‘I was transported’
As soon as I heard John’s voice in the opening lines, I was transported back to December 1980. A 16-year-old schoolboy sitting in a small empty cafe in an outer southern suburb of Brisbane listening to the track Starting Over on the juke box and mourning my songwriting hero’s death. This new song sounds like it could’ve been on the Double Fantasy album. Now and Then has a recurring dreamy quality and Ringo’s beat is beautifully calm, supportive and understated. It filled me with immense joy, sadness and reflection. The beauty of music. Robert Lastdrager, 59, Montmorency, Melbourne
‘I had no idea how emotionally I would react’
I had no idea how emotionally I would react to this song. My youngest brother passed away last year from a brain tumour at 27. He was a big Beatles fan; he chose Beatles songs for his wedding and for his funeral – a lot of people commented that he had the music taste of someone twice his age. I had been wondering, in the lead-up to the release, what he would have thought of the band using AI to finish it, and if he’d have liked the final result.
When I heard the opening lines, and the melancholy in John’s voice, I got chills all over. The sadness of the song encapsulates the emptiness you feel when you lose someone you love, and you know you have to continue on without them. I don’t know if I could have appreciated the song as much without having known this feeling. My brother had a habit of humming Beatles melodies to himself as he was out working in the garden, and I could imagine him singing the Now and Then chorus every time I listened to the song today. I wish my brother had been able to hear it; I think he would have given it a thumbs up. Klara, 33, London
‘The AI is terrific and terrifying’
A good song, but much more than that – heartbreaking. “Poignant closure” is a good definition. To me it sounds a valedictory embrace for people like me whose life was steeped in Beatles music and made better by it. That said, the AI is terrific and terrifying. Carlotta Fontana, 71, Milan, Italy
‘Pedestrian is the adjective that comes to mind’
A bit sad really, this song. It was probably fun in the making, but it’s no great creative wonder. Indeed, I cannot figure out why Ringo and Paul bothered. They can’t need the money, surely? Pedestrian is the adjective that comes to mind. Graham Dyson, 72, small village south of Oslo, Norway
‘I can see why George decided it was a downer’
The song is very moving, especially after seeing Paul perform live a few days ago at 81. Hearing John’s thirtysomething vocals extracted and enhanced is a strange yet pleasing effect. I hope they revisit the mid-1990s mixes of Free as a Bird and Real Love with this technology, rather than the ghostly echoey vocals from John’s home recording. That said, I can see why George reportedly decided Now and Then was a bit of a downer and it languished for almost three decades. It’s reminiscent of John’s raw, delicate early solo works including Love but with a wistful even melancholy mood. John Barron, Sydney, Australia
‘Peter Jackson’s video changed my mind’
I am one of those Beatles nerds who has listened to every bootleg and outtake, so I was very familiar with Lennon’s original demo and the various fan versions released over the years. At first, as I was shocked and annoyed that they had removed Lennon’s “I don’t want to lose you” bridge, which I had always found the most keening and emotional part of the song. But Peter Jackson’s video changed my mind. I can now see what the remaining Beatles have been aiming for: that distinctive happy-sad mix that is at the core of so many of their classic songs: Help, Penny Lane, Nowhere Man, Long and Winding Road, and so on. By removing the bridging section, it turns Lennon’s plaintive searching love ballad into a stirring pop single that moves from wistful verses to an almost triumphant chorus. The video helps amplify the effect of a song that seems to encapsulate the magic of the Beatles and why they remain so important: it captures our nostalgia for an era that seems to be lost to us, but also serves as almost a valedictory statement – it may be gone, but wasn’t it fab! Martin Pulman, Kingsbury, London
‘I love it dearly’
I’ve been a fan of the Beatles since I was 12 years old. After watching the Anthology documentary (and the time the works on Now and Then were dropped), I had a lot of (nervous) expectations for the song, but couldn’t anticipate how emotional it would feel. I felt the passion put into getting this song ready. It made me imagine John sitting at the piano to show Paul, Ringo and George this new song he wrote and they all gather around him, joining in. I love it dearly. Carolina Goloni, 40, the Netherlands
‘Boring’
Dull and unremarkable. Calling it a “Beatles song” when it’s a cut-and-paste mix of recordings made by former band members at separate times over decades is a stretch at best. It begs the question, would this track have otherwise warranted any mention at all if not for that link? It’s not technically bad by any means, but listening to it I could only conjure the same word over and over – boring. Sarah, 42, US
‘I’m torn’
I’m torn with this now being the final Beatles song. The lyrics are so poignant and essentially require a song in a minor key but that’s not how I want to think of their story ending. On the other hand, its melancholy reflects how many fans saw the band’s ending, and feels like a bit of a memento mori to all of us: patch up those relationships you care about before it’s too late. In that way, the song makes me very emotional, so I do love it for that. Kimberly Blessing, 48, Glasgow
‘The song is just fab’
I became a fan of the Beatles over lockdown, their music and story is absolutely fascinating. The song is just fab! I shed a few tears hearing Paul’s audibly aged voice singing with John’s young late-30s voice. The strings really made it feel like a Beatles record. Paul’s slide guitar tribute to George was so moving too. I just wish they had included the “I don’t wanna lose you” section of the song, but that would have made it too long. I don’t think many will say it is comparable to their earlier work, or even Free As a Bird, but not every song needs to be a smash hit. It’s more about what the song means. To paraphrase Paul on the White Album, “It’s great, it’s the bloody Beatles! Shut up!” Joe McCafferty, 18, Letterkenny, Ireland
‘A suitable ending’
It’s such a suitable ending, and releasing it alongside a new mix of Love Me Do showed how far they came, yet how close they stayed to the formula that broke them, foregrounding Ringo’s drums as the consistent beat the rest composed against. It’s the perfect final chapter of the Beatles studio recordings. It’s a piece that captures loss and mortality transposed against the seeming immortality of art. Steve, Surrey
