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The Beatles

GooseOnTheLoose

GooseOnTheLoose

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"Now And Then", the final "new" Beatles single just had it's worldwide premiere on BBC Radio 6 Music, and has now dropped on music streaming services.

This is the third composition, created from a series of demos recorded on a tape by John Lennon, labelled "For Paul". Yoko Onk gave the tape to McCartney and he, with the remaining Beatles and Jeff Lynne, turned two of the demos into the singles "Free as a Bird" and "Real Love" in 1995. They abandoned work on the third song, however, because of issues with the original tape recording.

Using technology developed for Peter Jackson's docuseries "Get Back", new contributions from Paul McCartney & Ringo, and featuring guitar sessions from George Harrison (recorded for the original 95 sessions), we can finally hear "Now And Then".

Personally I find it haunting, but moving and rather sad. John sounds so distant, ethereal and out there, like he's slipping away. The song makes me feel incredible sorrow that these boys could never play together again, for one last time, that their chance was robbed from them.

What do you think?

 
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Quite like it, picked up the single on vinyl today. Certainly didn't expect to be buying a new beatles song in 2023.

Wonder if they'll go back and remaster Free As A Bird and Real Love with this technology to clean up John's vocals.
 
John_P said:
Quite like it, picked up the single on vinyl today. Certainly didn't expect to be buying a new beatles song in 2023.

Wonder if they'll go back and remaster Free As A Bird and Real Love with this technology to clean up John's vocals.
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I believe Jeff's keen to do this. £8 for a 7" is a bit ouchie on the wallet though.
 
I think the new single is decent. I bought free as a bird and real love when they came out and felt like the 3rd anthology lacked something. This is what was missing.

I like what Paul has done. 60 plus years since he started and he's still looking to be at the top. Not only that, he's still realising that that he was part of something amazing. There seems genuine sadness about what happened between the 4 in the years up to George dying. The court cases, the fallings out.
 
Seems a fairly average song, which might explain why it was not rushed into production. Lennon's voice sounds quite strange, so not sure how much that is the influence of 'AI' or not. Also seems a little strange to turn solo demos into Beatles songs. Would Lennon have wanted that? Who knows. The 1995 songs were interesting, Free as a Bird is OK but Real Love is very good indeed - could sit seamlessly on Sgt. Pepper for me.
 
Tom said:
Seems a fairly average song, which might explain why it was not rushed into production. Lennon's voice sounds quite strange, so not sure how much that is the influence of 'AI' or not. Also seems a little strange to turn solo demos into Beatles songs. Would Lennon have wanted that? Who knows. The 1995 songs were interesting, Free as a Bird is OK but Real Love is very good indeed - could sit seamlessly on Sgt. Pepper for me.
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You've got remember these are only demos. I'm sure John would have contributed more, if he hadn't of been shot And this was suppose to be the third installment of the 1995 songs. They couldn't separate John's voice and the piano which caused an issue. Peter Jackson has managed to do with his technology. George is on the track because he's already recorded parts in 95 before it was canned. I'm guessing it would have opened the 3rd anthology cd. As free as a bird and real love did with the other two.
 
It lost meaning as soon as it started to take into account how many times a song had been streamed online and stuff like that. Unless you like something enough to get off your bum and travel somewhere and spend your actual money then I can't be convinced that you actually like something enough to have given it a credit towards its place in the charts. I'm just an old miserable git though, so there is that.
 
BarryZola said:
It lost meaning as soon as it started to take into account how many times a song had been streamed online and stuff like that. Unless you like something enough to get off your bum and travel somewhere and spend your actual money then I can't be convinced that you actually like something enough to have given it a credit towards its place in the charts. I'm just an old miserable git though, so there is that.
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100 streams from a paid UK streaming account count as one sale.

600 as funded free streams, from a UK account, also count as a sale.

Purchase of a single download, Vinyl or CD etc, still count as a sale (obviously).

After 3 consecutive weeks of decline a stream to sale ratio of 200:1 kicks in. A decline is defined as a negative week on week variance of combined audio and video streams and which is below the combined streaming market rate of change week on week.

This means paid for listeners have to listen 200 times to get a sale, while free ones need to listen 1200 times.

The ACR also kicks in after a single has been released for 10 weeks. This is to try and keep evergreen songs out of the charts and benefit new releases. Let's see how well this works in a few weeks time though, as we ramp up for the Christmas Number 1.
 
I remember back in mid 90s when free as a bird and real love came out, there was a big thing about beating Elvis record of number 1s which they got nowhere near. Purely because the singles chart ment something back then.

I've just checked. Free as a bird was released 4/12/1995 and was beaten to number 1 by Earth song Micheal jackson. Real love was beaten by take that's how deep is your love. Two established acts of the time. No matter how you look at them personally. (Around those two realises Robson and Jerome were smashing the charts, imagine being beaten by them.)

The anthology was a mini rebirth for them. Made them cool again, alot looking down on them during the late 70s and 80s. This and britpop saved them in a way I reckon.
 
GooseOnTheLoose said:
Paul's released a podcast series, produced by Pushkin, as a companion to his Life in Lyrics book. It's rather good!

McCartney: A Life in Lyrics - Paul McCartney Podcast - Pushkin

McCartney: A Life in Lyrics is a combination master class, memoir, and improvised journey with one of the most beloved figures in popular music. Hosted by Paul McCartney and Paul Muldoon.
www.pushkin.fm www.pushkin.fm
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Really enjoying this series. My dad got me the book so I really need to dip into it.

Lovely bit of interests collide in the latest episode as he discusses trips to Blackpool and the laughing man at the Pleasure Beach.
 
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