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[Mervap]

NOW & THEN

What can be said about the new Beatles single? Perhaps a bit of personal background concerning my relationship with this song..

I first became aware of its very existence in 1995 or so upon hearing that the surviving Beatles were working on some Lennon demos for inclusion on the "Anthology" project. This in itself was thrilling, as "new" Beatles music was something I never thought I would experience in my lifetime. Watching the world premiere video for "Free As a Bird", the tears flowed......but then, in the light of the next day, my musical "bat-analyzer" activated unbidden and began to point out the flaws in the execution of the song. Jeff Lynne, God love him, makes brilliant records....but they have a certain sound. That was so evident in the drum sound that it began to be all I heard. That and the limitations of the source tape, which was, in fact, a demo. My favorite part of that song, it turned out, was the Harrison solo, backed by the sweet Beatles harmonies.....and that part had not a bit of the Lennon vocal on it....

"Real Love" was more of the same things, but a better overall song, in my opinion, than "Free As a Bird".....but there was still that nagging dissatisfaction with the limitations of the sources tapes. So, when I heard they had also worked on a song called "Now & Then", also a Lennon demo, my hopes weren't high.....then "Anthology 3" was released with no new tracks, I read the story of how "Now & Then" was just too much of a demo to be of any use and they had shelved it. That, I expected, was that...

But Paul heard something there.....

It took Peter Jackson's "Let It Be" project to bring forth the technology needed to salvage "Now & Then". Once McCartney heard that tech existed, it was just a matter of time before we would hear this song. I have read that he is stubborn....here's the proof. And thank The Universe he is.....

I have lived with this song for a couple of days now, and my "bat-analyzer" was again automatically activated after the initial rush of tears subsided. Here's the kicker: the more it has pulled this track apart, the more I am realizing that this is just the swan song we needed all those years ago from "Anthology". Even if this track owes its releasable state to things that go PING, that tech is so transparent, so flawless, it's let the magic shine clearly through. The ONLY caveat I can think of is that I wish this had existed in the mid-nineties, so that "Free As a Bird" & "Real Love" could have seen better final results.

Oh......the song? In demo form, it's something of a dirge that made me VERY melancholic upon hearing it. This finished single maintains some of that feeling, but is redeemed by the instrumentation and a soaring solo section that borrows some backing vocals from other Beatles songs. Your ears will know where from, and you won't care.....it's so inspiring. Ringo, unleashed from having to play directly to a demo tape, sounds like RINGO. Paul's bass is typically amazing, and George's spirit is all over the solo section, even if Macca played the part. On top of all of that, the Lennon lead vocal is clearly heartfelt and perfectly placed at the front of the mix. The end result is an astonishing final chapter in the Beatles' recording history...

[Keri]

Great to have your response Merv. I have been listening to it all weekend. I burnt a CD to give it an album setting, I don't think it'll particularly suit the Blue album.

Now And Then The Beatles Now And Then - Single
All Those Years Ago George Harrison Somewhere In England
Never Without You Ringo Starr Ringo Rama
#9 Dream John Lennon Walls And Bridges
Here Today Paul McCartney Tug Of War
Free As A Bird The Beatles Anthology 1
Treat Her Gently / Lonely Old People McCartney Venus And Mars
Don't Know A Thing About Love Ringo Starr Time Takes Time
When We Was Fab George Harrison Cloud Nine
Real Love The Beatles Anthology 2

This is what I cam up with I had to use the tribute songs to other Beatles and When We was fab, for the others it wass a matter of feel and I didn't want songs that were over well know. This works for me I'd recommend creating one of your own, I wanted to keep it to about 40 minutes normal LP length.

I am very happy with the song. I love the string arrangement and the new vocals, John always liked to put treatments on his vocals so for me the vocal sound is fitting. I had avoided listening to the demo version, while I have played it now, this is my go to version of the song and I find it moving and melancholy.

Bill Harkelroad (Zoot Horn Rollo) guitarist for Captain Beefheart recounts how Beefheart when they were thinking of leaving the band or thinking about when it would all be over would say "You will never get away from this, it will ALWAYS be with you!" and decades later Harkelroad acknowledges that he was right. This is the situation with the Beatles and I don't think it's just because they were so famous, but because during their formative years, they worked so closely together, they were one another's best friends and the intensity of their experience both in terms of creativity/invention and the sheer madness of events they shared meant that the Beatles experience would never be over for them. The band might have broken up and Lennon might have sung "The Dream is over" but ironically it was his desire for it to be over that was the dream.

Which is to say, in a sense I feel the Beatles didn't really break up, they remained in one anothers minds. Robert Rosen who read Lennons late 1970s diaries says that he was obsessed with Paul. Paul said that John's final words to him were think of me every now and then friend, so this song has a strong personal element for him. Giles Martin speaks about interpreting it as a dialogue between John and Paul and I feel like that si quite possible and was likely in John's mind. John wrote a lot of love songs to Yoko and there may be elements of her in this, but Now and Then doesn't seem right for his relationship with her, which was meant to be continuous not sparodic as this suggests and I don't think it is out of keeping that John when saying goodbye to Paul was making a personal connection to this song.  John might have been reluctant to release such a song but this wasn't released it was recorded in privacy with no particular plans for release.

I liked Free as a Bird and Real Love, I felt they were the best that could be done given the nature of the source material. But having heard this with the demixing technology, they are now calling out for a remix, maybe dial back on some of the Jeff Lynnism bring the new cleaned up vocal to the fore, they could now replace the original piano, with newly recorded and they could make these songs much better.

I suspect Jackson is working on a large scale Beatles doco, ,maybe redone anthology bringing in a lot of new and restored footage. But I think we will get remixed version of those songs and maybe redone anthology albums.