The NME recently shared news about new release by one of the biggest bands in history. In a new interview with Paul Mccartney with Radio 4’s Today Programme, the iconic singer-songwriter and bassist claimed that AI technology allowed him to “extricate” John Lennon‘s voice from an old demo track and finish the song.
Sir Paul didn’t specify which track he’s finishing, but it’s likely “Now And Then,” a 1978 Lennon song.
In 1994, Lennon’s widow Yoko Ono sent the Beatles bassist the demo, BBC said. The cassette, named “For Paul,” was made by Lennon soon before his 1980 death.
The remaining members considered releasing the song on their 1995 “Anthology” series.
“Free As A Bird” and “Real Love” were included in Jeff Lynne’s “Anthology” series. The band’s first “new” songs in 25 years were completed in 1995 and 1996.
Due to its extensive work, “Now And Then” was not included. It had a chorus but no verses. “We did the backing track, a rough go that we really didn’t finish,” Lynne told BBC.
McCartney told Q Magazine that the song was left off the compilation CDs because George Harrison disliked it and the original recording had technical concerns.
“It didn’t have a very good title, it needed a bit of reworking, but it had a beautiful verse and John singing it,” he told the publication. George disliked it. The Beatles being a democracy, we didn’t.”
McCartney continued to talk about working on the track again, especially following Peter Jackson’s Get Back documentary when dialogue editor Emile de la Rey employed technology to discern each member’s voice from background noise.
He told Radio 4 that the documentary’s style helped him work on “Now And Then.” “AI separated John’s voice and piano. ‘That’s the voice,’ they tell the machine. A guitar. Lose the guitar
We used John’s demo to make the last Beatles record. Mix the record as usual. It offers you some leeway.”
1966 black-and-white snapshot of The Beatles in New York
Beatles press conference in New York, August 6, 1966. Santi Visalli/Getty
“We just finished it and it’ll be released this year,” he said.
On his last tour, the bassist employed artificial intelligence to “duet” with the late musician. He called the technique “scary”.
“I’m not on the internet much, but people will say, ‘Oh, yeah, there’s a track where John’s singing one of my songs’, and it’s just AI, you know?
The future is scary but wonderful. We’ll see what happens.”
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