The Beatles have announced a new song, ‘Now and Then’, which is billed as their last song. The track is set to be released on November 2nd. The band also announced expanded and remixed editions of the Red and Blue compilation albums, set to be released on November 10th.
(1/6) “NOW AND THEN. THE LAST BEATLES SONG. OUT 02.11.23. #NowAndThen
New expanded and mixed editions of the “Red and Blue” albums to be released 10.11.23.
Pre-order now: https://t.co/jQtFaz4Tq8 pic.twitter.com/aLS2C046Pu— The Beatles (@thebeatles) October 26, 2023
This will be the final song from the Beatles, as the track was created by Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr with John Lennon and George Harrison being incorporated with the help of AI software, via using isolated demo tracks. The song was mentioned by both McCartney and Starr across the year, and its release was hinted earlier this week with projection images of cassettes across important landmarks related to the band in Liverpool like the Cavern Club and Strawberry Fields.
The track ‘Now and Then’, was first wrote by John Lennon in the late 1970’s, with a demo recorded with just piano and vocals from Lennon in his New York home. The recording was given to McCartney, Starr and Harrison in 1994, alongside already released demo recordings: ‘Free As A Bird’ and ‘Real Love’, tracks that were released in the mid 1990’s as part of The Beatles Anthology.
Technological limitations at the time meant that the band couldn’t build upon the demo mix of ‘Now and Then’ as they did with the other songs, because they couldn’t find a way to separate Lennon’s piano and vocals to create a clear mix, something which was able to be achieved with modern day AI technology. George Harrison’s widow, Olivia commented on this, saying: “Back in 1995, after several days in the studio working on the track, George felt the technical issues with the demo were insurmountable and concluded that it was not possible to finish the track to a high enough standard”.
Paul McCartney commented on the new recording saying: “It’s quite emotional. And we all play on it, it’s a genuine Beatles recording. In 2023 to still be working on Beatles music, and about to release a new song the public haven’t heard, I think it’s an exciting thing.” Ringo Starr also added: “It was the closest we’ll ever come to having him back in the room so it was very emotional for all of us. It was like John was there, you know. It’s far out.”
The creation of the new song was inspired by the AI audio technology used in the Peter Jackson ‘Get Back’ documentary, which released in 2021 as the technology was able to isolate conversations from videos of recording sessions of Let It Be. The band used the technology to remix Revolver in 2022, before deciding to use the technology to revisit ‘Now and Then’.
The Red and Blue compilation albums will also be reissued and remixed the following week on November 10th, with 21 tracks being newly added, 9 on Blue and 12 on Red. This includes newly mixed tracks from singles and albums that had not been previously remixed across the past 6 years with tracks like ‘Help!’ from Help!, ‘Nowhere Man’ from Rubber Soul and ‘Hey Bulldog’ from Yellow Submarine Soundtrack, just to name a few.
