|
Post by fernandoamado on Nov 2, 2023 14:28:45 GMT
The funny side is... The official release sounds JUST like a Jeff's production with fan-made strings. Good tune, good production. I can sleep peacefully now... His blueprint is there. And I quote my little sister: 'Is that the new Beatles' song? I though you were listening to ELO!'
|
|
|
Post by helpless on Nov 2, 2023 14:31:38 GMT
Here is a short film that documents how Now and Then finally came to be released:
With an appearance of Jeff.
|
|
|
Post by Chippa on Nov 2, 2023 14:55:22 GMT
Listening to it on some good headphones, and the first thing that hits me is how great John's voice sounds, as compared to the 1994 releases Free As A Bird, and Real Love. Obviously, the technology almost 30 years later is leaps and bounds above what Jeff Lynne had to work with back then.
Overall, I like the song a lot. John's vocals have a certain haunting quality singing that somewhat melancholic melody. It's great to hear George's tasty slide guitar, again, too.
|
|
|
Post by lawrev on Nov 2, 2023 17:06:42 GMT
Well done, all things considered. Love the drum sound.
|
|
|
Post by BSJ on Nov 2, 2023 17:40:47 GMT
If you can't get in, here it is.
It’s not a grand finale. It’s a wistful postscript.
“Now and Then,” released on Thursday, is billed by its label, Apple Corps, as “the last Beatles song.” It’s a lost-love song reconstructed from a piano-and-vocal demo that John Lennon recorded in the late 1970s, well after the Beatles broke up. Yoko Ono brought it and other Lennon demos to the surviving Beatles in 1994.
Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr began building an arrangement around Lennon’s recording in 1995, the year they released another posthumous song, “Free as a Bird,” on the compilation album “Anthology 1,” followed by “Real Love” on “Anthology 2” in 1996. “Now and Then” is also, inevitably, a marketing tool. It’s the previously unreleased material added to the expanded, remixed reissue of “The Beatles 1967-1970,” which arrives on Nov. 10 paired with an expanded, remixed version of “The Beatles 1962-1966.” Those two compilations are better known as the Blue and Red albums.
“Now and Then” was the remaining song the Beatles had worked on together, but McCartney has said that Harrison grew frustrated and dismissed it as “[expletive] rubbish.”
Sound quality was the main problem. Lennon’s voice shared the recorded track with a murky-sounding piano. But in the 2020s, the software that Peter Jackson used to isolate instruments and voices from mono tracks for his 2021 “Get Back” documentary series could also extract and clarify Lennon’s lead vocal. Back in the studio, McCartney and Starr completed “Now and Then” using tracks from 1995, new parts recorded in 2022, a new string-orchestra arrangement and — from the Beatles’ session archives — backing vocals from “Here, There and Everywhere,” “Eleanor Rigby” and “Because”: “oohs” and “ahs” in harmony.
For all the multitrack machinations, it’s Lennon’s open longing that carries “Now and Then.” He sings, “If I make it through, it’s all because of you” to a partner, friend or lover who’s gone away, perhaps forever. “Now and then I want you to be there for me/Always to return to me.”
The melody is plaintive, in a minor key. The multi-decade arrangement starts straightforwardly, with steadfast piano, guitar and drums — hinting at “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” — and then vastly expands with orchestral strings. McCartney, who understands the Beatles’ musical mechanics from deep within, replayed Lennon’s piano parts, and for the bridge he overdubbed a slide-guitar solo like something Harrison might have played. The muscular string arrangement, no doubt deliberately, echoes songs like “I Am the Walrus” and “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.”
The finished track simplifies Lennon’s emotional give-and-take; it edits out his misgivings about himself, where Lennon sang, “I don’t wanna lose you, oh no no no/Abuse you or confuse you, oh no no no.” The concluding vocal of “Now and Then” also feels more optimistic than the tolling chords at the end of Lennon’s demo: “If I make it through, it’s all because of you.”
As in many Beatles songs, “Now and Then” has an unexpected closing flourish: a decisive, syncopated string phrase. And low in the mix, after a final shake of a tambourine, a voice says, “Good one!”
Like the other posthumous Beatles tracks, “Now and Then” leans into nostalgia. Its existence matters more than its quality. For anyone who grew up on or came to love the Beatles, there’s an extra pang in hearing the full band’s last work together, even as a digital assemblage.
In “Free as a Bird” and “Real Love,” Lennon sang about connection. But “Now and Then” copes with separation, one that has now been made final by mortality. The song can’t compare to the music the four Beatles made together in the 1960s. All it can do is remind listeners of a synergy, musical and personal, that’s now lost forever.
Jon Pareles has been The Times’s chief pop music critic since 1988. A musician, he has played in rock bands, jazz groups and classical ensembles. He majored in music at Yale University.
|
|
|
Post by orioles70 on Nov 2, 2023 18:19:10 GMT
I listened to John’s demo (it’s on YouTube) first and had low expectations for the song. With Macca’s production, Ringo’s drums, AI techniques to separate and balance tracks the song comes alive.
Very happy with the end result.
|
|
|
Post by tightrope on Nov 2, 2023 23:22:30 GMT
Well if the remaining Beatles can release that, I suppose Jeff should go ahead and release Beatles Forever. It is a thousand times better song that I've always thought was beneath Jeff. Maybe I was wrong.
|
|
|
Post by vlogdance on Nov 2, 2023 23:52:39 GMT
I like Now and Then much better than Free As A Bird and Real Love.
But couldn't help thinking of this, recorded in 2004:
|
|
|
Post by lawrev on Nov 3, 2023 1:06:25 GMT
Well if the remaining Beatles can release that, I suppose Jeff should go ahead and release Beatles Forever. It is a thousand times better song that I've always thought was beneath Jeff. Maybe I was wrong. YES YES YES! Beatles Forever!
|
|
|
Post by tremblinwilbury on Nov 3, 2023 13:57:38 GMT
The video...
|
|
|
Post by Southernman on Nov 3, 2023 14:37:21 GMT
It's a pretty slight song but rather sweet and I'm glad they did it.
It's a long way from Jeff's Anthology work, but then the technology's moved on massively. Jeff rescued Free As A Bird and Real Love as best as he could with what he had available, but he needed to cover up the obvious flaws with a lot of layers and overdubs. Makes you wonder what he could have done with the new channel separation technology and I find myself wishing they'd have a go at remixing the Anthology singles at some point, it could sound amazing.
So how does the new one compare production-wise to Jeff's efforts?
In my book, soundwise it is light years (sic) ahead of FAAB and RL, but oddly a bit souless compared to them. In nothing else, Jeff knew how to make a Beatles record in his own style, whereas Now and Then, while charming, does sound a bit like the assemblage of parts that it obviously is.
|
|
|
Post by tightrope on Nov 3, 2023 14:46:48 GMT
If this had been released by any other group, it would have been ignored. It's a weak, watered down effort. Sounds like it should be played at a memorial service for the band.
|
|
|
Post by Chippa on Nov 3, 2023 16:31:25 GMT
The video adds a nice emotional touch to the song, and really enhances the effect. I like it.
|
|
|
Post by Timeblue on Nov 3, 2023 18:02:20 GMT
It is slowly growing on me but if this is their last ever song, then it's not a glorious way to do it imo. The video isn't to my liking too, it seems to make John look silly. With the use of AI then couldn't it be possible to make John and George fit in better with Paul and Ringo?
|
|
|
Post by pointofnoreturn on Nov 3, 2023 23:42:54 GMT
The song has sort of a haunting quality to it and I do like it now that I've listened to it a few times. However, of the three "posthumous" songs, Free as a Bird, Real Love, and Now and Then, I prefer Real Love. It has a pretty melody and a catchy chorus, and I think Jeff's production really captured the trademark harmonies very well.
|
|