Surprise awaits just around the corner in this disconcerting world in which we live and we are already upset by few things. But perhaps this news will make us jump: a new Beatles song in 2023! Let us remember: the group disappeared 53 years ago and two of its four members have already died. But, indeed, John Lennon’s voice is heard there as he plays his white piano installed in the Dakota building: “I know it’s true, it’s all for you. / And if I achieve it it is thanks to you. / And from time to time, if we must start over, we will know for sure that I love you.”
The story of Now and then, which can be heard from 3:00 p.m. (Spanish time) today, Thursday the 2nd, and which Paul McCartney has described as “the Beatles’ final song,” confronts too many shots to be left alone with the 4 minutes and 8 seconds that this type of ballad lasts. Jealous Guy (without wanting to compare: it is only indicative). There is no older school in pop music than that of the Beatles, the most transcendental group in history; and there is no greater ghost for the defenders of rock classicism than high technology embodied by that demon that is upon us called artificial intelligence (AI). Sparks are flying to such an extent that for a few days the abundant press releases about the Liverpool quartet’s new song have erased the mention of AI, something that Paul McCartney did mention in June last when he broke the news on BBC Radio 4. “Paul McCartney says artificial intelligence has enabled a final Beatles song,” the BBC headlined.
Five months later, Now and Then You can already hear it and it will be highly difficult to prove if everything Lennon sings comes from his throat or if some intelligent machine has had to lend a hand. “The voice sounds perfect, it’s very good. I think Lennon is very recognizable. Although sometimes it sounds like his son… But yes, I recognize John’s tone of voice,” says the musician and beatlemaniac Igor Paskual after listening Now and Then. The official statement insists that the technology has not been used to artificially build on Lennon’s voice, but “to preserve the clarity and integrity of the original vocal performance, separating it from the piano.” AI, therefore, to file and clean sounds and not to create. Once this clarity has been achieved, the 2023 grafts arrive: McCartney (Liverpool, 81 years old) has contributed bass and piano and Starr (Liverpool, 83 years old) drums; A guitar belonging to Harrison (who died in 2001) has been recovered and backing vocals have been added. In addition, McCartney has recorded some guitar drawings slide “in the style of George” and Giles Martin, son of the producer and fifth beatle George Martin (died 2016), has written a string arrangement. A meccano of technological surgery that has made purist followers grimace.
Now and Then is a piece from the late seventies, recorded on piano and voice by a thirty-something Lennon in a room in the Dakota building in New York, where Lennon lived. beatle with his partner, Yoko Ono, and where he was murdered (at the door) on December 8, 1980, aged 40, by Mark David Chapman. We are, therefore, facing a theme, in its origin, of Lennon. In the mid-nineties, Paul, Ringo and George asked Yoko Ono if she kept Lennon material in a drawer. Ono offered them three topics that her partner was working on: Free As a BirdReal Love and Now and Them. It was a homemade cassette tape on which John had presumably written: “For Paul.” Theories about this message? That Lennon was thinking about a meeting with his old friend. Just guesses, in any case. The three beatles They worked on them, but they could only save the first two, which they included in the compilations Anthology 1 (Free As a Bird1995) and Anthology 2 (Real Love, nineteen ninety six). The technology of the time could not obtain optimal quality from the tape where it was located. Now and Then. Thanks to tools like artificial intelligence, a new quartet theme has now been sculpted. Paul and Ringo have worked with the same machinery that filmmaker Peter Jackson used in the acclaimed documentary Get Back (2021). “There was John’s voice, clear as crystal. It was exciting. And we all play. “It is a genuine recording by the Beatles in 2023,” McCartney said in a 12-minute mini-documentary where the origin of the song is told. Ringo Starr emphasizes: “It was like John was there, in the studio.” Now and Then will be included, from November 10, in the reissue of the compilation albums Red and Blue, the musical and sentimental guides of many generations. The new song is the hook for the fan to scratch their pockets: there are different formats, but the package complete can exceed 100 euros. You may have already realized that Christmas is coming, and few money-making machines are as well-oiled as the Beatles’.
To the beatlemaniacs curious people are not alien to them Now and Then. The model (demo) Lennon’s original has been feeding the Beatles’ extensive pirate market for years, sometimes with alternative names to those of Now and Themas I Don’t Want to Lose You either TE Echo de menos. You can listen to the song on platforms like YouTube: It lasts five minutes, a little longer than the one now published, and includes some more stanzas. The Beatles’ lawyers must be working overtime these days because the issue appears, disappears and reappears in short periods of time. The musician Luis Prado, a devoted follower of the Beatles, with a solo career and these days on tour with Miguel Ríos, is not convinced by the topic: “I don’t particularly like it. I can’t get it hooked. I understand George Harrison when he discarded her already in the sessions of Anthology and said there was nothing more to scratch. I see more charm in home recording [demo], the truth”.
Other specialists like the new topic. The critic of Rolling Stone, Rob Sheffield, writes: “Listening to John and Paul sing together is intensely powerful. Hits much more emotionally than Free As Bird either Real Love, where John’s voice sounded weak.” Igor Pascual points out: “It seems like a good topic to me. The Beatles are the creators of the modern ballad. I prefer this song to any of Coldplay. A little Lennon is a lot. I think it’s good that he has recovered, because we are very in need of beauty these days. And the way it is done is not the most important thing for me. Thanks to technology we have not lost these melodies. I think we are very afraid of everything that sounds like AI and machines, because it is believed that it dehumanizes music. And it’s not true. There is a human fear of the machine, which is actually a fear of oneself, of not being up to the level of the machine.”
Others are not convinced by the casing. This is the case of Tito Lesende, author of the book Stir. The Beatles album that revolutionized rock: “It’s a great song. The melody has the classic John Lennon cadence and the instrumental part is magnificent, without a doubt. But I want to clarify that this is not the Beatles, no matter how much they repeat it to us, but rather a genetic intervention on a sample of Lennon’s creative DNA.” Lesende adds: “Now and Then It’s a sketch Lennon never intended for the Beatles; he didn’t even finish it, and maybe he never would have published it. Of course, Lennon is not here to exercise his moral right and decide on his song. Neither is Harrison, who worked on that sketch in the 90s and decided that it did not meet the quality standard to be published. With the two critical members deceased, what we hear here is a provisional, non-professional recording of Lennon at 39 years old, combined with the tired voice of Paul McCartney at 80, because time only stops for the dead.
On the side of the living there are no fractures. They have all formed a compact block. Yoko Ono gave the song, McCartney and Ringo wove the grafts and Sean Ono Lennon (John’s son) and Danhi Harrison (George’s son) have given their blessing. In the documentary, Sean even seems to refer to a mystical dream: “It was touching to hear them work together after all the years Dad was away. “It’s the last song my dad, Paul, George and Ringo were able to make together.”
Luis Prado points out a theory, taking into account that the lyrics are about the need for a relationship and missing someone. Although the most logical thing would be to think that the recipient is Yoko…: “I think Paul is convinced that the lyrics are dedicated to him and that is why he has insisted on releasing it. There are several songs by John, one called Yo lo se, which is full of tributes to Paul. And they say that Jealous Guy also. So it’s not a crazy theory, because it’s an issue that John didn’t have resolved: he missed Paul a lot, but at the same time he couldn’t stand him.” Lesende expresses his fear at seeing throughout all these years McCartney’s efforts to always keep the flame of the Beatles alive: “With this song they have already destroyed the warehouse and I have the suspicion, and the fear, that the next thing will be to recreate the deceased from previous patterns of their recordings. In other words, put the four to work beatles in that way and thus create a franchise. That would seem fatal to me.” Would it be worth leaving the Beatles’ legacy alone and not conducting experiments? Luis Prado points out that yes: “Paul is a little obsessed with being the representative of the Beatles on earth. It would be good to say to yourself: ‘Paul, relax now, there is nothing more.’
The reality is that in 2023, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones have released new songs. Although many people under 25 years old are not going to find out…
All the culture that goes with you awaits you here.
Subscribe
Babelia
The literary news analyzed by the best critics in our weekly newsletter
RECEIVE IT
#Beatles #song #artificial #intelligence #history #controversy #listening