Veteran Rockers

From www.thebeatles.com: The story of “Now And Then” begins in the late 1970s, when John recorded a demo with vocals and piano at his home in New York’s Dakota Building. In 1994, his wife, Yoko Ono Lennon, gave the recording to Paul, George and Ringo, along with John’s demos for “Free As A Bird” and “Real Love,” which were both completed as new Beatles songs and respectively released as singles in 1995 and 1996, as part of The Beatles Anthology project. At the same time, Paul, George and Ringo also recorded new parts and completed a rough mix for “Now And Then” with producer Jeff Lynne. At that point, technological limitations prevented John’s vocals and piano from being separated to achieve the clear, unclouded mix needed to finish the song. “Now And Then” was shelved, with a hope that one day it would be revisited.
Cut to 2021, and the release of “The Beatles: Get Back” docuseries, directed by Peter Jackson, which astonished viewers with its award-winning film and audio restoration. Using WingNut Films’ MAL audio technology, Jackson’s team had de-mixed the film’s mono soundtrack, managing to isolate instruments and vocals, and all the individual voices within The Beatles’ conversations. This achievement opened the way to 2022’s new mix of Revolver, sourced directly from the four-track master tapes. This led on to a question: what could now be done with the “Now And Then” demo? Peter Jackson and his sound team, led by Emile de la Rey, applied the same technique to John’s original home recording, preserving the clarity and integrity of his original vocal performance by separating it from the piano.
In 2022, Paul and Ringo set about completing the song. Besides John’s vocal, “Now And Then” includes electric and acoustic guitar recorded in 1995 by George, Ringo’s new drum part, and bass, guitar and piano from Paul, which matches John’s original playing. Paul added a slide guitar solo inspired by George; he and Ringo also contributed backing vocals to the chorus.
In Los Angeles, Paul oversaw a Capitol Studios recording session for the song’s wistful, quintessentially Beatles string arrangement, written by Giles Martin, Paul and Ben Foster. Paul and Giles also added one last, wonderfully subtle touch: backing vocals from the original recordings of “Here, There And Everywhere,” “Eleanor Rigby” and “Because,” woven into the new song using the techniques perfected during the making of the LOVE show and album. The finished track was produced by Paul and Giles, and mixed by Spike Stent.
Paul says: “There it was, John’s voice, crystal clear. It’s quite emotional. And we all play on it, it’s a genuine Beatles recording. In 2023 to still be working on Beatles music, and about to release a new song the public haven’t heard, I think it’s an exciting thing.”
Ringo says: “It was the closest we’ll ever come to having him back in the room, so it was very emotional for all of us. It was like John was there, you know. It’s far out.”
Olivia Harrison says: “Back in 1995, after several days in the studio working on the track, George felt the technical issues with the demo were insurmountable and concluded that it was not possible to finish the track to a high enough standard. If he were here today, Dhani and I know he would have whole-heartedly joined Paul and Ringo in completing the recording of ‘Now And Then.’”

In this three-part series, the lengthy career of the Rock and Roll Animal Lou Reed is explored in vivid detail. Following his departure from The Velvet Underground, Lou Reed made many unexpected turns in his solo career and even though he wasn't consistently in the limelight and rock purists occasionally responded lukewarmly to certain experimental albums, he never once repeated himself. Whether it's the spacey hypnotic grooves of The Velvets or the stories of transgender people he sang about on Walk on the Wild Side, to singing about sobering up on The Last Shot, this veteran rocker always made you feel like you were in the same room with him. Hitting high notes wasn't something Lou was ever capable of doing, but his sound and vision were both equally mesmerizing and occasionally intoxicating. Part 1 covers his early life, his musical beginnings, his cult success with The Velvet Underground, and his early solo recordings from 1971-1978.

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In part one of this two part series about Paul McCartney in the 1980's, Paul starts the decade off to a roaring start with the groundbreaking release of McCartney II. After Wings officially disbanded and John Lennon was murdered, Paul was now completely on his own. Paul poured his heart out onto a song called Here Today from the album Tug of War. During those sessions, Paul made friends with Stevie Wonder while recording Ebony and Ivory and What's That You're Doing for that same record. During the Pipes of Peace sessions, he recorded with Michael Jackson on a song called Say, Say, Say but a piece of advice Paul gave Michael during that period would later haunt Paul in 1985. Part 1 concludes with two movie soundtrack songs, which are No More Lonely Nights from Paul McCartney's movie Give My Regards to Broad Street and the main title track to the 1985 cold war comedy Spies Like Us. If you don’t have Spotify premium, you can access the playlist for part 1 and 2 of this series at: open.spotify.com/playlist/1geZQHXY6OVv8HDLfAUtoD?si=VIDu7tmxSCu6z879XWsHqw.