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Now and Then


Keith Wilby

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What do we think of the new Beatles offering? I was disappointed with Free as a Bird and Real Love because of the quality of the recording of John's voice; it couldn't be helped and the songs themselves I thought were good, but the sound quality issue made them sound under par for me.

This new one, however, with modern technology, has John sounding almost like he sang it at Abbey Road. Isolating his voice like that is an astonishing achievement and it makes the result sound like a proper record, for want of a better expression. It made me feel rather emotional given how he was taken.

It would be great to hear the other two songs, plus Grow Old with Me, getting the same treatment.

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I'm guessing it will be extremely polarizing - me, I am at odd with myself every time I listen to it. My initial reaction was to be creeped out, then disgusted, then moved, and I've oscillated between conflicting feelings every few seconds every time I listen to it.

I like the haunting quality of the original demo, and I never saw the necessity of turning any of Lennon's demos into finished songs. To me, the definitive version of Real Love is the old demo that I was so used to. But I can also appreciate a lot of what they did with those songs. 

That being said, I do feel that although the song did receive "the Beatles treatment", it's a little superficial. It has all the trappings of a Beatles song, but what a Beatles song was was constantly evolving throughout their career, so they never really relied on trappings. It's a little bit like paint by numbers, or ELO who knew precisely how to evoke The Beatles, what sounds to use and all.

But then again - The Beatles aren't really around anymore, so it's not like they can continue to evolve and redefine themselves. And no matter what we think, it's out now.

Edited by Rain
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My biggest issue is that they excluded the "I don't wanna lose you..." bridge.  It is harmonically rich and a great musical transition between the other 2 sections.  The arrangement is also a little too dense - it could've remained a little more stark.

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OK, I gave it a listen. Not bad, not good.

It was a demo, and he wasn't comfortable singing it. Adding the rest was impressive, but it really wasn't worth it on that song. Perhaps if the song was comfortable to sing and it was recorded with George Martin's magic, it could have been something.

So my verdict is: Interesting, but nothing I would purchase.

 

Insights and incites by Notes ♫

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I like the song and the more i listen to it the more i like it.  It does have that old Beatles vibe to it.  But I feel it's missing the tweaking that came from the back and forth between John and Paul.  I think the best Beatle songs where the ones Paul came up with and John threw his sarcasm, cynicism and dry wit into the mix.

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Saw this short video on Facebook this morning shared by The Beatles' profile admin, Paul, and Ringo -  I guess it's a preview of the little documentary - the last part of it was Lennon's voice soloed. Hit me much harder than the song with all the fluff, and to my ear, it was also more interesting. The beauty of the melody seemed more intelligible this way.

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I just realized there are 2 versions of this on youtube. The Official Audio version and the Official Music Video version. I've been listening to the Audio version and didn't like the song until I just saw the Video version of it. Now I can't stop listening to it. I don't know if it's my imagination or the fact that the Video version triggers all the nostalgia in me seeing them all together, but the mix seems better in it to me.

I forced myself to watch Rick Beato's 'reaction' to it (sorry but I can't stomach the guy), and I do have to agree with him on one thing. He commented on it being overcompressed or something along those lines. I got the impression he didn't care for it but was kissing ***** in hopes of getting an interview with Paul and Ringo.

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Anybody remember that guy Ben (?) who used to hang out in the old Coffeehouse and who was a huge fan of Lennon and the Beatles (and somewhat possessive of them, if that makes sense)? Wonder if he's still around and doing well. I seem to remember he was struggling with his emotions a bit at times, and it could sometimes be difficult to stay nice to him, but still... Hope he's ok.

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21 minutes ago, Rain said:

Anybody remember that guy Ben (?) who used to hang out in the old Coffeehouse and who was a huge fan of Lennon and the Beatles (and somewhat possessive of them, if that makes sense)? Wonder if he's still around and doing well. I seem to remember he was struggling with his emotions a bit at times, and it could sometimes be difficult to stay nice to him, but still... Hope he's ok.

Yep, the self styled Drunken Chef and Beatles expert amongst other things. Didn’t like (constructive) criticism of his “works”.

Fun reading.

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19 hours ago, pbognar said:

My biggest issue is that they excluded the "I don't wanna lose you..." bridge. 

I think they were right to cut that out. It seems a bit awkward and clanky to me and I think that the solo fits better. I do agree with @Shane_B. that there's too much compression. That said, I like it very much.

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5 hours ago, Rain said:

Anybody remember that guy Ben (?) who used to hang out in the old Coffeehouse

Yep. BenTechMusic or something like that. He was very gifted at mixing and mastering. One of his threads that sticks out in my mind is his argument for paper speaker cones vs. other materials.

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16 hours ago, Shane_B. said:

I just realized there are 2 versions of this on youtube. The Official Audio version and the Official Music Video version. I've been listening to the Audio version and didn't like the song until I just saw the Video version of it.

I'm going to look for that, I might change my mind. All I heard was the Audio version.

Thanks.

 

Notes ♫

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