In 2023, to still be working on Beatles music … to release a new song the public haven’t heard, I think it’s an exciting thing.
Not surprisingly, Paul McCartney was positive about the appearance this week of what has been trailed as the “last” Beatles song, Now and Then.
Much has been made of AI being part of the production. Machine learning was used to recognise John Lennon’s voice, and then isolate it from other sounds – a piano, a television in the background, electrical hum – to make it usable in a new recording. It also comes amid a slew of Beatles-related activity recently – a new podcast series, Peter Jackson’s epic 2021 documentary Get Back, new versions of the famed Red and Blue compilation albums, and a Paul McCartney tour, during which he is playing some of the Fab Four’s back catalogue.
