“The last Beatles song. 2023 brings one of the most anticipated releases of their long and endlessly eventful history. “Now And Then,” written and sung by John Lennon, developed and worked on by Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, is now finally finished by Paul and Ringo over four decades later. The track will be released worldwide on November 2nd at 2 p.m. by Apple Corps Ltd./Capitol/UMe. More details of the release plans emerged, On November 3rd, the day after the song’s streaming release, its brilliant music video, directed by Peter Jackson in his first foray into music video production, will premiere on The Beatles’ YouTube channel at 2 p.m.
Jackson admits he was reluctant to direct the video. “My lifelong love of The Beatles collided into a wall of sheer terror at the thought of letting everyone down,” he says. “I told Apple how the lack of suitable footage worried me. We’d need to use a lot of rare and unseen film, but there’s very little… Nothing at all seemed to exist showing Paul, George and Ringo working on ‘Now And Then’ in 1995… There’s not much footage of John in the mid-seventies when he wrote the demo.
“I found myself swept along as they quickly addressed my concerns. Paul and Ringo shot footage of themselves performing and sent that to me. Apple unearthed over 14 hours of long forgotten film shot during the 1995 recording sessions, including several hours of Paul, George and Ringo working on ‘Now And Then,’ and gave all that to me. Sean [Ono Lennon] and Olivia [Harrison] found some great unseen home movie footage and sent that. To cap things off, a few precious seconds of The Beatles performing in their leather suits, the earliest known film of The Beatles and never seen before, was kindly supplied by Pete Best.
Watching this footage completely changed the situation – I could see how a music video could be made. Actually, I found it far easier if I thought of it as making a short movie, so that’s what I did… My lack of confidence with music videos didn’t matter anymore if I wasn’t making one.
“I teamed up with Jabez Olssen, my Get Back editor, to try and figure ways the new film footage could be used. It was a very organic process, and we slowly started build little fragments, sliding pictures and music around in different ways until things began to click.
“Fortunately, Dhani Harrison happened to be visiting [New Zealand] at this time. I discussed the ending with him, and described one vague idea I’d been toying with. His eyes immediately filled with tears – so that is the way we went.”
The double A-side single cleverly pairs the last Beatles song with the first: the band’s 1962 debut U.K. single, “Love Me Do,” a truly fitting full-circle counterpart to “Now And Then.” The songs will be included in expanded editions of “The Beatles’ 1962-1966” (aka The Red Album) and “1967-1970” (The Blue Album) collections coming in various formats on November 10th.
Both “Now And Then” and “Love Me Do” are mixed in stereo and Dolby Atmos®, and the single release features original cover art by renowned artist Ed Ruscha. First, though, a 12-minute “Now And Then – The Last Beatles Song” documentary film, written and directed by Oliver Murray, will debut on November 1st. The short film tells the story behind the last Beatles song, with exclusive footage and commentary from Paul, Ringo, George, Sean Ono Lennon and Peter Jackson.
The Fat Angel Sings 