The film-maker Peter Jackson has hinted at the possibility of more Beatles music to come after the release of their “final” song Now and Then, calling the idea “conceivable”.
Now and Then was built from a recording made by John Lennon shortly before his murder in 1980, using the same AI technology that Jackson used in his documentary Get Back to clean up and separate voices in archival recordings. The track has been a hit with fans and critics since it was released on Friday.
But Jackson has revealed that there could be more music in the archival footage he went through when editing Get Back, his eight-hour docuseries about the Beatles recording their album of the same name.
The director sifted through 60 hours of footage and 150 hours of audio while making Get Back.
“We can take a performance from Get Back, separate John and George, and then have Paul and Ringo add a chorus or harmonies,” the Lord of the Rings director told the Sunday Times. “You might end up with a decent song but I haven’t had conversations with Paul about that.
“It’s fanboy stuff but certainly conceivable.”
Now and Then was included on a cassette labelled “For Paul” that Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono, gave the three surviving Beatles in the 90s as they were working on a retrospective project.
At the time the band members tried to complete Lennon’s demo but considered it unsuitable for release. It wasn’t until July 2022, Jackson told the Sunday Times, that Paul McCartney contacted him for his help in producing a new version.
The audio software, called Mal (machine audio learning), allowed Lennon’s vocals to be separated from the demo. The track was then rebuilt with new performances from McCartney and Ringo Starr, along with George Harrison’s guitar parts from their shelved recording session in the 90s.
“It felt so wrong to have a Beatles song all to myself,” Jackson told the Sunday Times. “With the world in the state it is, we need the Beatles to appear again, as if a flying saucer has touched down and they’ve got off and are providing us with their one last song to cheer us up.”
The Beatles released a making-of video last week delving into the production of Now and Then. McCartney, in the video, expresses his doubts about making full songs out of Lennon’s demos, out of respect for the late songwriter’s unfinished work.
“Is it something we shouldn’t do?” McCartney says. “Every time I thought like that I thought, wait a minute, let’s say I had a chance to ask John, ‘Hey John, would you like us to finish this last song of yours?’ I’m telling you, I know the answer would have been, ‘Yeah!’”
