As you know by now, it's mandatory to have an opinion on The Beatles' final single, Now and Then, whether you're in the Travesty camp, a member of the Fitting Coda brigade, or somewhere in between.
Fabulously opinionated super-producer Tony Visconti speaks with more authority than most, though, and rarely hesitates to share his views these days. The man who just last month walked out of The Rolling Stones' 'secret' Hackney Diamonds run-through has weighed in on the Fab Four's latest and - probably - last effort. Broadly speaking, he's in favour, though does feel the strings lack one thing - his input.
Marc blatantly told me that he didn’t want my name listed more times than his. So spoketh the bopping elf
Tony Visconti
Posting on facebook, Visconti wrote, "I really love all the Beatles contributions for making this into a very likable single," before quickly changing gears.
"I think the string writing is boring, though," he continued. "As the arranger for all the orchestral stuff on Band On The Run, I think I should have written the arrangement for this.
"Paul used me for BOTR because he liked the string arrangements I wrote for the T.Rex albums and singles."
Posted by tony.visconti1 on
Further down the post's comments thread, the T.Rex connection becomes clearer. Responding to a poster asking if Visconti had furnished the strings on Whatever Happened to the Teenage Dream, the producer said "Yes, I certainly did. And Marc, as usual, didn't give me credit."
Further elaborating, Visconti wrote, "Marc blatantly told me that he didn’t want my name listed more times than his. So spoketh the bopping elf. Marc wrote his songs and played guitar. I produced all the backing sessions, sang backing vocals, directed, arranged and composed and conducted for strings, engineered and mixed everything."
To be fair, for MusicRadar's money, the strings definitely make the song. If you're not familiar, check it out below...
