The Beatles Should Just Let It Be

Let me get this out of the way: Like you, perhaps, I appreciate the Beatles more than clear air. Their music is the soundtrack of my life. Don't take that last sentence lightly. I'm in my 60s.

Further, my Beatles street cred is beyond reproach. I teach a class at Stony Brook University in New York called "The Beatles: Their Music, Legacy and Influence." I wrote a 14,000-ebook (for no money) called "Goo Goo Ga Joob: Why 'I Am the Walrus' is The Beatles' Greatest Song." I've seen Paul McCartney perform six times.

I feel a need to make these points because I might make you very angry. 

You see, I maintain that the Beatles should NOT release the new "Beatles" single that McCartney heralded earlier this year. When it comes to the Beatles' legacy, I say: let it be.

The betting is that the song will be called "Now and Then." John Lennon recorded the demo, which he never intended for public release, well after the Beatles broke up. Lennon knocked it off on the piano, in his apartment at the Dakota. 

"Now and Then" represents the third example of how recording technology can take a low-tech demo from Lennon's private vault, clean up the scratches and remove the hisses.

"Now and Then" would follow the lackluster "Free as a Bird" and the uninspiring "Real Love." Both were also Lennon-penned songs that were credited to "the Beatles" when they came out in the 1990s.

"Free as a Bird" and "Real Love" (the latter of which sounded a lot more moving to me when it was released in its original, stripped-down presentation on a "John Lennon Anthology" package) were thinly disguised gimmicks that anchored the ballyhooed "Beatles Anthology" compact discs.

Trust me, I get no satisfaction from blasting the post-breakup Beatles releases. I had high hopes that they would succeed, at least as a novelty. But I found the relative quality of the two songs to be very disappointing.

For the record, I also blanched when McCartney exploited footage of Lennon singing on "I've Got a Feeling" from Peter Jackson's "Get Back" film, which showed the Beatles recording a new album and performing new songs up on the Apple Ltd. roof on Jan. 30, 1969.

McCartney used the clip during his concert performances of "I've Got a Feeling." Playing devil's advocate, you could say that McCartney, whom I greatly admire as an artist and an individual, gave young (and older) Beatles fans an opportunity to enjoy the Lennon-McCartney magic one more time. Me? I saw it as a cheap gimmick. 

Call me stodgy — I've been called a lot worse — but I think the Beatles' legacy should be pure and not compromised by gimmicks. Let the lesser acts do that.

My objection also raises a key point about the uses of technology in culture. We are bound to see opportunists apply AI technology to revive old images and recordings in ways we probably can't fully imagine.

And I recognize that someone who disagrees with my position could retort that such endeavors as the release of "Now and Then" and McCartney's new performance of "I've Got a Feeling" succeed in keeping the Beatles' music relevant, by exposing it to a whole new generation that can only appreciate the Beatles on YouTube.

Sadly, these whippersnappers were born too late to have the thrill of turning on the radio in the Sixties and hearing a disc jockey breathlessly announce, "And now, here is the NEW BEATLES SONG." 

Am I merely a 1960s snob? Maybe!

I hate the idea of dredging up songs, which John Lennon himself never felt a need to record properly in a professional studio, and then foisting them on a public that is desperate for a new Beatles song.  

The practice of adding background vocals and musical instruments to a home recording is shamelessly inauthentic. I doubt that Lennon, who recorded a song entitled "Gimme Some Truth," one of the highlights of his 1971 "Imagine" album, would get behind this gimmick.

"Free as a Bird" and "Real Love" sounded second-rate upon their releases in the 1990s. The songs were released to coincide with the airing of the Beatles' "Anthology" package of CDs and an eight-part television series. 

The Beatles consisted of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr making music in their recording studio in London. A genuine Beatles song was the product of John and/or Paul (and less often, George on his own) writing a song and bringing it into the studio. When the four musicians and close friends worked together, they made magic.

Their inspiration did not come from studio tricks. Even when they experimented, starting with the "Revolver" album in 1966, the magic came from their collaborations.

I'm so tired of sounding like a blue meanie. You know something? I hope "Now and Then" proves me 100% wrong. I hope it is a gem. I hope we all grow to love it. I hope it is brilliant and inspiring. 

But I won't hold my breath.