Episode 120: The Beatles’ Last Single “Now and Then”: Where Will It Fit in the Group’s Legacy?

[@ainsleyperry5192]

Talk More Talk: Some of the subtle things Peter Jackson did with the Beatle images in places are just stunning. Sometimes the images of John and George cast shadows on the new images. One very subtle thing is when you have Paul and Ringo singing "Now and Then" and John is goofing around. George looks across at him gives a small smile and shakes his head, as if to say "Theres John playing around again." Jackson told Paul and Ringo he did'nt know if he could make a video. But when he agreed they just left him to get on with it, no interferance. So Jackson needed brass ones. His offer made after "Get Back" to have a look at "Magical Mystery Tour" to see if anything is there is still on the table. Cheers, Chris Perry.

[@laurameme-9]

Nice to hear from John Montagna. Great chat!

[@debbieramsey-hanks3757]

Among all my myriad of emotions,I am reminded of the rooftop performance. In John"s. perfect.quirkiness. John says, I beleve " I want to thank everyone about coming to the audition of my band." Once again, here we are. and once again have created a work of art thatdefies genres. and shows a tremendous work ethic over decades. No boundaries to their love and camaraderie. Tbank you. Spirritual tears, ethereal.

[@jensontagg]

100% agree with Kit about the lighter moments of John in the video. I saw those comments online to by a certain person who I thought should know better and I had to say something. Yes John could be “serious” but he could also be goofy. It’s another side of him (big part of him when it comes to his humour) and Peter Jackson was right to use footage of THIS side of him in THIS video.

[@garrywilbur7238]

Great episode! One of the best ever! Thanks

[@dukeviking]

this is a special time. In due time we'll get more unreleased outtakes or songs but we'll never get a new Beatles song. Now & Then was that 28 year old last of the Reunion songs of epic proportions that finally has become reality. Enjoy it - the door has closed finally.

[@michael.in.taiwan]

I heard about an abandoned third Anthology song in ICE magazine during the time of the third volume's release. They quoted Ringo as saying the band tried a third song but it didn't work out because of the technical limitations of the source tape. I'm sure it wasn't a direct quote -- they were probably quoting another source. But ICE believed that this was the first mention of the Beatles attempting a third track. I just mention this because of all the focus on George and the dispute over whether he didn't like the song or the sound quality. Ringo said it was the sound quality. I wish I could find that magazine's archives online! ICE was a great newsletter-ish magazine with few graphics, devoted to revealing upcoming CD remastering projects, back when CDs were new-ish and still renewing interest in old music.

[@TheBeatlesWoW]

Paul and Giles have done a cracking production job

[@gcrichman53]

The Beatles and The Rolling Stones were good friends and hung out together after in 1963 when Mick Jagger asked Paul and John if they had any songs for them because at that point The Rolling Stones were only recording cover songs. So John and Paul wrote the rock and roll song I Wanna Be Your Man right in front of them and John played Keith Richards guitar and Paul played Bill Wyman's bass as they wrote it and Mick and Keith were very impressed that they could write a song just like that to order, and it motivated them to start writing their own songs. In 1964 The Rolling Stones also wrote and recorded a Rice Krispies TV commercial jingle and Mick Jagger sings it, there are youtube videos of it. The Beatles never ever wrote any TV commercial jingles!

[@gcrichman53]

Rock music critic John Mendelson ( who thankfully never liked Led Zeppelin and gave bad reviews to their first 2 albums in 1969 in Rolling Stone ,and in a 2001 interview he said he hated the albums even more especially one of them) but he loved The Beatles from the time he saw their grerat movie, A Hard Day's Night when it came out when he was a teen and he played drums too. He gave great reviews for both the Let It Be and Abbey Road albums in Rolling Stone Magazine in 1969 and 1970 which are online too.

[@gcrichman53]

John Lennon and Paul McCartney were such amazingly talented singer song writers that they were already writing hit songs for other artists as early as 1963 when their own song writing success was getting off the ground,besides The Rolling Stones,they also wrote hit songs in 1963 for Billy J.Kramer and The Dakotas,Cilla Black,and Peter and Gordon etc.And at the time this was very unusual because most rock and roll bands and solo artists had professional song writers writing for them like John and Paul were already doing for other music acts even in 1963. Paul wrote his first song at age 14 and was playing guitar,John wrote heavy deep poetry but didn't start writing songs until he met Paul and was impressed that he wrote his own songs,and he too started to write his own songs at age 16,and they wrote together and never stopped from then on. Paul wrote the very pretty song I'll Follow The Sun at only 16.Even when The Beatles first came to America in February 1964 many people said how rare it was for *adult* rock n roll bands and solo artists to write their own songs, and Paul and John were already doing this as teenagers in the mid 1950's. And even though I wasn't born yet in 1963 I know what type of music was popular on the radio,non rock n roll songs like Bobby Vinton,The Four Seasons,Bobby Darin and The Beach Boys surfing hits,The early Beatles songs like She Loves You, I Want To Hold Your Hand and I Saw Her Standing there etc were hard rock for 1963 and ahead of their time.

[@MTrainRadio]

Fab chat - highly enjoyable as always. Can't wait for the new Red & Blue! :)))

[@anthonyvigliotti6560]

Good discussion here and very interesting takes on the new song and the new Red and Blue albums. IMHO, I totally agree with Ken: I would never consider the original demo of "Now and Then" a "nothing burger". As a listener and a songwriter myself, I always loved the melody, the haunting melody, of "Now and Then". I was a huge fan of The Lost Lennon Tapes and felt several of those unreleased demos had potential. Also, somebody mentioned that "John didn't finish it and wasn't doing anything with it"* (paraphrasing here), we do not know WHAT John may have done with it. My point is that John, Paul, and even George, were known to have songs started or even almost complete, that sat around a few years. Examples: "Child of Nature" which 3 years later became "Jealous Guy", "Another Day" and "The Art of Dying". It is not unusual for a songwriter to have a demo that sits, is revisited and then completed, for several years. Thanks for a great podcast all!

[@TheAlanRosenbergShow]

That was so enjoyable - great videocast. Thanks for the shoutout and also great touch at the end talking about Hackney Diamonds and how the Beatles have crushed the Stones again. Also nice touch about the horrendous distribution of Hackney Diamonds and that it was so hard to find when it first came out. Overall - great videocast. Thanks so much.

[@gcrichman53]

In the 1960's The Beatles and The Rolling Stones had a friendship arrangement that they would not release a single or album at the same time.

[@jeffreyroedel9804]

People who ordered CD singles the day they were announced (days after the other configurations were) have already received them (while many vinyl orders are still waiting). No way they pressed up the CD singles that fast. So the "no cd single" was definitely a lie to pre-sell more copies of Blue on CD :/

[@talkmoretalksolobeatles]

Giles Martin interview: www.yahoo.com/entertainment/giles-martin-producing-beatles-now-224400988.html

[@timothysmith83]

Just a nitpick. If CDs for new Red & Blue albums have songs in chronological order, why isn’t the 1970 track “I Me Mine” AFTER 1969’s “I Want You She’s So Heavy”? Just asking. Nice discussion though.

[@johnnada6855]

The thing about the demo "Bridge" is, that with that bridge the song is a Lennon "solo" song, i mean, that bridge is typical of lennon´s solo songs, when Paul removed that bridge then the song transformed into a Beatle sound, so it got a bit softer, i think the final song is ok, just like free as a bird and real love but the demo is better somehow, but yes the demo version is not a beatle song, and is not as marketable as the final "beatle " version

[@ricardo_miguel13]

#15 was the highest on spotify

[@davidrowe7967]

Will B-side Love Me Do also qualify as a No.1?

[@ricardo_miguel13]

technically yes I think, like For You Blue or Isn’t It A Pity

[@beatleboy0195]

Yea the speed of the demo was changed, in the video you can see Paul & George play along with a capo at the first fret but playing along with the record you don't need the capo. For me to be honest the song came out better than the video, a video should never sell the song music is for ears, i do like watching videos now and again but when i listen to lets say the 1 album i don't put the blu ray on. Thanks for the podcast guys. One more thing the middle bit they left out of the demo the line i don't wanna lose you when i heard that the first thing i thought of was i don't wanna face it, we'll never know he could've kept that bit back to turn into that song. A bit from the hello goodbye vid they should have used was them in the collarless jackets waving bye. Should never of put covers on the red album just stick to originals for me.

[@dukeviking]

I honestly think that was the Real Love recording session footage they used for the video that showed them with the capos. If, according to past reports, they only messed with Now & Then for a couple days - I doubt they would have brought the camera crew in for those N&T sessions prior to them reconvening for Real Love shortly there after. I could be wrong as there is apparently 14 hours worth (maybe 7 hours per camera) of the 94/95 recording sessions. I just would not take some of those scenes as face value when they align it to the music of Now & Then. Or - if it was Now & Then - they have open tuned a half step down and then applied to capo to bring it back up to the intended key.

[@worlds1ep3enthusiast92]

Nah. You cannot have a career spanning Beatles release of this caliber and not at least put Twist And Shout on it.