On November 2nd, decades after the deaths of Beatles members John Lennon and George Harrison, a new Beatles song called “Now and Then” was released by surviving band members Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr.
In a Fox News article, Elizabeth Stanton writes that the song started from a demo Lennon recorded with vocals and piano in the 1970s, before he was murdered in 1980 (October 26th).
In a short film titled “The Beatles – Now and Then – The Last Beatles Song (Short Film)” posted to The Beatles’ YouTube channel Sean Lennon, John Lennon’s son says, “(John Lennon) was always making demos. And I do remember him recording into these tape cassette recorders. Mum had these handful of songs that my dad hadn’t finished. And she gave them to the other Beatles” (November 1st).
The Beatles short film says that Harrison, McCartney and Starr started working with one of the demos in 1995, but ran into some problems (November 1st).
Paul McCartney states in the short film, “Every time I wanted a little bit more of John’s voice, this piano came through and clouded the picture” (November 1st).
In the short film uploaded to The Beatles YouTube channel McCartney talks more about their struggles saying, “‘Now and Then’ just kind of languished in a cupboard. And then in 2001, we lost George, which kind of took the wind out of our sails” (November 1st).
Elizabeth Stanton describes what brought the remaining Beatles back to the song decades later, writing that it was the release of “The Beatles: Get Back”, a docuseries directed by Peter Jackson. Stanton states that technology in the docuseries was used to isolate sounds, like instruments and voices and this same technology was used to isolate Lennon’s voice on the demo (Fox News, October 26th)
Stanton writes that McCartney and Starr added bass and drums to the newly separated recording of Lennon’s voice and guitar by Harrison that had been recorded before his death (Fox News, October 26th).
In the short film uploaded to The Beatles YouTube channel Starr described Lennon’s demo as “the closest we’ll ever come to having him back in the room” (November 1st).
