Why John Lennon’s ‘Now and Then’ Is Being Released Over 40 Years Later
There are still many unfinished songs from John Lennon that were never released after he died in 1980. However, the other Beatles and early demos were used to finish some songs. Another Lennon song will be released this year, thanks to artificial intelligence that can recreate the “Imagine” singer’s voice.
‘Now and Then’ is being finished by recreating John Lennon’s voice with AI
“Now and Then” is an unfinished John Lennon song first recorded in 1979. While most of the lyrics are complete, the British singer still needed more time to perfect each verse. In the 1990s, it was considered as one of the three singles released by the remaining Beatles for their 1995 Anthology project. However, it was shelved, primarily because George Harrison disliked the song.
The Beatles did release “Free as a Bird” and “Real Love” using recorded demos of Lennon that were remixed and polished. “Now and Then” was scrapped primarily because George Harrison disliked the song. Paul McCartney received the audio from Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono. In an interview with Q Magazine, McCartney said it had a “beautiful verse” but still needed a lot of work.
“It didn’t have a very good title, it needed a bit of reworking, but it had a beautiful verse and it had John singing it,” he told Q Magazine. “[But] George didn’t like it. The Beatles being a democracy, we didn’t do it.”
Thanks to new AI technology used in Peter Jackson’s The Beatles: Get Back documentary, “Now and Then” is finally finished and will be released sometime this year. Speaking with BBC Radio 4’s, McCartney explained how Lennon’s lost song is being brought to life over 40 years later.
“He [Jackson] was able to extricate John’s voice from a ropey little bit of cassette,” the “Blackbird” singer shared. “We had John’s voice and a piano and he could separate them with AI. They tell the machine, ‘That’s the voice. This is a guitar. Lose the guitar’.
“So when we came to make what will be the last Beatles’ record, it was a demo that John had [and] we were able to take John’s voice and get it pure through this AI. Then we can mix the record, as you would normally do. So it gives you some sort of leeway.”
AI technology has been creating many fictional recordings of The Beatles
With advancements in AI, people have been experimenting with recreating people’s voices. This includes taking the voices of classic rock legends and having them sing a cover of a famous song. For example, an AI version of The Beatles’ singing The Beach Boys’ “God Only Knows” went viral earlier this year. John Lennon’s “Now and Then” is just the latest example of this trend, even though it is being used to finish an actual song.
On the topic of AI, McCartney has some concerns over it but is excited to see how it will impact the future of music.
“I’m not on the internet that much [but] people will say to me, ‘Oh, yeah, there’s a track where John’s singing one of my songs’, and it’s just AI, you know?” McCartney said. “It’s kind of scary but exciting because it’s the future. We’ll just have to see where that leads.”
