Ahead of the release of their new song, the Beatles have given fans a 12-minute-long documentary on the story behind ‘Now And Then’.
In the documentary, Paul McCartney explains how they used John Lennon’s voice from a muddy cassette created in the 70’s. Using Peter Jackson’s state-of-the-art technology they were able to pull apart the track, isolating Lennon’s vocals and then build the song from there.
McCartney describes the process: “They said, this is the sound of John’s voice. A few seconds later… there it was. John’s voice, crystal clear… Peter took John off and gave him his own track. It’s like John’s there, you know — it’s far out.
“So in the mix, we could lift John’s voice without lifting the piano, which had always been one of the problems. Now we could mix it and make a proper record of it. I pulled it out, had a listen to it, and thought, ‘Oh, I could actually do the bass a bit better. So why don’t I start there?’”
In a statement about the documentary, writer-director Oliver Murray said, “The legacy of the Beatles set one of the most important foundations for modern youth culture. It is a great honour to be given the responsibility of telling this story and I think it will conjure up a lot of different emotions for people as we all have a very personal relationship to the band’s work. ‘Now And Then’ is a story of musical archaeology and a brotherly bond between four guys that gave the world some of the most popular entertainment in history.”
The YouTube/Disney+ streaming documentary kicks off a 10-day rollout of material that will be momentous for Beatles buffs. The doc will be soon followed by the release of the “Now and Then” track, 1am AEDT, Friday 3 November. We’ll be spinning it on Gold 104.3 on Friday!
Peter Jackson’s music video will be released on Friday. The following Friday, Nov. 10, expanded versions of the “1962-66” and “1967-70” collections, featuring dozens of new stereo and Atmos remixes, will hit DSPs and stores.
