CULTURE
The Beatles: ‘final’ song Now and Then to be released thanks to AI technology
![The Beatles: ‘final’ song Now and Then to be released thanks to AI technology](/files/2023/3/1200x630/16984868182913735039_1200x630.jpg)
Baku, October 28, AZERTAC
Now and Then, the long-awaited “final” Beatles song featuring all four members, is to be released next week thanks to the same AI technology that was used to enhance the audio on Peter Jackson’s documentary Get Back, according to the Guardian.
“There it was, John’s voice, crystal clear,” Paul McCartney said in a statement. “It’s quite emotional. And we all play on it, it’s a genuine Beatles recording. In 2023, to still be working on Beatles music, and about to release a new song the public haven’t heard, I think it’s an exciting thing.”
Now and Then was written and sung by John Lennon in the late 1970s at his home in the Dakota building in New York City. In 1994, Lennon’s widow Yoko Ono gave the demo to Paul McCartney on a cassette labelled “For Paul” that also included Lennon’s demos for Free As a Bird and Real Love.
While the latter songs were completed by McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison and released as singles as part of the Beatles Anthology project, technological limitations meant that Lennon’s vocals and piano on Now and Then couldn’t be separated to work alongside new parts recorded by the other three Beatles, and it was shelved.
More than quarter of a century later, Jackson used AI-assisted software to de-mix the original audio from Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s 1970 footage of the Beatles recording their final album, Let It Be, to isolate instruments, vocals and conversation, and turned the audio and images into the Get Back documentary series.
The technology was then used to produce a new mix of Revolver in 2022 and inspired the surviving band members to revisit Lennon’s Now and Then demo. Jackson and a sound team led by Emile de la Rey used the same technique to isolate Lennon’s original vocal performance from his piano.
The song will be teased in a 13-minute documentary on its making premiered at 7.30pm GMT on Wednesday 1 November, and unveiled in full on 2 November. On 3 November, it will be released as a double A-side single with the Beatles’ 1962 debut single, Love Me Do, featuring cover art by pop artist Ed Ruscha.