Sir Paul McCartney has announced that the last ever Beatles song will be released this year but with an exciting twist involving artificial intelligence (AI). During an interview with BBC Radio 4, the iconic songwriter revealed details about the unreleased track, rumored to be John Lennon’s previously unheard composition from 1978 called “Now and Then.”
McCartney explained that he utilized AI to assist in the creation of the final version of Lennon’s vocal tracks. However, he clarified that AI was not used to generate Lennon’s vocal track from scratch. Instead, it was employed to “extract” Lennon’s voice from an old cassette tape.
The cassette tape, recorded by Lennon shortly before his death and labeled “For Paul,” contained the “final Beatles track.” AI was then used to separate Lennon’s vocals from the accompanying piano on the recording.
This AI-based process was similar to the one used by Peter Jackson for audio cleanup in his extensive Beatles documentary, “Get Back.”
Paul McCartney enlisted Jackson’s help in this project, stating that they had completed the song and this last Beatles song would be released later this year. Lennon expressed gratitude for Jackson’s ability to “extract John’s voice from a ropey little cassette.”
Explaining the AI process further, McCartney said that the machine was trained to recognize different elements in the audio, such as the voice and the guitar. By instructing the AI to “lose the guitar” and focus on the voice, they could extract Lennon’s pure vocal track, which could then be mixed with other record elements.
The use of AI in this way was pioneered by Emile de la Rey, the dialog editor for “Get Back,” who trained computers to identify and remove the Beatles’ voices from surrounding audio.
Paul McCartney acknowledged that he had previously used AI during his recent tour to create “duets” with Lennon onstage. However, while he was open to employing AI for this purpose, he admitted to finding its more expansive potential “kind of scary.”
The release of the “final Beatles record” has been long-awaited, especially if it turns out to be “Now and Then.” Although a couple of songs from the “For Paul” cassette were released in 1995 and 1996, the band attempted to re-record this particular song later, which proved unsuccessful due to George Harrison’s dissatisfaction with Lennon’s vocals.
While no specific release date was provided, McCartney confirmed that the song would be available later this year.
