Quoted from Bungalow Bill

has there been any news on Now and Then of late? is it planned for the remasters or Paul solo or what?

I heard a rumor last summer that Paul wanted to finish it off and put it on one of his solo albums, but it was probably one of those News Of The World celebrity gossip type stories. The rumor about a deal with iTunes to release  a remastered Beatles catalog very likely falls into the same category:

http://abbeyrd.best.vwh.net/news/308itunesdivorce.html

Quoted from Geoff

I heard a rumor last summer that Paul wanted to finish it off and put it on one of his solo albums, but it was probably one of those News Of The World celebrity gossip type stories. The rumor about a deal with iTunes to release  a remastered Beatles catalog very likely falls into the same category:

http://abbeyrd.best.vwh.net/news/308itunesdivorce.html

Quoted from BlueMeanie

Bingo! (Should have taken the more direct approach myself).

Please forgive me, if i'm wrong for this, but i think Apple needs a wake up call on Now and then,The same way, they got one on the Beatles live at the bbc, 2 cd set back in 1994.
This song was done in very good taste by iamaphoney on youtube, and it sounds like it could have fit on the love cd, in my opinion.
I  have heard it quite a few times and it has really blown me away, Apple could make millions by releasing it with the downloads or on it's own, or even on a greatest hits cd.
this is just my opinion , but      http://www.thepetitionsite.com.....p;   
might be the way to get Apple's attention.
The Beatles did originally plan on releasing this for the anthology series, but technology needed to progress a bit more.
I  truly feel that with what we have here in 2008, it can be achieved.
just my opinion, and i understand that there are those who oppose it, but it would be the final gift that the Beatles could give us.

just thought id through a video up of a song i cant help but think of when hearing Then and Now.

it is by a very underrated English band called The Doves

it starts to come together after the first verse.




the video has absolutely nothing to do with the song and was just used to accompany it.

An enterprising and talented fan has created a virtual Beatles reunion album and posted his results on youtube.com, according to the Beatles fan website Abbey Road Best (abbeyrd.best.vwh.net).

A man identified as Octavio (actually it is 2 guys)has taken rare Beatles and solo demo tracks and added appropriate "Beatlesque" sounding instrumentation to essentially create the album that never was. One of Octavio's "outfakes" of the third unfinished mid-'90s Beatles reunion track "Now And then" recently duped some longtime fans into thinking that they were actually hearing an unreleased Beatles reunion performance.

Among the demos that have been overdubbed are such rarities as Paul McCartney's 1968 version of "Goodbye" which morphs his 1968 demo with Mary Hopkin's 1969 version; George Harrison's All Things Must Pass-era demos of "Nowhere To Go" and "I Don't Wanna Do It"; John Lennon's late '70s and 1980 demos of "India," "You Saved My Soul," "Help Me To Help Myself," "Grow Old With Me," and others.

All of the tracks are created to sound very much like the Beatles' Anthology reunion tracks "Free As A Bird" and "Real Love," which were produced by ELO's Jeff Lynne.
Octavio has started his own blog virtualbeatles.blogspot.com which provides the audio to the tracks. The videos, which mainly consist of photo montages, can be accessed by logging on to youtube.com/user/gaius476.

they do sound preety good, but "Now and then" would sound so much better if Paul and Ringo were to finish it, or maybe, it's already done.
But these demo's with newly added instruments do sound very enjoyable, i hope Apple, Paul, Ringo, Olivia, and Yoko are seeing the interest being generated for "Now and then".

those newly worked on songs are also available on these 2 guys blog space and they can be downloaded too for free.

Quoted from awc1967

An enterprising and talented fan has created a virtual Beatles reunion album and posted his results on youtube.com, according to the Beatles fan website Abbey Road Best (abbeyrd.best.vwh.net).

yes, i've heard these, very good i must admit.

Whenever I mention, now and then, i'm not trying to be Sid Bernstein, it's just that Paul actually started all this by saying he would like to finish it, since then it has became a giant internet rumor, but then again, is it really a rumor?
I  beleive, even those opposed or even those who don't care, would love the finished version.
The melody and meaning has really got me hooked on it, it's in me bloody head and i can't get it out'.

I'd love to see it resolved as well.

Listening to 'Now And Then' I think they did well to drop it. It's a very similar tempo to 'Real Love' and 'Free As A Bird', and pretty uninspiring to my ears.

Quoted from BlueMeanie

Listening to 'Now And Then' I think they did well to drop it. It's a very similar tempo to 'Real Love' and 'Free As A Bird', and pretty uninspiring to my ears.

I agree. It would have to be- or should be- completely rethought with a new recording begun from scratch. No one would be interested in that, though: it's not a Beatles "reunion."

Quoted from Geoff

I agree. It would have to be- or should be- completely rethought with a new recording begun from scratch. No one would be interested in that, though: it's not a Beatles "reunion."

Lennons voice sounds awful in it, as it does on the other two. Though a top engineer might be able to get something better out of it. It's a shame that - given all his experiences with the sound guys at Abbey Road, and all the technological innovations that came about, partly because of him - he doesn't seem to have embraced technology very much in the 70's. He could at least have had a little home studio for his demo's instead of singing into a cassette recorder!

Quoted from BlueMeanie

Lennons voice sounds awful in it, as it does on the other two.

It's surely a very provisional work-in-progress demo, and the surviving tape is probably a couple of generations removed from the original. John's vocal is tentative at best; he's just feeling his way though a half finished song and recording it to get some idea of where he's at with it. Good point about him not having some sort of home studio; that is odd, because he did have them at Kenwood at Tittenhurst Park, didn't he?

By the way, here's the youtube for "Now and Then" again if anyone's interested. I don't see this original take elsewhere in the thread.

I think Johns method of recording in the dakota was a pretty simple one........just like when he came up with s.fields,he had an idea and put it to tape right away.
Juts as a writer would scribble an idea down on a piece of paper...this would be how ideas would be kept for a later date....to go back on and progress the track.
Its something i do...and i remember hearing a great story from Fran Healy the Travis singer......he said that he was sitting with the guitar one night when he came up with that famous tune they had(rain on me?).......so he grabbed a little tape recorder and sang the melody and played the guitar parts etc.He then put the recorder and guitar down and made himself a cuppa....totally forgetting the tune he had just wrote..
So half an hour later,he came back to the tape recorder all excited to hear wht this great new song sounded like,only to find that he didnt actually record the song properly...he had the pause button on and only released this when he had finished recording........BUT(the point is coming).....its ends up he was whisteling the song when he was making the tea,and the recorder picked this up.......so Travis had their hit.......phew


Sorry that has no relevance really.....

Now and then......great song,great melody.....but just an idea around the piano......john is making it up as he goes along......there is only one take of this song also just to add to the fact.

Macca should do something with it,as i think it kind of relates to them both....it would be nice to hear paul bouncing off johns verse with a vocal etc....

the end

sorry  

Love the Travis story, Paul!

I think John's demos were often pretty rough, and the band would work on knocking them into shape. Unfortunately, I just don't see how this can happen when the John contribution is frozen in time on a bad recording. I do think Paul would be better off taking it as inspiration and creating something fresh from it. But what do I know?