Artificial intelligence has brought the vocals of legendary performer and antiwar activist John Lennon back with the Beatles for « Now and Then. »
There was one member of the Beatles who never shied away from political protest: John Lennon.
He was passionately against the Vietnam War, but also wary of protestors using violence, as he declared in the song « Revolution »:
« You say you want a revolution, well you know, we all want to change the world… But when you talk about destruction, don’t you know that you can count me out, in? »
He held weeklong bed-ins for peace with Yoko, in Amsterdam and Montreal. In his signature song « Imagine, » he challenged the world to move past war:
Paul McCartney had political views, but he rarely interjected them into songs, and very subtle – « Blackbird, » for instance, was an allegory about America’s civil rights struggles.
I bring this up, as you probably know, because the last Beatles song is being released today, based on Lennon’s lyrics and piano.
And with a boost from artificial intelligence.
« Now and Then » was recorded by Lennon on a cassette a few years before his life was tragically cut short in 1980. The tape was labeled « For Paul. » Yoko Ono sent it to McCartney in 1994. The three surviving Beatles were able to record and release two songs based on the cassette, « Real Love » (which I thought was terrific) and « Free As a Bird. »
They tried on the third song, but the quality was just too low. George Harrison called it « f*** rubbish.
