PS 199-1 Reflection – The New Beatles Song “Now and Then”
Since the new Beatles song was released on November 2nd, the world seems to be talking about nothing else.
‘Now and Then’, the new Beatles song that nobody was expecting, is the result of an important arrangement
work by Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison on an old demo recorded by John Lennon on the
piano in the later 70s. The demo was recorded by John Lennon on a cassette with "For Paul" written on it, and
many believe that this was one of the first steps towards a possible reunion of the band. Then, that tape was
delivered by Yoko Ono to McCartney in 1994, but at the time the band gave up working on the track because it
was impossible to isolate Lennon’s voice from the bass melody of the piano. After all these years of working
and incubation, in 2022, thanks to artificial intelligence it was possible to extract cleaned voices, guitars and
pianos, and McCartney and Starr decided to go back into the studio and record Now and Then. Many have
defined the song as a sort of "artificial resurrection" given that AI is involved. As we can all imagine, Lennon's
voice is not generated by artificial intelligence but thanks to technology it was possible to separate the melody
from the piano: in this way it was possible to overdub the instrumental arrangement and mix other sounds.
In order to understand if the Beatles’ new song can be defined ‘creative’, I think we should start considering
how original and novel it might be, by dividing the lyrics from the musical base.
The lyrics of Now and Then allude to the end of a strong love story and to the remaining hope for the recovery
of this difficult relationship. It is likely that the text is autobiographical, even though in reality the song remains
shrouded in mystery (and this is also what makes it intriguing), because the sources of the information are not
direct. In a recent interview, producer Giles Martin, the non-Beatle closest to the song's creation, was more
eloquent than Paul himself: «I have the impression that Now and Then is a love letter to Paul written by John,”
he said. “And I have a feeling that's why Paul was so determined to finish it.”
If we focus more on the creative aspect, I strongly believe that the music is way more novel and original than
the lyrics. When John says, “Now and then, I miss you” and “Now and then, I need you to be there for me,” he
seems to be using the classic Beatles language to let yourself indulge in a little tenderness, without letting
yourself be overwhelmed by emotion, but nothing special or innovative that makes the song different from
many others love songs. Although, what we can really call original, is the use of AI for extrapolating the piano
base and make Lennon’s voice sound clear. In addition to that, Now And Then contains the electric and
acoustic guitar recorded in 1995 by George, a new drum part by Ringo and Paul's bass, guitar and piano, which
matches John's original playing, and that make the song sound more original and different even from the
others slow love ballads.
Even though some people may think that is very risky for McCartney and Starr to produce a song without the
physical presence and contemporaneous contribution of the other two Beatles, I believe that the final and last
return of the most famous band in the music history can’t fail to achieve a worldwide success. The fact that
their fans used to say: ‘Whatever the Beatles are going to do, will always be good’, can help us understand that
the notoriety of band guarantee that their fans won’t ever be disappointed with their work, especially because
in this song we can hear John Lennon’s voice and George Harrison’s solo guitar as if they are still alive. By
evocating the emotional bond between the Beatles fans and the two dead band members, McCartney and
Starr ensured the success of this new song, that thanks to its simple melody and efficacy in receiving the
message can reach any kind of audience.
Usually, people are skeptical towards everything that is created by an artificial intelligence, mostly because
they are afraid that one day human beings will stop acting and thinking for themselves because there will be
machines that will already do everything for them. Apart from this dystopian vision of the future, which in my
opinion is a little too imaginative, I feel confident in saying that AI does not kill human creativity, but rather
expands it, and allows the birth of even more innovative and novel ideas, which before now would never have
been possible. The idea from which a certain project starts always comes from the human mind (as for example
in this case from McCartney and Starr), and the use of artificial intelligence to realize it does not exclude a
priori the fact that that idea can be defined creative or not. For sure the Beatles’ fans don’t care about the use
of AI (especially because it wasn’t used for generating John Lennon’s voice out of nowhere), in fact I think that
thanks to the success of the song, this will lead it to be an example to follow in the future for many other old
bands that have lost members. Maybe in 2100 AI will create wonderful musical masterpiece on its own, or
maybe technology will be so advanced that The Beatles will return on stage as holograms, who knows, but
what I’m sure about is the fact that human creativity will reach heights that we can't even imagine thanks to
the use of artificial intelligence and be should not be afraid of it.