The Beatles during a photo session in Twickenham, 9 April 1969()
On Friday morning Australian time, The Beatles will release "Now And Then" — their final song ever.
It started as a demo recorded by John Lennon in his New York apartment before his death and has now come together with new contributions from Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and the late George Harrison.
Before its release, the band have released a 12-minute documentary explaining how the song came about and debunking a few myths while they're at it.
The film features some brilliant archival footage of the band, some from their 1960s glory days, and more from the mid-90s session when they completed the first two songs unearthed from Lennon's demo.
While hardcore Beatles might not get the astounding new revelations they want, the film will clarify plenty about both the intent and the practicalities behind the song.
Here's what we learned.
Lennon's 'quiet years' weren't so quiet
Lennon stepped away from the music industry between the release of his 1975 covers album Rock 'n' Roll and his 1980 collaboration with Yoko Ono Double Fantasy. During this time, Lennon's sole focus was caring for he and Yoko Ono's new son, Sean Ono Lennon.
"There's this impression that my dad stopped doing music for a while to raise me, which I think is partially true in terms of him not touring and not fulfilling any major record label obligations," Ono Lennon says in the documentary.
"But he was always playing music around the house. He was always making demos and I do remember him making demos into these tape cassette recorders."
While the existence of these songs has been common knowledge for almost 30 years, the extent of his musical activity in those so-called fallow years will come as a surprise to many.
Peter Jackson's technology pried John Lennon's voice and piano apart
A John Lennon demo tape titled For Paul emerged in 1994, and the remaining Beatles worked with producer Jeff Lynne (Electric Light Orchestra) to bring the songs Free As A Bird and Real Love to life.
In the documentary, McCartney confirms that they did commence working on Now and Then at the time, but that the technology available to them was not sufficient to make it work.
"Every time we wanted a little more of John's voice, this piano came through and clouded the picture," he says.
"I think we kinda ran out of steam a bit and time."
After Peter Jackson employed his MAL (machine audio learning) software for the 2021 documentary Get Back, McCartney asked him to try and separate Lennon's vocal and piano. It was a success.
"It's like John's there, you know?" Ringo Starr says of the isolated vocal. "Far out."
McCartney got the ball rolling, George Harrison was the final piece
After Peter Jackson was able to isolate Lennon's vocals, McCartney started the song's new life by laying down a bassline. Given the creative relationship the two men shared during The Beatles' time together, this seems a significant if unsurprising sequence of events.
After McCartney laid down a bass track, he sent the files to Ringo who added drums over the top. Next came strings (we'll get to that in a minute) and, finally, the guitars.
"We had kept George's guitar parts from '95," McCartney says, before adding that there was one more embellishment he felt it needed.
"I thought, 'What I'd like to do is do a slide guitar solo in George's style'. It was really a tribute to George."
The weeping solo is reminiscent of the playing Harrison adopted in The Beatles' final years and that carried through to his most recognisable solo work, like 1970 single My Sweet Lord.
The string players didn't know they were on a Beatles song
Now And Then features a string section, recorded at Los Angeles' famed Capitol Records and arranged by Giles Martin, son of The Beatles’ mainstay producer George Martin.
They couldn't risk word getting out that there would be new music from the most recognisable band in history, so fed their musicians a little white lie.
"We had to put the music out on the stands for the musicians, but we couldn't tell them it was a new Beatles song," McCartney says. "It was all a bit hush hush. We pretended it was just something of mine."
Hopefully the news that they are appearing on a song by The Beatles is reason enough for those musicians to forgive such dishonesty.
'John would have loved it'
We weren't exactly expecting the remaining Beatles to say John Lennon would have turned his nose up at the idea of a posthumous release. McCartney and Ringo offer some interesting justification for the song's release.
"Is this something we shouldn't do?" McCartney remembers thinking back in the mid-1990s when the band first worked on the demo tapes Lennon had left, resulting in Free As A Bird and Real Love.
"Every time I thought like that I thought, 'Wait a minute. Let's say I had a chance to ask John, 'Would you like us to finish this last song of yours?'. I'm telling you, the answer would have been 'Yeah!'.' He would have loved that."
They offer a compelling reason why: The Beatles were always ahead of the curve when it came to employing new technology in their music, so why would that be any different today?
"My dad would have loved that," Lennon's son Sean Ono Lennon says of working with AI. "Because he was never shy to experiment with recording technology. I think it's really beautiful."
McCartney concurs.
"We're messing around with state-of-the-art technology, which is something The Beatles would have been very interested in."
It's all about connection
The documentary starts with McCartney marvelling at the chemistry The Beatles shared.
"Making good music in a band is all about chemistry," he says. "The way our four very different personalities combined in The Beatles was something very special."
It ends with him looking back in admiration of the connection he shared with his three friends.
"All those memories come flooding back," he says. "My God, how lucky was I to have those men in my life? And to work with those men so intimately and come up with such a body of music.
"To still be working on Beatles music in 2023… wow.
"We all played on it, so it is a genuine Beatle recording."
No matter what you think of the song when it's released tomorrow, its existence serves as a powerful way to remember this formidable musical and pop culture force: for the fans, for the band, and for their families.
"Now And Then" will be released at 1am AEDT Friday 3 November.
First published at ABC News, November 2, 2023
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