“Now & Then”

Note: I wrote this entry back when the Beatles “new” song, “Now & Then,” was newly released. Though the day is November ‘23, I’m only getting around to publishing it now (March ‘24). It is a gut reaction to the music, and I have to say in the intervening months my opinion has mellowed slightly. While I still feel that it is a sub-par Beatles song, compared to everything else that passes as music today “Now & Then” is a relative masterpiece.

A remarkable track from the perspective of its creation, “Now and Then” is really a tribute more to Peter Jackson than to the Beatles. Fundamentally, the acclaimed director of “The Lord of the Rings” movies and lately “The Beatles: Get Back” sessions videos, “lifted” a John Lennon vocal track from a cassette recording from 1978 and, through the use of cutting-edged artificial intelligence, was able to fill in the gaps both on Lennon’s vocals and his piano. The result was truly an astonishing musical feat, particularly considering its origin as a John Lennon boombox mixtape of pre-“Double Fantasy” scraps. Peter Jackson gave the world one last Beatles song: “Now and Then.”

The remaining Beatles, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, along with Jackson’s production team and Giles Martin, son of former Beatle producer-extraordinaire George Martin,  also dusted off some George Harrison riffs from the ‘90s “Anthologies” sessions. The song was meant to be a homage to the late Harrison who passed in 2001 from cancer, as well as to John Lennon, who was ignobly murdered in 1980.  Sadly, the song doesn’t even come close to a George Harrison lead—honestly I thought they were played and then dubbed in by Jimmy the Sound Engineer. To call them “riffs” is generous… they are literally a couple of sliding notes that sounded like George was bored before voluntarily scrapping them for better ideas Back in the Day. In other words, they should have either stayed as scraps on the cutting room floor, or else they should have found better George outtakes. Not much of a tribute to George here.

Add to the mix a string section that Paul McCartney arranged with none-other that Giles Martin, son of their legendary producer George Martin. Of course it was flawless—think “Strawberry Fields,” “Yesterday,” or “Eleanor Rigby.” Okay, maybe not that flawless, but arguably the best parts of the new song.

As a Beatles song— “Now and Then,” I’m saddened to say, is not even up to the standards of “Free as a Bird” and “Real Love,” the two songs that were pieced together and released with the Beatles “Anthology” collection beginning in November of 1995. While those two did pale in comparison to the previous “last music” the Beatles wrote and/or released, “Abbey Road” and “Let it Be,” they were still "Beatle-y" enough to have been hotly anticipated and to warrant huge ratings when "Free As a Bird" was released in the Fall of 1995, and "Real Love" the following year. They were still poignant enough to have caused more than a few tears to be shed over the concept of hearing a new Beatles song for the first time in what was then over a twenty-five year gap in new Beatles songs—a generation's worth of years which had hitherto thought to have been permanent.

In all, MEH. Yoko could have kept that cassette hidden and the world wouldn’t have missed out on a thing. "Now and Then" should have been "Was and When," as in "was" good "when" the Beatles were actually the Beatles. And now I’m sad.

© Ray Cattie