How The Beatles made their new song Now and Then

The Beatles just released a new song called Now and Then. But how?

The iconic English rock band, of course, broke up in 1970. Then John Lennon died in 1980, and so did George Harrison in 2001. Only two members of the band remain: Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. 

But thanks to the magic of artificial intelligence technology, Paul and Ringo were able to transform an old John Lennon demo into a new Beatles song.

All four members play on it, making it a true Beatles song — and likely the last.

Commotion's resident Fab Four-ologists Paul Myers and Maura Johnston join host Elamin Abdelmahmoud to talk about how modern technology is helping to introduce The Beatles to a new generation.

We've included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For the full discussion, listen and follow the Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud podcast, on your favourite podcast player.

LISTEN | Today's episode on YouTube:

Elamin: Paul, you're both hearing this song for the first time this morning, but you were already familiar with the original demo track that John Lennon did. What do you think of what Paul and Ringo did to it? 

Paul: Well, it's miraculous what they did to it. It's something that could only be done this year or maybe last year, and it has a lot to do with Peter Jackson. His team came up with the technology with machine assisted learning, which is called MAL — which is very ironic for Beatles fans because Mal Evans was The Beatles' trusting road crew manager back in the Get Back film. You see him all the time, and it sounds a lot like HAL 9000. So it's kind of an amazing thing that, thanks to MAL doing the heavy lifting, once again we have a new Beatles track. I think it's amazing what they did in terms of adding the strings. It's not minimal, but surprisingly, they didn't go way over the top in the way that maybe Jeff Lynne might have; Jeff Lynne this time is not involved in the final mix. So it's kind of neat.

LISTEN | The Beatles' new song, Now and Then: 

Elamin: Something that sticks out to me in that song is right at the beginning, you hear Paul kind of count us in — but he's counting John in. That feels like a bit of a surreal moment. What sticks out for you? 

Maura: Yeah, the wistfulness of it, which I think is appropriate given the occasion. The refrain, "Now and then I miss you, now and then I want you to return to me," it has this bitter sweetness about it and it kind of speaks to the knowledge that a chapter is closing. And also, it's always just a treat to hear Paul McCartney's bass line kind of peeking out of the mix as well. His bass lines are just so creative and great. 

Elamin: We should say that the release of Now and Then was also accompanied by a short film directed by Oliver Murray about the song's creation. Paul, this song has had this long journey to the finish line. You alluded to some of it earlier, but can you just give us the lowdown on this song's history, why it's taken all the way to 2023 to surface? 

WATCH | The Beatles short film on the creation of Now And Then:

Paul: Free as a Bird and Real Love both became very popular hits. They divided some Beatles fans, but the thing about the third song was there was the piano and voice that was done in The Dakota, which is John's apartment in New York, and it had the piano so loud on the track. They mentioned this in the documentary as well, that they really couldn't extract a clean lead vocal in the '90s. But, this time they could do it, and you hear that in that documentary, which I highly recommend. There's a moment where they just play the clean John Lennon version of his voice and it is stunning. I think a lot of hardcore Beatles fans wept when they heard that because it's just like a séance, really.

You can listen to the full discussion from today's show on CBC Listen or on our podcast, Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud, available wherever you get your podcasts, or on Youtube.

Panel produced by Stuart Berman.