Posted on 06/13/2023 6:06:07 AM PDT by Red Badger
The Beatles will release their last record, with the use of artificial intelligence, over 50 years after the band broke up.
The last Beatles song they recorded collectively was “The End,” from the album “Abbey Road” in 1969, the final song of the medley on side two of the album. John Lennon was murdered at the age of 40 in December 1980 and George Harrison died of cancer at the age of 58 in 2001. But surviving member Paul McCartney has revealed he will “extricate” Lennon’s voice from an old demo to create the group’s final song, believed to be “Now And Then.”
“We just finished it up and it’ll be released this year,” McCartney told Radio 4’s Today program.
McCartney explained that producer Jeff Lynne, who in 1995 and 1996 had released songs recorded by Lennon including “Free As A Bird” and “Real Love,” had also tried to clean up “Now And Then” but had a hard time cleaning up the song, but AI gave McCartney the opportunity to revive Lennon’s voice.
McCartney explained that director Peter Jackson, who used AI to clean up the audio for the “Get Back” documentary, was “able to extricate John’s voice from a ropey little bit of cassette. We had John’s voice and a piano and he could separate them with AI. They tell the machine, ‘That’s the voice. This is a guitar. Lose the guitar.’”
“So when we came to make what will be the last Beatles’ record, it was a demo that John had; we were able to take John’s voice and get it pure through this AI,” he continued. “Then we can mix the record, as you would normally do. So it gives you some sort of leeway.”
The Beatles’ final incarnation, with Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, and drummer Ringo Starr, was formed in 1962. Prior to that, Lennon had founded a group called The Quarrymen including Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, and bassist Stuart Sutcliffe; the group used several drummers before ultimately settling on Starr.
Producer George Martin helped them get signed by EMI Records and their first major hit, “Love Me Do,” was released in late 1962. Their film debut came in 1964’s “A Hard Day’s Night.” They retired from live performances in 1966 but kept recording albums such as “Rubber Soul,” “Revolver,” and “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.”
In 1968, they founded Apple Corps, a multimedia corporation that still oversees the groups’ projects. The group broke up in 1970. They are the best-selling music act of all time, with estimated sales of 600 million units.
When they were still "innocent", naive and before they became jaded. What's amazing is that all of this was done between Please Please Me / With/Meet The Beatles in 1963/ January 1964 and Abbey Road in September 1969 and Let it Be in 1970
The urban legend is when John Lennon heard it for the first time, he said, “I don’t remember recording this”.
But I must admit that visiting Abbey Road Studios and crossing that zebra crossing was exciting...as was visiting the gate at the Dakota where John Lennon was shot and talking to the guys at the gate.
No shame on his part. Never had any through all those decades.
That's all I need to read. SOLD!
Electric Light Orchestra’s founder.
One of the groups I wanted to see but never had the chance...............
“Paul continues to squeeze every last molecule of juice out of The Beatles 53 years after they broke up. It’s really kind of pathetic.”
If it were not for John Lennon nobody would have ever heard of Paul McCartney. He would have been a damn fine studio musician with occasional writing credits.
That one guy looks like Bill Clinton......................
“I had 5th row center tickets to see the Beatles”
They could PERFORM all their unique songs.
Who cares? They were already stale as we entered the 70s.
Perhaps the confusion is because another British band, Spinal Tap, had 18 drummers:
LIST OF SPINAL TAP DRUMMERS (ALL DECEASED)
John “Stumpy” Pepys (1964–1966) Died in a bizarre gardening accident, that the authorities said was “best left unsolved.”
Eric “Stumpy Joe” Childs (1966–1967) Choked on vomit of unknown origin, perhaps but not necessarily his own, because “you can’t really dust for vomit.”
Peter “James” Bond (1967–1977) Spontaneously combusted on stage during a jazz festival on the Isle of Lucy.
Mick Shrimpton (1977–1982) Exploded onstage.
Joe “Mama” Besser (1982) Claimed he “couldn’t take this 4/4 shit”; according to an MTV interview with Spinal Tap in November 1991, he disappeared along with the equipment during their Japanese tour. He is either dead or playing jazz.
Richard “Ric” Shrimpton (1982–1999) Allegedly sold his dialysis machine for drugs; presumed dead.
Sammy “Stumpy” Bateman (1999-2001) Died trying to jump over a tank full of sharks while on a tricycle in a freak show.
Scott “Skippy” Scuffleton (2001–2007) Fate unknown.
Chris “Poppa” Cadeau (2007–2008) Eaten by his pet python Cleopatra.
Plus 9 other drummers at various times (Probably between 1970 and 1981) all of whom are dead
I love this story of how the Beatles almost fizzled out after Hamburg.
“The band had its first British performance under the name “Beatles” on Dec. 17, 1960, at Liverpool’s Casbah Coffee Club. “After Hamburg it wasn’t too good,” said Paul.
“Everyone needed a rest. I expected everyone to be ringing me to discuss what we were doing, but it was all quiet on the Western front. None of us called each other, so I wasn’t so much dejected as puzzled, wondering whether it was going to carry on or if that was the last of it.
“I [Paul] started working at a coil-winding factory called Massey and Coggins. My dad had told me to go out and get a job. I’d said, ‘I’ve got a job, I’m in a band.’ But after a couple of weeks of doing nothing with the band it was, ‘No, you have got to get a proper job.’ He virtually chucked me out of the house: ‘Get a job or don’t come back.’
So I went to the employment office and said, ‘Can I have a job? Just give me anything.’ I said, ‘I’ll have whatever is on the top of that little pile there.’ And the first job was sweeping the yard at Massey and Coggins. I took it.
“I went there and the personnel officer said, ‘We can’t have you sweeping the yard, you’re management material.’ And they started to train me from the shop floor up with that in mind. Of course, I wasn’t very good on the shop floor – I wasn’t a very good coilwinder.
“One day John and George showed up in the yard that I should have been sweeping and told me we had a gig at the Cavern. I said, ‘No. I’ve got a steady job here and it pays £7 14s a week. They are training me here. That’s pretty good, I can’t expect more. And I was quite serious about this.
But then – and with my dad’s warning still in my mind – I thought, ‘Sod it. I can’t stick this lot.’ I bunked over the wall and was never seen again by Massey and Coggins. Pretty shrewd move really, as things turned out.”
The Beatles’ first show since Hamburg was at Mona Best’s Casbah Coffee Club, a venue they hadn’t played at since the Quarrymen days, in October 1959.
Stuart Sutcliffe had remained in Hamburg with Astrid Kirchherr, so The Beatles recruited Chas Newby, formerly the rhythm guitarist with The Blackjacks, to play bass.
The Beatles borrowed equipment from the other act that was booked to play that night, Gene Day and the Jango Beats, who later renamed themselves Earl Preston and the TTs.
Posters declaring “The Beatles, Direct From Hamburg, Germany” were placed around the Casbah, and the basement venue was crammed with people expecting to see a German band perform. Many were disappointed when John, Paul and George took the stage.
Once they began playing, however, it was clear that a transformation had occurred during their time in Germany. The crowd went wild, The Beatles performed sensationally, and Beatlemania in Britain began to get underway.”
LET IT RUT
The Beatles broke up at the right time, they were basically four solo artists in one band by that time. They all got married and The Beatles were no longer the only thing they had going for them. It actually preserved their legacy for the long-run, rather that encountering the diminishing marginal returns they would have had by continuing on.
Back in the original days of the SNL, Lorne Michaels would come out in front of the audience and offer to pay the Beatles $1,000 to re-unite on the show.
The story goes that one night, Paul was visiting John at Dakotas and we’re watching SNL and seriously thought of driving to the studio to make an impromptu appearance. But they chose not to.
That would have been awesome to see.
Don’t forget Manfred Mann (there she was just a walking
down the street singing do wa diddy diddy dum ditty do)
Their Apple Records Roof Top Concert was the best. They literally brought downtown London to halt. I love the scenes of the stodgy old British guy walking on the street looking up at what all the hubbub was about. The cameraman kept coming back to him to show him moving closer and closer. You could tell he was into it, but he maintained his stiff upper lip throughout.
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