Deconstructing Now and Then - The Beatles (Isolated Tracks)

Описание: In December of 1994 Marc Mann and Jeff Lynne started work on creating a workable demo for the Beatles to work on. This meant improving the quality of the tape and aligning the song with a steady tempo. As Mann recalls, "We would get up and go into the kitchen to have some tea, to get away from the computer screen and all the numbers and data, and just listen to John singing this beautiful little song in the other room. It always brought a grin to our faces."

After recording Real Love a month earlier the Beatles turned their attention to Now and Then around March 1995. After working on the song for a day the Beatles called it quits leaving Now and Then in limbo. The song was abandoned for a few reasons. These included but were not limited to the unfinished nature of the song, the lousy quality of the tape, George's dislike of the song stemming from the first two reasons, and as said in the short film they simply ran out of steam. However the 1995 session did produce the base in which the final version was based on. They recorded the acoustic guitars, some small vocal parts, a bass part (later rerecorded), piano (later rerecorded), a basic electric guitar part by George, and most importantly finalized the entire structure of the final product. By 1995 the structure of verse, chorus, verse, chorus, solo section, verse was already finalized. This can be seen further on this lyric sheet that Jeff Lynne and Marc Mann marked up in December 1994 here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/12mEu.... The bridge heard in the demo was cut out or was in limbo by this point. A decision many think happened in 2022 due to the troubling lyrics which is incorrect. The 3/4 ending also dates back to 1995 as well.

The idea of finishing Now and Then was floated around for years mostly by Paul. However it wasn't until 2022 that Now and Then would be resurrected with help from Peter Jackson's MAL tech which allowed John's vocals to be separated from the piano. Sean Lennon also provided a better quality first generation tape of the demo. To this Paul rerecorded his bass and piano and retained the acoustic guitars and George's electric guitar. Afterward he meet up with Giles Martin who was mixing a Dolby Atmos mix of Red Rose Speedway. When listening Giles noticed the original 1995 drum track wasn't quite in the style of Ringo, so after convincing him Giles and Paul then sent the track to Ringo. Ringo then recorded a new drum part and backing vocals. At this point Giles Martin also added in backing vocal samples from Here, There, and Everywhere, Eleanor Rigby, and Because. Paul was reluctant when Giles first added them as he was worried it would be gimmicky, but he changed his mind after hearing it. I also assume that the slide guitar part, electric harpsichord, and new backing vocals by Paul were recorded before the strings.

Paul was very hands on with the string arrangement according to Giles. Even pointing out that, "we were clashing slightly with George... He [Paul] said, 'I Want to hear what George is doing here" Giles also said that Paul told him to, "...listen to what George is playing on the guitar, you need to appreciate what he is doing and flow with that rhythm." Due to scheduling constraints these strings were recorded at Capital Studios in L.A. rather than Abbey Road. The session took place during late April 2022 with the decoy name "Give & Take" to hide the song's true identity. According to Giles the amount of string players were reduced during the process as the song sounded "too posh".

The song was released to much hype on November 2, 2023 and for the first time in over 54 years it reached number 1 in the UK charts.

This isolation is the best I could muster right now and included an updated version of George's electric guitar. If I can get significantly better stems in the future I will update this video. Enjoy!

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Count In (0:00)
Drums (0:03
Bass (3:46)
John's Vocals (7:08)
Backing Vocals (9:46)
Paul's Backing Vocals [Possible 1995]/2022 (12:48)
Vocal Samples (13:37)
Strings (14:57)
Piano (18:07)
Acoustic Guitar (22:09)
George's Electric Guitar (26:05)
Paul's Slide Guitar (29:01)
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John Lennon - Lead and Backing Vocals
Paul McCartney - Backing Vocals, Acoustic Guitar, Bass, Lap Steel Guitar, Piano, Electric Harpsichord, Shaker
George Harrison - Backing Vocals, Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar
Ringo Starr - Backing Vocals, Drums, Tambourine, Shaker

Strings:
Violin - Neel Hammond, Adrianne Pope, Charlie Bisharat, Andrew Bulbrook, Songa Lee, Serena McKinney
Viola - Ayvren Harrison, Caroline Buckman, Drew Forde, Linnea Powell
Cello - Mia Barcia-Colombo, Giovanna Clayton, Hillary Smith
Double Bass - Mike Valerio
Jérôme Leroy – conductor
#thebeatles #paulmccartney #georgeharrison #johnlennon #ringostarr #nowandthen