I didn’t think I would hear the phrase “The Last Beatles Song” in my lifetime, but here we are…
Moral of the story: Two 80 year old men and their two dead friends released a new song for the first time in decades and suddenly I’m a 10 year old again whose thoughts are about 90% Beatles lyrics.
If you’re anything like me, this news has you violently screaming, shaking and crying. Who would’ve thought that during our lifetime, there would be a new Beatles song released; one that the OG Beatles fans may never hear. One that John Lennon and George Harrison will never hear. Growing up as a diehard Beatles fan, hearing this song, in all of its glory, knowing its hitting the tops of the charts in 2023 when 50% of the band is dead is like a full circle moment. It’s not something I had on my 2023 bingo card. In fact, I don’t think anyone was expecting it. But needless to say, I am so beyond happy to be a part of this bittersweet moment.
The song is so poetic, in ways that I physically cannot bring myself to describe without crying. Little details that have so much emotion and just change the impact of the song all together. Do you know how heart wrenching it is to know that the last words John Lennon told Paul McCartney were “think of me now and then.” And the sound of Lennon’s young voice mixing with Paul’s old voice- the last time we will ever hear the two best friends harmonizing. So insanely bittersweet. And instead of their iconic “1, 2, 3, 4” count in, it was just “1, 2” and a very faint 3 WITH NO 4. HEART. BREAKING. AND THE BOW AT THE END OF THE MUSIC VIDEO. DO NOT SPEAK TO ME FOR THE NEXT YEAR. OH MY GOD.
The initial demo of this song was recorded back in the 1970s by John Lennon. At this point, the Beatles had been broken up, but they stayed friends; just all on a journey to fulfill their own individual careers. The song was never finished or finalized, and would’ve died in the archives of music history had Yoko Ono not given the demon cassette tape to Paul McCartney in 1994. The three remaining Beatles decided to finish 2 of the 3 songs on the tape as a tribute to Lennon in the late 1990s, but never got around to finishing “Now and Then” since the quality of the tape was very poor.
Sadly, George Harrison passed away soon after, which completely jeopardized the opportunity for the Beatles to finish this song. The idea was scrapped for a very long time… until now. On November 2nd, 2023 the song “Now and Then” was released worldwide. To make the song possible, old vocals of Lennon’s were isolated using AI. This originally alarmed listeners because they thought the voice of Lennon was completely digitized, which wasn’t the case. AI technology was just used in cleaning up the vocals that were originally unusable.
The emotion in this song, the effort, everything must have been so surreal to create, especially for Paul. Every Beatle, dead or alive, was a part of this song. John Lennon’s original vocals and piano, George Harrison’s acoustic guitar parts, Ringo Starr on the drums, and Paul McCartney’s added bass, guitar, and piano parts. They all made their impact, in a song that spans five decades, and will forever be remembered as “The Last Beatles Song”
I am so happy that one of the most influential bands in the world, and my favorite band in the world, has left their mark one last time. Even as I grow old, and there is no more “The Beatles” I’ll still think about them “Now and Then”