Beatles Anthology

Back in the late 70s, when John wasn’t recording regularly, he’d still make music. With his trusty boombox, he’d record bits and pieces of song ideas he might use later. Then in 1980, he decided to make a full album again, which turned out to be “Double Fantasy.” Other songs were recorded at the same time but deemed not good enough for that album, and so were never finished. They later were finished by other musicians and released on John’s posthumous album “Milk and Honey.”

In the 90s, the three remaining Beatles were organizing a series of three collections known as the “Anthology” series. Yoko gave Paul some of the tapes John had made during the 70s, and with better technology, they were able take John’s voice and add new instruments and vocals to make the songs “Free as a Bird” and “Real Love,” which were placed on the first and second Anthologies respectively.

However, the third one, “Now and Then,” was just not good enough sound-wise to complete. John’s voice was overshadowed by the piano and other noises. George called it “rubbish” (although it’s not clear whether he meant the recording or the song itself) and so it was never completed.

Fast forward thirty years or so, and technology has improved. Peter Jackson’s company created a process by which a specific sound can be identified by the computer and isolated from all the sounds around it. This was used extensively in the “Get Back” movie he produced and directed. (Despite headlines saying “The Beatles used AI,” it’s really no more AI than any other sound-reducing technology that has been around for years — it’s just better at it.)

Anyway, with John’s voice now clear, Paul and Ringo worked to complete the song, using clips of George’s guitar playing and previous harmonies. And so we finally get “Now and Then.” It sounds great.

But… is it a great song?

Well, that’s the problem. We Beatles fans are thrilled to hear this, but honestly, the song underneath isn’t that great of a song. It’s certainly not up to Beatles standards.

But that’s understandable.

I’ve been in bands and written hundreds of songs, and I’ve written novels and short stories, and there’s one thing I can guarantee: the first drafts suck. You take your first ideas, throw them together, and then work at it until it’s what you want.

And these three songs of John’s were first drafts. They were all recorded prior to his last album and obviously, he didn’t think they were good enough to use on that album. The lyrics are rather pedestrian (especially for John) and while they’re still better than many songwriters could do (Come on, it’s John Lennon), they could have used work — because they were first drafts.

In the bands I have been in, I would take my new songs to the group and we’d work on them. If you have really good fellow musicians who also write songs, they will give suggestions on how to improve the song. Despite one person being the songwriter, making music like that is a group project, and I can’t think of a single example of a song I wrote that wasn’t improved by practicing with the other musicians.

And that’s true for the Beatles as well, as any Beatles scholar will tell you. Recordings of early versions of their songs and the final versions show how much the songs changed and improved thanks to the musicianship and suggestions of their fellows.

And, of course, with neither John nor George here to make those suggestions, there was only so much Paul and Ringo could do with that original recording of “Now and Then.”

Some people are using that to say it really isn’t a “Beatles” song, but I disagree. You don’t need all four together for that. There are many songs in the Beatles catalogue that don’t have all four playing (“I Me Mine,” “Yesterday,” “The Ballad of John and Yoko,” “Blackbird” and so on).

So let’s enjoy this new song while understanding the limitations Paul and Ringo were under. Yeah, it’s not a new classic, but to hear John’s voice clear again sure is wonderful.