You may have already seen or heard the well-deserved hype around the release of “Now And Then” which is the last song from The Beatles. The genesis of the song is that its from some simple home demos that John Lennon made in the 70’s. Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr worked on it in the 90’s in the same sessions with Jeff Lynne that spawned finished songs from other home demos John made - “Free As A Bird” and “Real Love.” Due to the rough quality of the demo and the limitations of 90’s recording technology, they never could finish “Now And Then.”
Now, thanks to Peter Jackon’s work on the amazing movie Get Back,and 21st century technology, Paul and Ringo could finish the song, adding a new bass line, additional guitar, drums and strings. For all the details on how the song came together, give yourself 12 minutes to watch a short documentary on the song.
The results are amazing,taking that beautiful and somewhat sad-sounding melody from John and making an amazing new song. Its sounds incredible, too - very modern, but classic, too. I’m not a fan of the production of those 90’s Beatles songs - they sound dated now of that era, like Lynne’s other productions from then - namely Tom Petty and Traveling Wilburys.