# "Now and Then" - the last Beatles song being debuted {2023-11-02} **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [November 2, 2023, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-and-then-the-last-beatles-song-being-debuted-2023-11-02/992460 "2023-11-02T05:27:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2023, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-and-then-the-last-beatles-song-being-debuted-2023-11-02/992460/61 "2023-11-03T15:32:59Z")
I am fairly impressed with the song, its pretty good. The video on the other hand, is god awful. Given they have unlimited cash, and basically invented the medium, it looks like it was made on a middling budget in the 1990s. ---
**Author:** ![slicedalone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slicedalone/32/12515_2.png) [@slicedalone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slicedalone)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2023, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-and-then-the-last-beatles-song-being-debuted-2023-11-02/992460/62 "2023-11-03T15:41:58Z")
I enjoyed the concept of the video, and the first minute or two. Then they started getting too cute with dead Beatles onscreen with present-day Paul and Ringo and with their younger selves. I hated the shots of a young Lennon acting goofy while his older voice was heard–just seemed stupid to me. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2023, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-and-then-the-last-beatles-song-being-debuted-2023-11-02/992460/63 "2023-11-03T18:40:36Z")
So the first time listening to the song, it was on my TV. Then last night I listened to it again on my laptop. Then today, I heard it on the radio in my truck, which has a better sound system than the other two things I listened on, so I cranked it up to get the full experience with all the instrumentation and sounds and voices, and I have to say it’s very well done. I like Paul and Ringo’s voices together. I like the strings. Paul’s bass and Ringo’s drumming are both fantastic. It’s just not a very interesting song. When George called it “rubbish” back in the 90s, I don’t know if he meant the song itself, or just the quality of the recording, but I don’t think he was wrong either way. If I can dream a bit, I would’ve loved to have had them take some unrecorded George lyrics (there have to be some laying around someplace), have Paul finish/polish them as necessary, Paul sings the lead, the two remaining Beatles put their instrumentation down, and, if it fit, worked some of John’s “Now and Then” demo in as a bridge, counter-melody or backing vocals. I’m not much of a solo John fan, and I feel like they forced themselves into using solo John songs for their final three singles, and it just feels like they could’ve gone a different direction without losing John (or now George) entirely… ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2023, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-and-then-the-last-beatles-song-being-debuted-2023-11-02/992460/64 "2023-11-03T19:43:14Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > would agree. It goes like this: > > 1. George > 2. Paul > 3. Ringo > 4. John Count me in. George was a very creative (musically) song writer. As genius as Paul was while as a Beatle, his post work just didn’t do it for me as much - he was still very good, just not to my liking as much. I saw him live a couple of times (10th row!) but kind of meh. Ringo put on a good show and worked with some really great musicians. I love John’s Beatle work but… I don’t know to put this… his post work just seemed ‘whiney’, or something. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2023, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-and-then-the-last-beatles-song-being-debuted-2023-11-02/992460/65 "2023-11-03T20:10:10Z")
I liked the video…except the wide shot of all “four” of them, using the old footage of George and John. It was nice to see fresh footage of Ringo and Paul singing together. But that wide shot of the four of them was silly to the point of not working. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2023, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-and-then-the-last-beatles-song-being-debuted-2023-11-02/992460/66 "2023-11-03T20:12:10Z")
> [@Lucas\_Jackson](#): > > …I love John’s Beatle work but… I don’t know to put this… his post work just seemed ‘whiney’, or something. I rank him last because it is clear he needed Paul even more than Paul needed him. I don’t like almost anything of his post-Beatle work. I really think I look back on the Beatles and think George evolved into the equal to Paul-John. I like almost all of George’s songs in the Beatles records. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2023, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-and-then-the-last-beatles-song-being-debuted-2023-11-02/992460/67 "2023-11-03T20:29:11Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > I really think I look back on the Beatles and think George evolved into the equal to Paul-John. He had to work twice as hard, without a partner to lean on, to get 15 percent of an album. Dude’s songwriting skills were _tight_ by the end of the 60s. ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2023, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-and-then-the-last-beatles-song-being-debuted-2023-11-02/992460/68 "2023-11-03T20:39:02Z")
Listened to a couple of times…my first impression was that it sounded just like Blur - “Beetlebum”, which is a bit funny since Blur is heavily Beatle-inspired. Listening a little more deeply, I didn’t like John’s vocal, it could have been an artifact of the AI-tech isolating and processing, but to me his voice sounded thin and raspy, like vocal cord damage, and wasn’t at all a pleasant timbre to it compared to typical John. The rest of the playing was lackluster and uninteresting, nothing of the boundary-pushing melody-exploration I’d expect from Beatles™. Instrumentally, the only personality or technique that showed through was Ringo’s playing, but the song structure was still dull and uninventive. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2023, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-and-then-the-last-beatles-song-being-debuted-2023-11-02/992460/69 "2023-11-03T20:53:56Z")
> [@GargoyleWB](#): > > but to me his voice sounded thin and raspy, like vocal cord damage, and wasn’t at all a pleasant timbre to it compared to typical John Lennon double tracked his voice on almost all of his records all the way back to the earliest Beatles songs. What I hear on this song sounds more like his live recordings. ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2023, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-and-then-the-last-beatles-song-being-debuted-2023-11-02/992460/70 "2023-11-03T21:01:35Z")
That would make sense, since this was pulled from a single track cassette demo. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2023, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-and-then-the-last-beatles-song-being-debuted-2023-11-02/992460/71 "2023-11-03T21:07:12Z")
For some reason the first song I thought of when I heard the opening part of this new tune was Linda Ronstadt’s “Long Long Time”. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2023, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-and-then-the-last-beatles-song-being-debuted-2023-11-02/992460/72 "2023-11-03T23:26:16Z")
The song was good and would have landed nicely on an album. It’s not a number 1 hit but it was easily as good or better than a lot of other filler songs they did. The video… well… not so good. Parts of it were fine but about half of it should be reedited. It reminded me of their early movies and those are not something I want to remember. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2023, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-and-then-the-last-beatles-song-being-debuted-2023-11-02/992460/73 "2023-11-04T00:31:45Z")
If John had not died when he did, would we have ever gotten new Beatles songs (the three we did get and/or others)? My WAG is that nothing would have been released credited to the Beatles, but they might very well have worked with each other, and so something like this song might have appeared on one of John’s later solo albums, with input from the other three. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2023, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-and-then-the-last-beatles-song-being-debuted-2023-11-02/992460/74 "2023-11-04T00:52:14Z")
I think they would have eventually done something ---
**Author:** ![Toxylon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@Toxylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxylon)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2023, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-and-then-the-last-beatles-song-being-debuted-2023-11-02/992460/75 "2023-11-04T10:50:54Z")
I’m positive they would have. Succesful bands with surviving members almost invariably end up eventually back together, at least for one-offs, even when solemn vows (“when hell freezes over”) were once made that it would never, ever happen. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2023, 10:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-and-then-the-last-beatles-song-being-debuted-2023-11-02/992460/76 "2023-11-04T10:54:51Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > Having listened to it today, and probably won’t often listen to it again, it’s better than _Free As A Bird_, which just sounded like a Jeff Lynne song. I think all of these Beatles do-overs sound like Traveling Wilburys Featuring John Lennon and I don’t care for that at all. Lennon wrote it, just give me Lennon. ---
**Author:** ![Chad\_Sudan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chad_sudan/32/4509_2.png) [@Chad\_Sudan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chad_Sudan)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2023, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-and-then-the-last-beatles-song-being-debuted-2023-11-02/992460/77 "2023-11-04T16:04:39Z")
I wonder who John had in mind when he wrote this song? I assumed Yoko, but a commenter elsewhere on the internet toyed with a far more entertaining thought… Maybe it was May Pang (“Now and then / I miss you”)? ---
**Author:** ![Stephe96](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Stephe96](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stephe96)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2023, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-and-then-the-last-beatles-song-being-debuted-2023-11-02/992460/78 "2023-11-04T19:10:37Z")
My guess is that all four Beatles would’ve appeared together on _The Simpsons_ in some fashion - maybe as a local garage band that Homer becomes the manager for. Something like that. But of course they would appear under a pseudonym, ala Michael Jackson. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2023, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-and-then-the-last-beatles-song-being-debuted-2023-11-02/992460/79 "2023-11-04T19:15:48Z")
Not a bad guess. Of course, the three surviving Beatles have all appeared (separately) on _The Simpsons_, and I have little doubt John would have, too, if he were still around. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2023, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-and-then-the-last-beatles-song-being-debuted-2023-11-02/992460/80 "2023-11-04T20:58:09Z")
> [@Chad\_Sudan](#): > > I wonder who John had in mind when he wrote this song? I don’t know, but it’s pretty obvious who Paul McCartney probably thinks (or hopes) Lennon was singing about. Right after Lennon’s death, Paul contacted the DJ who John gave his last interview to and asked him if John still loved him. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-and-then-the-last-beatles-song-being-debuted-2023-11-02/992460.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-and-then-the-last-beatles-song-being-debuted-2023-11-02/992460.md?page=5)