AI gives the world one more Beatles song

The power of artificial intelligence has been harnessed to bring music lovers across the globe a final song from the legendary band The Beatles.

The track, titled “Now and Then,” is the band’s last song written and sung by John Lennon, developed and worked on by Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr, and now finally finished by McCartney and Starr over four decades later according to The Beatles’ official site.

Long and winding road

The much-anticipated song has a storied history, with its origins tracing back to a demo recorded by Lennon in the late ’70s at The Dakota in New York. The song’s release was teased by Paul McCartney in June 2023 on BBC Radio 4, and the completed record was finally released on November 2, 2023.

The journey to completion was a complex one, plagued by the poor quality of the original cassette tape recording, which featured Lennon’s piano playing with TV noise in the background. As Giles Martin, the song’s co-producer, explained, this is where the cutting-edge technology of machine learning came into play. The technology was used to isolate Lennon’s vocals from the background noise, something that previously was not possible.

In addition to isolating Lennon’s vocals, Martin and McCartney added a new string arrangement, Jeff Lynne, former Electric Light Orchestra frontman, worked on George Harrison’s guitar parts, and Ringo Starr re-recorded the drums on “Now And Then.” Martin was well aware of the skepticism expressed by Beatles purists, as well as the ethical questions raised by the use of AI in music, but maintained that its use, in this case, brings out a new vibrancy to the band’s recordings.

The song has had a tumultuous journey, first being given to McCartney by Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono, in 1994 alongside other unfinished tracks. The song was initially shelved due to the poor quality of the recording and Harrison’s dislike of the tape’s quality. In 2021, McCartney Go to Source to See Full Article
Author: Jacob Oliver

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