history. They are largely based on
speculations that do not take into account the band’s creative processes and
relationships with one another as documented over the years.
While it is true that “Now and
Then”—which I think is good tune—does not measure up to the band’s greatest
songs, it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t deserve a place in their canon. Any
Beatles fan who is familiar with the band’s history and entire catalogue knows
that while the band produced an astounding volume of great songs, they also
came up with tracks that, while not exactly bad, were far from being
masterpieces. Think of Harrison’s “Don’t Bother Me,” McCartney’s “Good Day Sunshine”
and “Rocky Raccoon,” and Lennon’s “Good Morning, Good Morning.” Aren’t they genuine Beatles songs?
Yes, “Now and Then” doesn’t sound
like anything that the Beatles had done in their heyday, but weren’t the
Beatles known exactly for producing songs that don’t sound like their previous
releases? “Norwegian Wood” hardly fits in the band’s debut album, “Eleanor
Rigby” and “Tomorrow Never Knows” would have sounded odd if placed alongside “Hard
Day’s Night” and “I Should Have Known Better,” and “Helter Skelter” doesn’t sound
like anything on “Rubber Soul.” While we are at this, try playing “I am the
Walrus,” “I Will,” “Rain,” and “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” to a kid
who hasn’t heard of the Beatles before, and see if he could tell whether those
songs were done by the same band.
George Harrison did not particularly
like the track, and it was cited by McCartney as one of the reasons work on the
song was put on hold. Shouldn’t it have been put in the dustbin forever then?
Well, one who is familiar with Beatles history knows that there were numerous instances
when one or more Beatles expressed dislike of a proposed Beatles track, but the
track in question saw the light of day nonetheless. For instance, it is a
matter of historical record that McCartney did not like “Revolution 9,” and Lennon
dismissed “Obladi-Oblada” and “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” as examples of
McCartney’s “granny sh**.” Those songs, nevertheless are revered as part of the
Beatles’ canon, and it is unthinkable to listen to the “White Album” and “Abbey
Road” without them.
So in spite of what the pundits
are saying, yes, “Now and Then” is a Beatles song in the truest sense of the
word—and one that will grow in stature over the years by virtue of its
significance as the last song, the long over-due farewell, from the band that made
the greatest impact, not only on the popular music of the 20th
century, but on culture as a whole. It also marks the end of an era, and the
beginning of another that some people say doesn’t augur well for popular music,
what with the advent of artificial intelligence, and its possible negative
impact, not only on the music industry, but on all other fields of human
intellectual endeavors. But the Beatles, through “Now and Then,” which made
tasteful and ethical use of AI, proves that the future doesn’t have to be so. ###
Comments
Post a Comment