LOS ANGELES (AP) 鈥� The is here.
Titled 鈥淣ow and Then,鈥� the almost impossible-to-believe track is four minutes and eight seconds of the first and only original Beatles recording of the 21st century. There's a countdown, then acoustic guitar strumming and piano bleed into the unmistakable vocal tone of John Lennon in the song's introduction: 鈥淚 know it鈥檚 true / It鈥檚 all because of you / And if I make it through / It鈥檚 all because of you.鈥�
More than four decades since Lennon's murder and two since George Harrison's death, the very last Beatles song has been released as a double A-side single with 鈥淟ove Me Do,鈥� the band's 1962 debut single.
鈥淣ow and Then鈥� comes from the written by Lennon in the 1970s, which were given to his former bandmates by Yoko Ono. They used the tape to construct the songs 鈥淔ree As a Bird鈥� and 鈥淩eal Love,鈥� released in the mid-1990s. But there were technical limitations to finishing 鈥淣ow and Then.鈥�
On Wednesday, a short film titled 鈥淭he Beatles 鈥� Now And Then 鈥� The Last Beatles Song鈥� was released, detailing the creation of the track. On the original tape, Lennon's voice was hidden; the piano was 鈥渉ard to hear,鈥� as Paul McCartney describes it. 鈥淎nd in those days, of course, we didn't have the technology to do the separation.鈥�
That changed in 2022, when the band 鈥� now a duo 鈥� was able to utilize the same technical restoration methods that separated the Beatles鈥� voices from background sounds during the making of director , 鈥淭he Beatles: Get Back.鈥� And so, they were able to isolate Lennon's voice from the original cassette and complete 鈥淣ow and Then鈥� using machine learning.
When the song was first , McCartney described artificial intelligence technology as 鈥渒ind of scary but exciting,鈥� adding: 鈥淲e will just have to see where that leads.鈥�
"To still be working on Beatles' music in 2023 鈥� wow,鈥� he said in 鈥淭he Beatles 鈥� Now And Then 鈥� The Last Beatles Song.鈥� 鈥淲e're actually messing around with state-of-the-art technology, which is something the Beatles would've been very interested in.鈥�
鈥淭he rumors were that we just made it up,鈥� Ringo Starr of Lennon鈥檚 contributions to the forthcoming track in September. 鈥淟ike we would do that anyway.鈥�
鈥淭his is the last track, ever, that you鈥檒l get the four Beatles on the track. John, Paul, George, and Ringo,鈥� he continued.
McCartney and Starr built the track from Lennon's demo, adding guitar parts George Harrison wrote in the 1995 sessions and a slide guitar solo in his signature style. McCartney and Starr tracked their bass and drum contributions. A string arrangement was written with the help of , son of the late Beatles producer George Martin 鈥� a clever recall to the classic ambitiousness of 鈥淪trawberry Fields,鈥� or 鈥淵esterday,鈥� or 鈥淚 Am the Walrus.鈥� Those musicians couldn鈥檛 be told they were contributing to the last ever Beatles track, so McCartney played it off like a solo endeavor.
On Friday, an official music video for 鈥淣ow and Then,鈥� directed by Jackson, will premiere on the Beatles' YouTube channel. It was created using footage McCartney and Starr took of themselves performing, 14 hours of 鈥渓ong forgotten film shot during the 1995 recording sessions, including several hours of Paul, George and Ringo working on 鈥楴ow and Then,鈥欌�� Jackson said in a statement.
It also uses previously unseen home movie footage provided by Lennon's son Sean and Olivia Harrison, George's wife, and 鈥渁 few precious seconds of The Beatles performing in their leather suits, the earliest known film of The Beatles and never seen before,鈥� provided by Pete Best, the band's original drummer.
鈥淭he result is pretty nutty and provided the video with much needed balance between the sad and the funny,鈥� said Jackson.
Maria Sherman, The Associated Press
