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“New” Beatles Release

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The countdown is on to an announcement tomorrow, widely expected to be some sort of reboot of the red and blue albums, probably with additional tracks and the “new” song Now and Then. Lennon’s demo that was attempted by The Threatles in the 90s but not finally finished until last year.

Can’t say I am massively excited by this if it turns out the way that is expected.

https://www.thebeatles.com/

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Comments

  1. I was hoping for an Anthology 4, makes more sense if one considers the background of the new song.

    What is it about the appeal of the Red and Blue Albums?
    You’d have thought anyone who paid £33 (that’s ‘£33’) each (that’s ‘each’) for them in 1993, would never want to be reminded of either ever again.

    • The Blue is superb from beginning to end and if this reboot includes a remix of Hey Jude, Revolution and Old Brown Shoe, I’m in.

      The Red is too short. Plenty of room for This Boy and more Revolver.

  2. The Red and Blue comps are good albums. But I won’t be indulging in the latest reboot – I’m happy enough with my old vinyl copies (that’s “old vinyl copies”).

    • So you won’t be buying that John Prine mega box Steve, good to here. I can’t wait to get the new album by Hydra Snort the new folk/metal/jazz combo from East Kilbride. Beats that Yank bird who’s muse has left her and she has to rerecord all her old stuff. When we meet up in Wah Wah’s on Saturday* I’ll also be getting the new album by that drone/classical/industrial fusion 17 piece Jackhammer Conglomerate, new musak ya can’t beat it.

      • @Baron-Harkonnen Don’t know about a John Prine mega box set if such a thing exists
        but no I doubt whether I would buy it if it did. I have two of his box set compilations already and most of his solo stuff so not sure what more I would need. Which is kind of the point I was making – I have all of the Beatles studio albums – I don’t really need anything else. Haven’t got the time yet to play everything i have bought in last 6 months.
        That Jackhammer conglomerate are far too noisy for me.

        • J.C. played a local Tory Club the roof caved in, sounded better than the band. 😂😎🤣

          I really don’t know what you’re going on about re: reissues/remasters if you’re not interested fine. No need to turn into the Forum NIMBY.

  4. It will be interesting to see what the content and price is….would need to be something special to entice me to buy them again. Not particularly excited by the new song so hopefully that’s not the main selling point.

    • Indeed, I have red and blue on vinyl (originals) and CD (the 90s ones). I also have the 1+ box set that includes 1 on CD (remixed), plus 2 Blu-rays of promo films etc. (in 5.1) . Can’t imagine this will be for me, might pick up Now and Then if released on a vinyl or CD single. Am expecting some super duper version with probably mixed formats and (yet another) massive book.

        • Correct, with the same tracks but a different order on CD & LP. The CDs are in chronological order. LPs 1&2 in each set the same tracks (some having different remasters) as the originals. LP3 a mixed bag with Now &Then track 1, side 5. It would have been too expensive to redo the LPs in chronological order but not the CDs.

  6. A big Super De Luxe box set compilation would be preferable to just remixing the Red and Blue. The Red ignored any covers, which were so important in the early years, and the missing Revolver cuts are famously missing. The Blue is OK…but has some odd inclusions like Old Brown Shoe, Ob Li Di Ob La Da and Octopus’s Garden.

    Something along the lines of the World Record Club Beatles Box would be great….

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beatles_Box

    • I had that. Bought it second hand for a Tenner in an Edinburgh record shop around 1990. I was a student and couldn’t afford spending that money on an album, but it was an instant Beatles record collection.

      What was interesting about it was that, if you were new to the group, you were approaching the music without being influenced by the famous cover artwork. Like listening to them on C90s made by a friend.

      • I bought it on eBay a while back and then sold it same way. It’s interesting, some rare mixes on there. Track selection not bad, but bizarrely they seemed to be unaware White album was a double, no tracks from sides 3 or 4 included

  7. According to the Hoffman forum this is the track listing:-

    1962-1966
    1. Love Me Do
    2. Please Please Me
    3. I Saw Her Standing There
    4. Twist and Shout
    5. From Me to You
    6. She Loves You
    7. I Want to Hold Your Hand
    8. This Boy
    9. All My Loving
    10. Roll Over Beethoven
    11. You Really Got a Hold on Me
    12. Can’t Buy Me Love
    13. You Can’t Do That
    14. A Hard Day’s Night
    15. And I Love Her
    16. Eight Days a Week
    17. I Feel Fine
    18. Ticket to Ride
    19. Yesterday

    1. Help!
    2. You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away
    3. We Can Work It Out
    4. Day Tripper
    5. Drive My Car
    6. Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)
    7. Nowhere Man
    8. Michelle
    9. In My Life
    10. If I Needed Someone
    11. Girl
    12. Paperback Writer
    13. Eleanor Rigby
    14. Yellow Submarine
    15. Taxman
    16. Got to Get You into My Life
    17. I’m Only Sleeping
    18. Here, There and Everywhere
    19. Tomorrow Never Knows

    1967-1970
    1. Strawberry Fields Forever
    2. Penny Lane
    3. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
    4. With a Little Help From My Friends
    5. Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds
    6. Within You, Without You
    7. A Day in the Life
    8. All You Need Is Love
    9. I Am the Walrus
    10. Hello, Goodbye
    11. The Fool on the Hill
    12. Magical Mystery Tour
    13. Lady Madonna
    14. Hey Jude
    15. Revolution

    1. Back in the U.S.S.R.
    2. Dear Prudence
    3. While My Guitar Gently Weeps
    4. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
    5. Glass Onion
    6. Blackbird
    7. Hey Bulldog
    8. Get Back
    9. Don’t Let Me Down
    10. The Ballad of John and Yoko
    11. Old Brown Shoe
    12. Here Comes the Sun
    13. Come Together
    14. Something
    15. Octopus’s Garden
    16. Oh! Darling
    17. I Want You (She’s So Heavy)
    18. Let It Be
    19. Across the Universe
    20. I Me Mine
    21. The Long and Winding Road
    22. Now and Then

        • Na, I take it back you’re turning into Harry Potter, you know who I mean by that.

          ‘Money grabbing b@st@rds’ you’re damn right but how can you have the nerve to say it when you work in a record store that charges 35% more than any other UK record store for the same item?

          Can’t wait for Saturday 🍺😂🍺🤣🍺

    • Hm, nothing really to tempt me there, and I say that as a total Beatle obsessive.

      Maybe if I could get the Dolby Atmos mixes for under £30 I might be tempted, but as usual for the Beatles these days it just seems to be various quite expensive boutique sets.

      I’ll be interested to hear Now and Then, but I can’t see myself even buying that.

  9. Further to @noisecandy’s post above…..

    This is from the Daily Beatle.

    2CD Red Album
    2CD Blue Album
    3LP Red Album
    3LP Blue Album
    6xLP Red/Blue in Box

    Now and Then 12″
    Now and Then 7″
    Now and Then 7″ (Blue Vinyl)

    According to another source, the “Now And Then” single will be released November 3, 2023 on four different 7” singles, 10” single (so not 12” – remember Ringo’s latest EP’s as well as The Rolling Stones’ “Angry” were in the 10” format) and cassette single. Digital, too. No CD for the single. The last Beatles song will be paired with the first – “Love Me Do” is the b-side. Release date for the albums is November 10, 2023. The new red and blue albums will each be 2 CDs and 3LPs, so finally value for money on the CD’s, something fans have complained about in earlier incarnations. 30 of the 38 songs were remixed by Giles Martin. The blue album will add 9 new songs including “Now And Then”. 7 songs were given the Jackson/Martin treatment (Presumably MAL-related instrument and vocal separation). The CDs will arrange all the songs in chronological order, whereas the LPs will have the additional songs on LP 3.

    • Seems to be a tenner on other Amazon sites which is the going rate these days (at least on Record Store Day). Having said that I won’t buy it I may get the blue vinyl if I see a reasonable price, could go under the tree for my daughter in 2 months time.

  14. I’m very interested in hearing the remixes. All of red is newly remixed, barring the Revolver tracks. The Mystery Tour and stray singles tracks are newly remixed for blue. The price is actually okay, I think.

  15. Hey, look. The Beatles were the best band ever and I absolutely love everything they did (except for possibly Blue Jay Way- which is a dirge of Jupiterian proportions) but if this song was any good it would surely have been on Anthology? Is it worse than ‘Real Love’? Crikey. It must be then. Lennon lost his way big time after the split. After the visceral scream of his Plastic Ono Band debut he only managed a handful of decent tunes whilst George- and Macca more spectacularly- churned out a string of hits. The red and blue albums introduced me to the Fabs all those years ago but I’ve since bought the albums and singles they originally appeared on so I won’t be shelling out for this new compilation. Macca is probably gutted. But there we are.

    • Think George wasn’t too keen, possibly not because the song was worse than the others, but more likely he couldn’t stand to be bossed around by Macca any more so it wasn’t finished.

      Every single released by Lennon charted in the UK, nothing matches his first 2 proper solo albums but Walls and Bridges is fine and Mind Games has its moments including the superb title track. Double Fantasy has 2 or 3 good efforts too.

      • Charted lowly in many instances. And I would disagree about Mind Games and Walls and Bridges. Both pretty weak albums. And, whilst we were all caught up in the understandable grief surrounding Lennon’s tragic death, ‘Double Fantasy’ has not proved to be memorable. As far as solo Beatledom is concerned I would argue strongly that Macca owned it. And continues to do it. ‘Egypt Station’ was superb I thought.

        • Well its just opinions. I didn’t say Mind Games was a top album, it’s ok. Maybe as good as Red Rose Speedway. Macca was all over the place too at that time. I think Walls and Bridges is great, contains a US no. 1 single (which I don’t love), and as I said 2 or 3 things are good on DF, and it’s only half a Lennon album anyway. McCartney II also has 2 or 3 good songs.

          I probably would rate Macca’s solo career higher, but he’s had 40 more years of one

        • ‘Real Love’ is kind of okay but this is the Beatles we’re talking about here. ‘Okay’ just ain’t good enough for them surely? ‘Real Love’ was a cassette-hissy fragment of a hook blown up like a sad inflatable crocodile in the hope of producing a snatch of forced jollity but which slowly let out air becoming flat and eventually being chucked in the garage.
          As a kid in the early to mid 70s I saw Help on TV and John became my favourite Beatle. Naively, I sensed he probably needed my help because his records weren’t becoming hits and so I was probably the only person in Britain to buy ‘Whatever Gets You Thru The Night’ (which had to be ordered specially as no one in Bangor stocked anything outside the Top 50) in the daft hope that it would provide a sufficient spike in sales to get my here onto TOTP. It didn’t of course. Even as a besotted fan I knew, deep down, that the song was a half-assed piece of pseudo funk played far too fast and with a messy, squealy backing band. My order from Richards Radio in Bangor got it up to number 36. After that, Lennon couldn’t buy a hit in the UK until Double Fantasy- and, sadly, the reason for the spate of chart toppers was his tragic demise.
          I have to admit that, whilst originally very much in the John camp, I have gradually realised that the true genius of the Beatles was McCartney. Without him I suspect that Lennon would have just lazed about in Weybridge getting fatter and spouting out his half-baked and humourless late 60s bollocks. George would have vanished in a sulky, mystical haze and Ringo would have designed furniture.
          Macca was the driving force behind the band. Probably an unbearable control freak but, without him, we wouldn’t have had Pepper, the best tunes on the White Album or Abbey Road. (Okay, let’s draw a veil over Magical Mystery Tour…)
          I only wish now he could take his own advice regarding his musical legacy and let it be. I fear that this constant repackaging of past glories and the concomitant scraping of the barrel for new(ish) bait will only work to undermine that glorious oeuvre.

  16. The track listing on the Red just adds weight to the argument that Allen Klein really din’t rate Revolver.
    Like many others, it was The Movie Medley in 1982 and then the Red and Blue albums that was my gateway.
    Although in a strange coincidence with Klein, Revolver was the last one I bought.
    (damn my idiocy!)
    Not sure I need the new set for one track (and I haven’t heard it yet) but does it add to the legend?

  18. If it came down in price to under £50, I’d seriously consider buying the 3-LP 67-70 set, but only because I’ve been getting back into vinyl big time these last two years.

    As there are no Atmos versions (presumably being saved up for one last lucrative gouging of gullible fans) and I have a full set of 2009 reissues, not really bothered about the umpteenth set of remixes/remasters

  19. The Beatles’ industry has badly lost its way in recent years.

    I’m going to pore over the Ace back catalogue and treat myself to five CDs for Christmas… a rare soul label’s offerings, ditto for rockabilly, one of those Spanish or Italian Girls comps maybe, Surf…

    A better option than 80 songs I own, and a demo from the late 1970s (yikes) by John Lennon.
    Happy Xmas!

    • I have a high degree of sympathy with this view, DD – especially since it’s the Ace catalogue under consideration. How many times are we supposed to buy the stuff we already own? You might even have enough left over for a box of mince pies!

      • Yep. I understand the ‘you don’t have to buy it’ line, but the marketing policy of so many releases now is to make said release as exclusive and expensive as possible.

        Two things.
        1. This group sold 2,000,000 copies of Can’t Buy Me Love in the U.K. alone, Prince Charles’s 45, in the highly unlikely event Prince Charles ever had the wit to own it, would have been exactly the same as Charlie the Welder’s 45, and…
        2. Have they seen the state of the country in 2023?

        In 1995 and 1996, I saw Free As A Bird and Real Love almost as necessary evils, something for the tabloids to get in a frenzy about, but more importantly a gateway to a long TV series, available to all on terrestrial TV, and three 2-CD, 2-cassette, 3 L.P. releases (all contemporary formats catered for), at a reasonable price (they were about £20 weren’t they?), and available on every local High Street. I did not complain, what was there to complain about?

        When I dig out Anthology 1, and I do that on a reasonably regular basis, I automatically skip track 1 (Free As A Bird) to get to the proper stuff. That luxury does not apply in this case, there will be no proper stuff to skip to.

        • Both of these expanded, remixed editions are going for £25. Less than the original vinyl at £30 Back in the day.

          Red has always needed an expansion. I think I would have put And Your Bird Can Sing in place of I’m Only Sleeping but, otherwise, that’s a cracking run through their life gigging phase.

          • I take those points.

            But, if one already owns all these tunes in various formats (barring the unreleased track, which is available separately) why would one buy them again? Why not follow DD’s advice and spend the money on something new to you?

            It’s a philosophical point, Tiggs – not getting at you personally…

          • You can’t really go too wrong with Beatles compilations, their standard was so consistent, so high. But these days a playlist does the job for probably north of 90% of listeners and each one can be tailored to his or her preferences. Don’t see much point nowadays in releases such as this. Remixes may be interesting, but it’s the same songs and they can be streamed

            Completists will buy them of course, some have pre-ordered everything, but that’s more a kind of mental disease. Many of these won’t be played at all, or maybe once.

            Having said that the glaring omission for me is It Won’t be Long. Superb top tier early Beatles, probably more worthy a representation of With The Beatles than the You Really Got a Hold on Me cover (which I also think is great)

        • DD, I wasn’t using the “you don’t have to buy it” line. Hard as you may find it to accept, I was agreeing with your post, prima facie! Given the option of spending £40 on the blue and red reissues or spending £40 on selections from the Ace catalogue, I’d go with the Ace tunes, mainly cos I already own the Beatles songs.🙂
          A Merry Christmas indeed!

  21. I guess that next year there’ll be a remixed version of Hard Day’s Night. The box containing a new print of the movie (with the remixes synced) plus a reprint of the original tie-in paperback.

    • This release seems to conclude the big boxes. A lot of Rubber Soul is on red and most of the Mystery Tour LP on blue. I imagine usable outtakes are thin on the cutting room floor. I suspect they’ll simply reissue the albums and Past Masters with up to date re/demixes.

      • I was thinking the same. As someone who likes surround sound it’s a shame they have moved away from physical releases of that type. Judging by the recent sale prices of the Let it Be set (under 40 pounds), that appears to have been a massive flop though (the last one with a Blu-ray)

          • But they will do an Atmos mix anyway and there have been previous surround sound mixes for tracks in the films and the 1+ Blu-ray. Not necessarily great ones but they tried

        • Oof, I had no idea the super deluxe Let it Be had dropped in price so much! I might just buy it at that price. The other super deluxe ones are still either out of stock or crazy prices (or else please tell me if I’m wrong? The price has been my main barrier to buying these).

          • I got Abbey Road for about 25 quid (Amazon Canada), that was an error but was honoured. Have bought all at discounted rates though. Not Revolver yet though, still too expensive, no Blu-ray and basically nearly everything would fit on 2 CDs

            • I’m maybe just not checking the price regularly enough. Each time a new one gets announced, the £100+ (or £200+!) price just makes me tap out immediately. I very nearly pulled the trigger on the White Album, but got cold feet.

              I’m just a skinflint who loves music but thinks it’s overpriced sometimes these days!

  23. Aren’t many of these songs on albums that have already been dissected and revamped to death. Why do we need them redone again in a different order? Or am I missing something? I do like these records in their original form. Many of us discovered this band via these releases and there is affection for them.

    • There is a lot of excitement in Beatle social media naturally. Grown men weeping over coloured vinyl box sets selling out within hours (£160-odd). I went onto Beatles.com the other day when the announcement went live, to smirk at the overpriced nonsensical hoo-ha around the reissue of a greatest hits album and the associated merch tat. Dunno what happened next, but found myself staggering out of the virtual shopping basked a few minutes later around £80 lighter and a coloured vinyl 1967-1970 package and a marble-blue 7″ of “Now and Then” on the way to me.

  25. Now that you’ve all gone out and ordered the albums and the vinyl singles, it turns out that Now and Then b/w Love Me Do (2023 stereo remix) is coming out on CD single for about 5 quid.

    • Triffic… now all we need is a record shop!!!

      Seriously though, if I find myself in a town (and I plan to soon), that has a record shop, that still stocks CDs, that still singles, that’s ‘CD singles’, I might get it.

    • That was a weird one. Why delay the CD single announcement..? The cynic in me says it was to maximise vinyl sales, but you would think it would increase preorders. A late change of plan?

        • I’ll join the cynic club as well, thanks. Wait a few days and let all the procrastinators shell out for overpriced copies in the fear of missing out on getting a physical copy, then announce a cheaper physical copy they could have just made available in the first place.

          These kinds of practices make me angry.

  26. Radio 2 have just played the ‘new’ release. Good luck to them, but I’m not keen. It sounds like half an idea of a song; it’s someone noodling on a piano, fleshed out for no particular reason (other than cash).

  27. So who just listened? On one hearing I thought it was very nice. Like all these post 90s singles though it sounds a but like a 1980 Lennon solo track with embellishments from the rest of the Beatles (which is what it is). However technology has improved and his vocal sounded pretty good.

  28. Had a listen now. Oof, they’ve messed that up I think.

    Listening to the original Lennon piano demo beforehand, I wondered how they were going to hone it into a “song” as it wanders all over the place and has a load of strange chord sequences as if he is trying to feel his way into a tune.

    In hindsight, hearing what they’ve now done with it, the weirdness and messiness of the original demo was the most interesting thing about it! They’ve just blanded it out a bit and focused on the couple of bits that sound like a verse-chorus-verse, and totally got rid of all the interesting chords and key changes.

    The original demo also had a fragility that was maybe reminiscent of Julia or Love or something like that (which is being kind, frankly). I can’t hear anything fragile or beautiful about the stomping, unimaginative blob of massed guitars, drums and strings they’ve plastered over it now.

    Sorry, but it’s a thumbs down from me!

    It’s …. kind of naggingly catchy but ultimately inoffensive. You can see why they abandoned it in 1994 when they were doing Free as a Bird and Real Love.

    I’m afraid I’m with George on this one. Should have been left in the vault.

    • Pleasant. But, frankly, if it came down to a final choice between this and ‘Wild Honey Pie’ for inclusion on the White Album then I reckon ‘Wild Honey Pie’ would win every time.

    • I “like” it as well. But the weight of history and expectation has to be taken in to account here, I think. Context is always important. If this was a minor album track from a George Harrison album from the mid-eighties, I might agree it’s “nice” and leave it at that. But “The Last Ever Beatles Song?” – nah, it would have needed to be more special than this.

      For comparison, at the time of Free As A Bird and Real Love, I quite liked them and thought they were “good enough”. This is “nice” but it’s not “good enough”.

      (I don’t know why I care about these things 🙂 I really shouldn’t).

  31. It is a slight song but packs real emotional heft, because of the back story. I suspect it’s a grower.

    It makes me wish they would go back and remove ELO from the previous two. That would probably involve getting Ringo to re-record his drums. He looks in really good health on the making of video. Still, safest to get on with it.

  32. I’m about as far from a Fabs fanboi as you’ll get on this blorum, but even I am a bit bovvered that the kids of today and tomorrow will be picking up The Beatles blue album with this as the last song (and I’m of the opinion that disc two is already carrying more passengers than the current Manchester United team)..

  33. I like it. I couldn’t think what it reminded of, and then ‘voila’ – In The First Place by the Remo Four from Wonderwall! – excellent, and, as George is less prominent than the others, very pleasing. It’ll keep Alexa on her toes in between an otherwise solid diet of 60s soul on the CD player.

    Rather redundant as record shops don’t exist in 2023, obvs., but when did CD singles start having only two songs on them?

      • Yep. It feels quite light. Free As A Bird, not entirely without merit, could have benefitted from being more in this vein.

        I guess it might be construed as disrespectful to Jeff Lynne, who was, after all, in the utterly brilliant Idle Race, but if any Beatles’ songs need a remixing it’s surely Free As A Bird and Real Love, not Penny Lane and Hey Jude.

  35. The main phrase/melody is a real earworm to me – it keeps going round in my head, and that started with the film on the One Show last night – it may have been that wonderful bit of isolated Lennon vocal that was responsible. I like it.

  37. I prefer some of the fan made versions that kept all the sections from the original demo, it feels like they have flattened out some of the quirks and lost some of the ‘Lennon-ness’ as a result.

    Undeniably affecting to hear Lennon and McCartney singing ”Now and then I miss you’. Sadly Paul’s voice is so wobbly with age it almost sounds like someone has put a Leslie effect on his backing vocals.

  38. Just one listen, then straight here!

    I like it. I think they’ve had to make what would have been a bridge into the “chorus”, but that’s Ok. The outro is lovely. They’re definitely better served by the technology this time: John sounds far more present. (I think Paul is singing unison a few times low in the mix). So much better to have Ringo playing freely and naturally; Jeff Lynne found the drum sound he liked early doors and so Free as a Bird/Real Love sounded way too Wilburys to me. Much more space in the drums here.

    I was struck by the fact that I ‘preferred’ the short film from yesterday to the song in isolation. But maybe that’s the point. Given the changing status as the ‘song’ as recorded (and, importantly, *owned*) artifact, is the ‘final song’ better understood in that narrative, filmic, experiential sense, as an event rather than a song. Given that fact that so much Beatle fandom exists as narrative (I think it was Derek Taylor who said that even their names alone are an origin story: John begat Paul who begat George who all begat Ringo) I think it’s OK that Now and Then is a coda or epilogue rather than a record that we file alongside their other singles.

  39. Can I be the first to comment that the remix of Love Me Do sounds terrific..?! The harmonica sounds much more ‘real’ and the vocals more distinct. I have been a voice in the wilderness calling for the early stuff to be remixed and released and this just confirms it.

  42. I really like it. Get Back educated me on how very, very rough demo versions were and how they turned them into polished jewels. This has a lovely feel and Lennon’s simple lyric packs a punch for that reason.

    I love the way it ends as well, just when you think it might fade out – an abrupt turn and the car is parked. My only comment from the cheap seats is that the slight echo effect on Lennon’s voice, which was his trademark in the 70’s, isn’t there. The vocal on Imagine, for example.

  43. Nice touch this morning.

    ‘Alexa, play Now and Then by The Beatles…’
    ‘Hello, this is Paul McCartney, and I never thought I’d be saying this again but here is The Beatles’ new single, Now and Then’.

  45. I have often pondered when these ‘event’ releases happen just how they keep it all under wraps. There must be literally hundreds of people who have some knowledge of what was going on, so why doesn’t it leak out?

  46. My two cents:

    Their promo people did a sterling job of whipping up trade, teasing us with snippets of John Lennon’s isolated voice and McCartney and Peter Jackson talking up how magical the process has been. News coverage has been wall to wall, from the 10 o’clock News to the gutter press, not to forget the blizzard of folk telling us how many ‘sleeps’ there are ‘til we hear this never-to-be-forgotten song for the ages.

    Here’s my problem with this whole thing: It’s all a load of cack.

    The video is heavy on old footage, intercutting it to emphasise that this is a real Beatles song, with all four members involved and something that they could have knocked out arranged in a little circle in Studio 2. But it’s not. This is the song that John Lennon didn’t think was good enough to put out in his lifetime. The song that, when the Threetles had a go at it in 1994 was abandoned due to George Harrison deeming it ‘fucking rubbish’. Another person who is no longer about to raise the issue of quality control is George Martin, who said at the time of Anthology that releasing anything else would be hitting the bottom of the barrel and splintering the wood. Now with those two naysayers departed, we have the unedifying spectacle of Paul pushing through an AI-assisted demo. Yoko’s happy to put another John song out there. Olivia Harrison has been talked round. Ringo goes along with everything. The technological advances are impressive, but worrying. It’s interesting to hear how a ropy demo can be enhanced, coated in backing vocals, impressive string arrangements and generally rolled in glitter. But what’s to stop someone, in ten years, from cobbling together another song with AI-generated everything, creating a new product to keep the Fabs in the shop window of the under-60s? A tidied up ‘Carnival of Light’ with modern beats and a cameo from the latest sprout-faced twentysomething chart-topper?

    The general response to this song has been ridiculous. People writing about listening to Now and Then with tears rolling down their faces. About it being a fitting addition, or full stop, to the Beatles’ canon. Hang on, one thinks, ‘And, in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make’ is as good a sign-off as any band got. But there’s money to be made and a new generation of consumers to bring in.

    It’s what some people wanted, a lot of people now think is wanted, but what nobody actually needs.

      • Totally agree. The Beatles have been in my DNA for the past 35 years and this seems almost an affront to their legacy. You can’t beat “And in the end, the love you make…” as an epitaph. A song Lennon discarded at the demo stage cannot be The Last Proper Beatles Single. if they’d uncovered a demo all the band played on between ’62 and ’70 then maybe. But this is a tepid dirge and a sad pointless postscript

    • The »technological advances« don’t seem so advanced to me. It’s basically what has been done with Buddy Holly or Jim Reeves demo tapes in the sixties – wrap it in loads of stuff and sweetening, and it will sound like a »hit« to those who want it to sound like a hit. If this is all that AI can come up with I’m not worried.

      My partner is currently searching for his old Private Eye Free As A Bird T-Shirt (»Whoever wrote this should be shot«) from 1995.

    • My other half had a succinct review for it (she’s not target audience to be fair): ‘Cheesy’. My own view is what I expected basically: ‘It’s quite nice.’ I’ve listened three times now and will probably leave it there.

    • Aaah! Such glorious acidic cynicism truly is music to my ears. After dissing this yesterday I was having doubts about whether I was being too harsh. But no, you’ve hit the nail on the head and articulated my thoughts about this better than I ever could.

      The future is frightening, if it results in a never ending glut of bland Beatle -y tunes pulling out some old snatches of vocals and abandoned recordings for ‘authenticity’. At some point it will start getting muddy where the real Beatles actually begin and end.

      This isn’t the Beatles, is it? It’s the emperor’s new clothes.

      Thank you for voicing my feelings on this!

      • I for one have been completely duped. Bunged it on Alexa about ten times, might get it on CD if I can find a record shop, will probably get a Mojo or Uncut off the back of it.

        Strewth, if I nip out for a pint and a packet of dry roasted, I’d have equaled the expense.

    • Good stuff Tryp. Be assured before long there will be a box set of it with 24 different mixes and a 2 hours Makin Of movie which people will buy. I only listened to half of it but it was all right. But that counts for a lot of the Beatles catalogue for me, to be honest.

    • I don’t like it! I think it’s shamefully saccharine and the special effects (the old Beatles interacting with their gurning younger selves) are goofy and cheesy. Bah humbug.

      I will say, though, that the restoration of the old footage itself looks stunning, and bodes well if there are going to be HD remasters of things like the Magical Mystery Tour film.

        • I wouldn’t have done it all but it’s clearly not for me. If that crappy cut and paste video montage is state of the art then the art needs to be refined much further before it is made public. I’m unlikely ever to see or hear this again so it really makes no odds to me, but it’s just not very good.

  48. I think the reaction to this is broadly generational..? I’m first generation, so through my teens there was a new Beatle record every 6 months or so – so this means a whole lot more to me than to those that came to the band later on and who judge it just on its musical merits. No, it isn’t the greatest record ever made, but I like it a lot and the music video and the little film evoke very strong emotions and memories for me. Laugh all you like about people getting emotional, but this means a lot to some people.

    • Possibly… I was born in 1973 so not a first gen fan. I got into them about 1990 and I quite liked Free As A Bird and the Anthology in ’95. I thought the Free As a Bird video was really well done, and full of nice details.

      So I’m not quite sure where I fit in your generational divide. It just feels like too much time has passed since Anthology and it’s like reheating a 30 year old souffle. I think my sentimentality has run out.

      But even just objectively… I think Free As A Bird was pretty good. I think Real Love was good enough. And I don’t think this new one is good enough.

    • My mum bought me She Loves You when it came out so I am first generation too, but I’m unmoved, not because I don’t like them but I just don’t think it’s that great. But I’m delighted others get so much pleasure from it.

  49. I didn’t like the recording of Free As A Bird when I first heard it but I heard a tall singer-songwriter play it live and it really took off (no pun intended).

    So although I’m a bit underwhelmed by this one, so far, I’ll give it six months and see if it sticks.

    P.S. A pedant writes: it isn’t AI, it is Machine Assisted Learning.

  50. I like it. Its a very minor Lennon/Beatles track – and the whole thing including the arrangements sounds more like a Lennon solo track than a Beatles track – that would sit well enough on Mind Games or Walls and Bridges. It doesn’t add anything to the Beatles’ place in the pantheon, but it doesnt do any harm. It’s nice, and soppy old fool that I am, I found the video moving.

    Won’t be buying the expanded Red and Blue, though.

  51. Maybe I’m not paying enough attention to the music, but seeing those shots of McCartney with his fancy grey stubble in the video I think he could be running for Sexiest Grandpa Alive (©)…

  52. Life long Beatles fan here.

    The band ended over 50 years ago as we all are aware.

    I enjoyed and was happy to hear outtakes etc when the Anthologies were released and of course the TV series.

    I’ve been even happier with the SDE’s and their content although Apple have pulled some fast ones with ‘Let It Be’ and ‘Revolver’ but in 1995 who’d have thought we’d get the riches we have.

    I was never really a fan at the time of ‘Free As A Bird’ even less so of ‘Real Love’, having Jeff Lynne as a producer was a mistake. Although the songs did grow on me but are they really Beatles songs IMHO no.

    So I wasn’t really looking forward to ‘Now And Then’ but hearing what they did with John’s voice I find astonishing. The song? It’s a grower and I do like it but as someone said it belongs on the ‘Mind Games’ album. So is it a Beatles song IMHO no.

    OK, the video. I love it, to me it’s very happy/sad and I reckon Peter Jackson has done a fine job.

  53. The song’s okay and the video’s a bit contrived but rather lovely too. A bit like that last Python show, where they very firmly dropped the curtain on the whole thing, except in this case you know that someone’s going to carry on exploiting the Beatles’ catalogue for the rest of forever.

    My question is; is it safe to unmute the Nothing is Real Facebook group yet? It was knee-deep in fanjizz a week ago when I turned it off and I’m worried there must have been drownings by now.

  56. I really like it.

    I’ve never been a great fan of the Fabs simply because they were so ubiquitous and I didn’t really get into pop/rock until the early ‘70’s. But I do of course have favourites of theirs and appreciate and respect their huge impact and contribution to popular culture.

    The Beatles themselves evolved musically in their short lifetime and in that vein I can fully accept they would have continued to evolve.

    Who’s to say this us not what they would have become?

    Enjoy it, it’s great.

  58. Still not heard it. Not going out of my way to ignore it, just haven’t got around to doing so.

    Lovely below the line comment in this morning’s Sunday Times saying hearing N&T was like being
    given the chance to have a final chat and a drink with an old friend who you thought you
    would never see again

  59. Yay! MAL & The Beetlemen are number one. So Macca’s got to the top solo, as part of a duo, a trio, a four piece, with the handicap of Jeff Lynne producing (only kidding, Jeff!) and however one categorises this self-tribute act. Thumbs very much 👍👍

  61. I found that Now And Then really grew on me. When I first heard it I put it in the same category as as Real Love and Free As A Bird, pleasant but forgettable, but Now And Then for me really is a grower and it’s got to the point where I really like the song.
    Do I accept it as Beatles canon? At first I thought no way but as I grew to like the song Imfound myself accepting it as a Beatles song. It can’t compare to Strawberry Fields, In My Life or another 50 plus Beatles tunes, how many songs can? It isn’t no shabby, thrown together last hurrah either.

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