Artist – The Beatles
Single – Now and Then
Released – 2nd November 2023
Reviewer – John Jenkins, Liverpool Acoustic
Anyone remotely interested in music and has been trawling through music posts on social media or newspapers should now be aware that local band The Beatles have a new single out.
Billed as ‘the last song’, the world and his wife/husband have opinions on its merits and its place in the extraordinary canon of Beatle songs (should it be included/should it not be?).
Is it really a Beatles song, is it a John Lennon song patched up by 3 guys over 25 years that were once in the same band?
The background story is now well documented although you will get a few variants depending upon who you have read or listened to. Did George Harrison really hate the song enough to pull the plug back in 1995 and stop it being finished and not be included in the Anthology 3 album as it was penciled in for?
Was he just miffed with the fact that at that time the technology to separate the piano and John’s voice on the original demo recording was not available or even good enough to waste the time of the threatles and put out as a quality recording?
Peter Jackson’s team, when working on the Get Back documentary were able to utilize new technology that enables multiple sounds locked together on old recordings to be digitally separated and isolated.
As we are finding in today’s media, AI advancement is causing concern in most industries or at least generating conversations about the future (Has not anyone other than me read Jack Williamson’s stories With Folded Hands (1947)/The Humanoids (1948)?)
Musically a Pandoras box has been opened. What have we in store for the future?
Old 78 recordings, that despite the de-clicking technology of old but still could not get rid of that 78s sound could end up being transformed into pristine digital high-quality recordings. Lift Caruso’s voice from a scratchy disc and run it through a modern recording system with a new orchestral recording and what do you get?
Those who have made adverse comments on the mixing of old recordings (Lennon’s demo) married up with new recording (Paul/Ringo’s vocals and instrumentation) and called it a gimmick should remember The Beatles were always at the forefront of recording technology. You can take it right back to the 1st song on their 1st LP. I Saw Her Standing There has the 1-2-3-4 count in lifted from Take 9 and stuck on to the beginning on the body of Take 1.
No one really needs reminding Revolver and Sgt Pepper were both recorded on 4 track tape machines.
Going forward for The Beatles … will the 90’s recordings of Free as a Bird and Real Love be revisited? Will John Lennon’s vocal be lifted/isolated and taken away from the piano that’s it’s been locked together with for 40 odd years? Will we get a remix version with the same clarity as his voice on Now and Then?
Will they separate the Beatles individual singing and playing from their Shea Stadium performance (as released as Live at Shea Stadium album) so that the cacophony of girls and boys screaming for the whole concert – so loud you can just about hear the Beatles, so we one day we get a hi-fi pristine version in the future.
Going back even further will they do a remix of the Star Club Hamburg performance to get a pristine audio on all the instruments and voices, so we get super clarity there as well after 60 years??
Pandora’s Box indeed.
Oh … and my thoughts on Now and Then – I love it. It is very hard as Beatles nut to separate emotional listening from critical listening. The verses are very strong and mournful and reminded me of that song 7 Seconds Away from the 90s. I think the people involved have done a great job and personally I think it’s a great song to add to the canon.
Not everyone will agree with me, and I respect that but after all it’s only an opinion.
Review © 2023 John Jenkins, Liverpool Acoustic
Long review for a single John! Actually I found it a good read and the review of an ok, slightly ponderous song was relatively short aside from the worrying/interesting (depending on your point of view and you may see it as both as I do!) impact of AI on music!