I am biased toward everything The Beatles do; we should just get that out of the way right now. If you are looking for an objective opinion or review of their new song, “Now and Then,” this isn’t the place. In fact, I won’t review this song because even if it was the worst Beatle song ever, I would still like it. No, what I want to talk about is legacy and The Beatles place in music history.
Here’s a little background on where this song came from. Back in the early 90’s, Yoko Ono gave Paul McCartney some cassette tapes that John Lennon had recorded songs on back between 1975 to 1980. The three remaining Beatles (Paul, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr) got together to “finish” recording three songs from the tapes, for use on the upcoming release of the Anthology Albums and documentary series. Two of the songs were completed, “Free as a Bird” and “Real Love,” but a third song, “Now and Then” was not completed. The story goes that though they had recorded a version of “Now and Then,” George objected to the sound quality of the cassette tape – specifically the quality of John’s vocal and how it could not be separated from the piano, as John had originally recorded them at the same time back in 1975-80. Jump ahead to Peter Jackson working on the Get Back documentary, where his team used computers and A.I. technology to clean up some of the audio and visuals from the original film and recordings in 1969. Paul and Ringo then had the “Now and Then” song worked on using this technology, thus separating John’s vocal from the piano, rectifying George’s objection to the song. Sadly, George did passed away back in 2001, but with the blessing from George’s family, his recoded parts of the song from the 90’s were reused, and Paul and Ringo rerecorded their parts, and there you have it, “Now and Then.” The Last Beatles song.
And with this ominous “The Last Beatles Song” which is their words not mine, we are officially entering into the “legacy” period for The Beatles. The Anthology Albums and documentary series were not objective undertakings. That was defiantly the three of them getting to have a say on who and what The Beatles were As such, it felt more like a celebration, not really a history. Peter Jackson’s work on Get Back was breathtaking, if you are a Beatles fan, in how it showed the way the band created songs. But, it was also a push back against the idea that the Get Back sessions were the canary in the coal mine, predicting the impending Beatles break up in early 1970. Maybe “Now and Then” is a bit like cleaning out the closet; wrapping up that last project, before others get their hands on it once Paul and Ringo have passed on. I won’t be surprised if there aren’t a few more nuggets of Beatles lore and music that come out in the following years.
And I think it’s a good idea that they do this. I’m a huge Beatles fan, but I wasn’t alive when any of their original albums were released. My daughter was born when only two Beatles were still alive. Her kids are going to be born into a world of no living Beatles, and very few people who were alive when these songs first came out. I say all of this because that’s when the real objective study of The Beatles will begin. The first-hand accounts will be gone, and documentation will have to be studied. If Paul and Ringo want to set the record straight, they better get it in while they can.
