A new Beatles song could be arriving later this year. Unpublished. No, it’s not a joke and not even a fake: but a real song never heard recorded by Fab4. Paul McCartney he has in fact revealed that he has used artificial intelligence to extract John Lennon’s voice from a demo of an old Beatles song.
“We just finished it and it will be out this year,” said the most popular left-handed bass player in history.
A new Beatles song thanks to artificial intelligence: Paul McCartney’s project
Sir Paul has not revealed the title of the song, but according to the BBC it could be Now and Then, a song written by John Lennon in 1978. Actually already in 1995 the three baronets still alive – Lennon died in 1980 – thought of taking up the song again, extrapolating the vocal track from John’s demo. The project would serve to present the collection to the world Anthology.
Now and Then has a fascinating story that will bring a tear to even the most apathetic Beatles fan. The song was recorded by John Lennon on a cassette tape that recited the inscription “for Paul”. A message of affection to his lifelong friend, despite the thousand vicissitudes of the most iconic songwriter couple ever.
However, things turned out differently. The vocal track of Lennon’s demo was too low quality, also thanks to a background hum caused by a faulty electrical system in the singer’s apartment. So Paul, Ringo and George scrapped the idea, and released the songs Free as a Bird and Real Love as unreleased. Both songs contained on the tape for Paul.
Artificial intelligence in the service of the Beatles: Get Back
The use of artificial intelligence has actually already been revealed in Get Backincredible docuseries by Peter Jackson on what will be the Beatles’ last studio record. AI had greatly aided the release of the series, as the technology was able to recognize individual instruments (in 1969 there were no multitrack recordings), separate the audio tracks and return an astonishing sound rendering. Seeing is believing: Get Back is available on Disney+.
The same artificial intelligence was used by Paul McCartney to create a virtual duet with John Lennon.