Being touted as "the final song by The Beatles", "Now and Then" effectively brings an end to the sounds of the Fab Four, the British rock band from Liverpool that helped shift the culture in the '60's and has continued to be highly influential long after they came to an end in 1970. And the story behind the creation of this track is as fascinating as the idea that the Beatles are together for one last time.
It all began when John Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono gave the three surviving members of the group, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, four unfinished demos by Lennon for an anthology project they were working on. After rejecting one track as unsalvageable, they went to work on "Free as a Bird", "Real Love" and "Now and Then". With Jeff Lynne of Electric Light Orchestra, who had worked with Harrison on their side project, The Traveling Wilburys and Harrison's 1987 comeback album, "Cloud Nine", on board to contribute, "Free as a Bird" was completed in 1995 and "Real Love" was released the following year. But work on "Now and Then" ended not long after when Harrison decided there just wasn't enough there on the track and not worthwhile to devote any more time on.
However, McCartney strongly disagreed and wanted to finish "Now and Then". After Harrison's passing in 2001, McCartney no longer had a dissenter in the band to stand in the way, yet the song still proved to be extremely complicated to complete. That changed last year when technology helped overcome some of these obstacles. Filmmaker Peter Jackson's team had developed a way to isolate specific sounds on an audio track in order to clean up a muddied recording. McCartney along with Giles Martin, son of the Beatles' legendary producer, George, went to work arranging the track with Starr's original drums, McCartney providing an accompanying vocal with Lennon and playing all other instruments while merging elements of Lennon's piano and Harrison's rhythm guitar.
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As for the completed song? While it's certainly wonderful to once again have something "new" from this classic band, "Now and Then" simply lacks a vitality that makes this ballad still feel like a work in progress. I certainly understand the attraction that made McCartney want to attempt to finish this song, with a lovely melody and Lennon's wistful lyrics but without the rest of the band available to offer contributions, "Now and Then" continues to leave an impression as a possibility of what could have been. The music video for "Now and Then" reflects the sentiment of the song, featuring the current McCartney and Starr merged seamlessly with past images of Lennon and Harrison and them all together as a band. This final collaboration from one of the world's most popular musical acts is absolutely thrilling in concept yet remains slightly disappointing in execution.
And here are the previous two tracks released by The Beatles:
However, McCartney strongly disagreed and wanted to finish "Now and Then". After Harrison's passing in 2001, McCartney no longer had a dissenter in the band to stand in the way, yet the song still proved to be extremely complicated to complete. That changed last year when technology helped overcome some of these obstacles. Filmmaker Peter Jackson's team had developed a way to isolate specific sounds on an audio track in order to clean up a muddied recording. McCartney along with Giles Martin, son of the Beatles' legendary producer, George, went to work arranging the track with Starr's original drums, McCartney providing an accompanying vocal with Lennon and playing all other instruments while merging elements of Lennon's piano and Harrison's rhythm guitar.
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And here are the previous two tracks released by The Beatles:
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