“Clear as crystal,” John Lennon’s voice rings out in a new Beatles song released Thursday thanks to artificial intelligence to mixed reception.
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Fifty-three years after the legendary Liverpool group disbanded, “this is probably the last Beatles song and we all play it, it’s a real Beatles recording,” Paul McCartney, 81, said in a short online video recording the making traced by “Now and Then”, a ballad full of melancholy that combines piano, strings and guitar solo.
The title comes from a demo that John Lennon recorded in his New York apartment in the 1970s. After his murder in 1980, his widow Yoko Ono handed over the band, voice and piano, to the other members of the group in 1994.
Due to a lack of techniques capable of extracting John Lennon’s voice in sufficient quality, the piece remained in the crates.
Everything changed with the 2021 documentary series “Get Back,” produced by Peter Jackson.
The director of the Lord of the Rings trilogy had extracted Lennon’s voice from a cassette tape by separating it from the piano using new technology using artificial intelligence.
“In the end we had John’s voice, crystal clear,” explained Paul McCartney.
“John “among us”
Electric and acoustic guitar recordings from 1995 by George Harrison, who died in 2001, were added to the original demo. The song was completed last year in Los Angeles studios and combined Ringo Starr’s drums, piano and Paul McCartney’s bass, as well as vocals from both living Beatles.
“‘Now And Then’ is the final Beatles song, written and sung by John Lennon, developed and engineered by Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, and finally completed by Paul and Ringo more than four decades later,” the presentation summarizes of the piece.
“It was very emotional for all of us. It’s like John is among us,” said Ringo Starr, 83.
The reception was mixed.
According to the Washington Post, the song is “perfectly good,” “which isn’t good enough.”
“Unexpected Pleasure”
The Guardian said it “will never displace ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ or ‘A Day in the Life’ in the hearts of Beatles fans, but it is a better song than ‘Free as a Bird’ or ‘Real Love.’ “
The Telegraph sees it as a “tender but bleak attempt to recapture the magic (…) of the greatest group in pop history reunited beyond death.”
“Now and Then” sounds more like “late Lennon” than a “moment in the Beatles’ career” and is certainly not “the buried gem that fans around the world are hoping for,” the newspaper continues.
Variety hails a “bittersweet” finale to the group’s career that nonetheless represents an “unexpected delight.”
AFP
In April 1970, six months after the release of the album Abbey Road and one month before that of Let It Be, the Beatles announced their separation. The ten-year collaboration between Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr resulted in 14 best-selling albums, nearly a billion records sold and several films.
Despite the death of Lennon in 1980 and Harrison in 2001, “Beatlemania” remains alive around the world and the possibilities offered by artificial intelligence have already inspired attempts by fans to bring them together or the latest works of Paul McCartney to revisit the voice of his youth.
The existence of the model was known and Paul McCartney had made no secret of his desire to give the piece a new life. But he had always stated that the project was not successful due to opposition from George Harrison, who did not like it.
After “Now and Then”, the two compilations red 1962-1966 and blue 1967-1970 will be reissued in an expanded version on November 10th.