Paul McCartney to unveil ‘final Beatles song’ with a bit of assist from AI mates

Jun 14, 2023 at 1:36 AM

Sir Paul McCartney will unveil “the final Beatles record” utilizing synthetic intelligence so as to add John Lennon’s voice from greater than 40 years in the past.

Sir Paul, 81 on Sunday, mentioned he used expertise to “extricate” his previous bandmate’s vocals to lastly full the track. Lennon, who was murdered in 1980, had recorded lo-fi tracks on only a boombox whereas sitting at a piano in his New York condo.

Speaking on Radio 4’s Today programme, Sir Paul mentioned John’s widow Yoko Ono despatched him a demo cassette regarded as a 1978 Lennon composition referred to as Now And Then.

The demo had been thought-about a doable Beatles “reunion song” in 1995 after he acquired the tape the yr earlier than, labelled “For Paul”.

He mentioned: “We just finished it up and it’ll be released this year.” Cleaned up by producer Jeff Lynne, two songs on the cassette Free As A Bird and Real Love had been accomplished and launched in 1995 and the yr after, marking the Beatles’ first “new” materials in 25 years.

Sir Paul, George Harrison and Sir Ringo Starr additionally tried to document Now And Then however the session was deserted due to the dearth of Lennon’s voice to fill out the track.

Sir Paul later mentioned Harrison refused to work on it, saying the sound high quality of Lennon’s vocal was “rubbish”.

Sir Paul mentioned: “It didn’t have a very good title, it needed a bit of reworking, but it had a beautiful verse and it had John singing it. [But] George didn’t like it. The Beatles being a democracy, we didn’t do it.”

There had been additionally technical points from an electrical buzzing sound in Lennon’s condo.

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But Sir Paul has lengthy talked about wanting to finish it. “That one’s still lingering around,” he advised a documentary in 2012. “So I’m going to nick in with Jeff [Lynne] and do it. Finish it, one of these days.”

Lynne mentioned: “It was one day – one afternoon, really – messing with it. The song had a chorus but is almost totally lacking in verses. We did the backing track, a rough go that we really didn’t finish.”

Sir Paul spoke this week forward of the launch of his new guide and pictures exhibition on the National Portrait Gallery in London.

Titled Eyes Of The Storm, it options portraits taken by Sir Paul of the band between December 1963 and February 1964.