As anticipation grows ahead of the release of what many critics and fans consider to be the greatest rock band of all time’s last song, The Beatles have released a short film to detail the origins of “Then And Now.” The band have been teasing their final song with the inclusion of deceased members John Lennon and George Harrison.
NOW LIVE! Watch the documentary and learn the full story behind ‘Now And Then’ – with exclusive footage and commentary from Paul, Ringo, George, Sean Ono Lennon and Peter Jackson.https://t.co/UaCIMywCOX #NowAndThen @johnlennon @PaulMcCartney @GeorgeHarrison @ringostarrmusic… pic.twitter.com/9OZL5VdGMR
— The Beatles (@thebeatles) November 1, 2023
The Beatles have released a 12 minute short film just ahead of their planned issue of “Then And Now” that tells the story of how a failed demo tape evolved into the band’s final song. The track has already dominated headlines, not least because it features Lennon and Harrison via AI technology supplied by filmmaker Peter Jackson.
When Jackson made his ground-breaking film documentary Get Back, examining The Beatles’ recording of their last studio album of the same name, he utilised the technology to isolate conversations the members had with each other during recording. It was again used in 2022’s reissue of Revolver. Paul McCartney sent the demo to Jackson who was able to separate Lennon’s vocals on the tape, allowing McCartney and Ringo Starr to record the song as if the former members were still there with them.
McCartney had previously said that isolating Lennon’s voice without the piano on the demo tape was always a persistent challenge and prevented the band from being able to work on “Then And Now.” With Jackson’s help, Lennon’s voice was successfully pulled from the demo tape and allowed the band to complete the song.
Speaking about the process, McCartney said, “Every time I wanted a little bit more of John’s voice, this piano came through and clouded the picture. I think we kind of ran out of steam a bit and time, and it was like, ‘well, I don’t know, maybe we’ll leave this one. Now And Then just kind of languished in a cupboard. And then in 2001, we lost George, which kind of took the wind out of our sails. It took almost a quarter of a century for us to wait until the right moment to tackle Now And Then again, with the technology that Peter Jackson and his team had worked out during the Get Back movie.”
After the re-release of Revolver, McCartney sent Jackson the demo. He continued, “It was like, John’s there, you know? It’s far out. So in the mix, we could lift John’s voice without lifting the piano, which had always been one of the problems. Now we could mix it and make a proper record of it.”
“Now And Then” will be released today at 2PM and a video directed by Jackson will follow tomorrow, Friday 3 November.
