When the three surviving Beatles got together in the mid 90s, they turned two of John’s demos into new Beatles songs (“Free as a Bird” and "Real Love). There was a third song that they did some work on, but it was such a poor recording of John, they decided to scrap any plans to finish it. It was called “Now and Then.”
Fast forward to the past year or so, and computer technology has advanced enough that they were able to isolate John’s vocals from the cassette tape, and finish the work they’d begun. Apparently they had some guitar of George’s from their work on this song in the 90s, but from what I understand, Paul put a slide guitar on the track that is in “George’s style,” so I’m not sure how much George is actually featured on this new song. The credits I’ve seen do show backing vocals by George as well, so maybe a little bit of George here and there. I hope it’s more than just some random scrapped-together snippets that I fear it might be.
Paul McCartney, Giles Martin, Ben Foster – string arrangement
Produced by Paul McCartney and Giles Martin, with additional production by Jeff Lynne
It’s going to be included on the re-release of the Blue Album on November 10, but I also know it’s going to be debuted on Sirius/XM’s the Beatles Channel today (November 2) at 10am, as well as some over-the-air radio stations, if anyone’s interested in hearing it. Hope it doesn’t suck.
I’m pretty pumped to hear it. I know it won’t be on the same level as their stuff from the 60s (as the 90s stuff wasn’t), but it’s still pretty cool to get one last song from the boys before they’re all gone.
Also looking forward to this! I’m curious to hear how different the production is from the existing bootleg versions of this song on YouTube, which I assume have been produced and mixed by fans.
I’ve heard it already. A friend who is in radio knows a guy who has an “in” with somebody who is involved with the production, and he shared with the guy, who shared with my friend, who shared with me, while insisting that it goes no further until its official release. So, it won’t.
It’s … interesting. While I’m a Beatles fan, I’m not sure that I like it. I’m not sure that I hate it either. It’s one of those that I’m willing to give a few listens to before I decide in any way.
What time does it drop? I’m curious. I liked “Free As a Bird”, but I think they had another after that and it was boring.
I’m not sure how much any of these count since the band split 50+ years ago and two members don’t know they are contributing to a new song, but I’ll give it a shot.
What interests me the most is how, in the OP’s video, the computer technology has isolated the vocals and they have the same audio clarity as if they had been recorded in a studio today.
It seems that the possibility might therefore be there to take very old recordings and clean them up using computer technology to the extent that they sound brand new, at least in audio fidelity terms.
This is my take on it too. Not sure it really feels like a Beatles’ song. While Real Love and Free as a Bird weren’t great, they do sound like Beatles songs. This one, not really, imo. I remember when the other two songs came out in the 90s, I wanted to listen to them repeatedly for the first few weeks. I’m not sure this one will have the same effect on me.
Incidentally, Paul also worked on a new Rolling Stones song recently, Bite My Head Off, which is much better imo. And I say this as a huge Beatles fan who never really gave a shit about the Stones. I think this is because the Stones don’t get hung up on the band’s line-up and who worked on a song, etc. If the living members say a song is a Rolling Stones song, it is.
The surviving Beatles are/have been more concerned with putting something out that includes all original members, instead of something that’s actually good. They never cared who worked on a song, or how many of them appeared on the track, when they were still together, but now it’s become paramount to have all four perform, to the detriment of the material itself.
None of the post-Beatles Beatles songs do much for me. They all sound so anemic…there’s just no (pardon the pun) life, no Beatles “spark” in them. It’s too bad they couldn’t have unearthed a more rocking song to work with.
Pretty lukewarm, at first two listens. Might grow on me some.
Knowing that Paul & Co could rock well beyond the Beatles years, it may just be an accident of survival that only sedate songs are to be had now. Or maybe Lennon didn’t write anything else when these last three Beatles singles were originally written.
