The Beatles release final song with help of AI technology
By Dominic Leading Fox
Photo of The Beatles in 1967, Creative Commons License
In 1977, in New York City, thirty-seven-year-old John Lennon sat at a piano with a tape recorder to record the demo for a song titled “Now and Then.” Forty-six years later, the song has been released with a full quality instrumental and backing vocals, with the help of the last three Beatles and, strange as it may seem, AI technology.
“Now and Then” was released on November 2nd, 2023, to universal praise from audiences and critics alike. The soft-rock ballad comes as the result of decades worth of work as the last three Beatles attempted to put together the tape recording from John Lennon’s New York City apartment. Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono, reportedly gave Paul McCartney the tape in 1994, and subsequent studio sessions followed.
The following year, George Harrison, Ringo Starr and McCartney grouped together with producer Jeff Lynne to try and record a backing track for Lennon’s demo. After a day of experimentation, the band was roadblocked by the limitations of the demo’s poor recording quality. Harrison called the recording “...rubbish,” and the song was scrapped until further notice.
Later, in 2021, Director Peter Jackson released the universally acclaimed documentary, “The Beatles: Get Back.” Jackson and his film studio, WingNut Films, utilized a machine learning audio restoration system to put together quality recordings of instruments and conversations to unseen footage of the recording sessions for the 1970 album, “Let It Be.” After its success, the Beatles’ team decided to apply this technology to “Now and Then.”
Using the best quality recording of the tape that they had (courtesy of Lennon’s son Sean), the AI system separated Lennon’s piano from the vocals, and worked it to a crystal clear audio. Using this, the band used Harrison’s guitar work from the 1995 session and added completely new drums, bass, vocals and an entire string section. What resulted was a song which many saw fit for the perfect finale to the Beatles legacy. They called it “Now and Then.”
Accompanied by a subsequent music video, the Beatles marketed “Now and Then” as “the last Beatles song.” It was a long road to the release of the song, its somber vocals having seen the context of the Cold War and the rise of AI technology. With a backing of sharp instrumentals, John Lennon’s voice, a time capsule from fifty years ago, solemnly sings:
“Now and then,
I miss you
Oh, now and then,
I want you to be there for me.”
With Lennon’s death in 1980 and Harrison’s in 2001, the Beatles are sure to never fully reunite with what they once were. However, while the band may be finished, their legacy remains to transcend generations and find new fans every day with their now eighty-year-long span of music. “Now and Then” proves that, no matter what may happen in the world, there will always be The Beatles.