A ‘New’ Beatles Song Reunites the Voices of John, Paul, George and Ringo

livemint.com:

George Harrison counts in, then solemn piano chords give way to the voice of John Lennon. He sings a wistful melody as the tune builds around an insistent drumbeat, stabbing strings and backing vocals by Harrison, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. The chorus: “Now and then, I miss you…" It’s a 4-minute, 8-second rock ’n’ roll séance, a new recording that conjures an uncanny mix of past and present from history’s most unforgettable band, half of which is now deceased.

It’s “the last Beatles song." That tagline, announcing a product that’s somehow fresh yet final, is being used to market the song “Now and Then." Announced Thursday and set for release Nov. 2, the song was assembled over several chapters of the band’s afterlife. It started with a shaggy solo home recording made by Lennon in the late 1970s.

His surviving bandmates reconvened—twice, in sessions separated by three decades and the death of Harrison—to complete the number Lennon started. But “Now and Then" only became an official Beatles single thanks to 21st-century computing technology. Along with tambourine, electric harpsichord and other instruments listed in the credits for the song, “machine learning" and “source separation" are also cited.

These digital processes were used to single out Lennon’s voice from noisy interference on the home tape, including his own piano accompaniment and a TV in the background. It’s an increasingly common form of pop archaeology, the algorithmic equivalent of art restorers cleaning the grunge off a Michelangelo fresco by hand. With lots of audio ephemera still floating about, how can this Beatles song be definitively called the last? “Well, without being too harsh about breaking the news to you, two of them are dead…there’s not