now and then 😭

By now, I would hope that anyone who reads this thing has heard the new Beatles song. Regardless of your opinion on the Beatles or the song itself, it's a phenomenon of pop culture and technology! We're living an incredible moment in music history!!

Ok, that said, I will now do the thing where I just throw a bunch of tweet (X?) sized observations in a list, because I'm still trying to process it all and can't write a coherent post, yet. So here are my takes on the song, the music video, and the mini-documentary, interspersed with screenshots I took this morning in a frenzy:

• The mini-doc, which was released first, is still my favorite piece of media from this whole thing. So much restored and unseen Anthology footage! So much George in flannel! And lovely videos from John's New York era.

• "That's computer stuff" reminds me of George's Yahoo Q&A from 2001, such a treasure.

• How is it that Ringo looks like he has de-aged in the last 30 years?

• My only gripe is how scripted Paul sounds. Pol, just speak from your heart!!

• I'm still blown away by the technology (I just keep calling it the Peter Jackson AI, for lack of a better term) that lets us extract John's voice, crystal clear, from a grainy half-century-old tape. It really feels magical.

• PETER JACKSON IS THE BEST THING TO HAPPEN TO BEATLEFANS IN THIS MILLENNIUM.

• On paper, the lyrics are nothing to write home about. It almost seems like an early Beatles song in its simplicity, but with the weight and sentiment of someone who's lived through a lot since then.

• Add to that the lore that "now and then" was part of John and Paul's last conversation and suddenly the whole thing is rather heartbreaking.

• THIS MUCH strings?? I'll allow it, because it's very Beatle-y, and very George Martin-y.

• It's already been said a lot on the internet, but 82-year-old Paul singing with 38-year-old John is a real gut-punch.

• Like, I'm sure Paul knows how much his voice has aged, but I love the thought that adding harmony to John comes so naturally to him, and that he didn't think twice about adding his vocals because that's just the Lennon-McCartney way.

• Hearing the difference in their voices was jarring at first, but kind of beautiful now.

• The instrumental break wrecked me immediately. I wish it could've been a George solo, but Paul doing slide guitar in honor of George is the next best thing, and the harmonies sound so good, I LOSE IT EVERY TIME.

• I think the melancholy vibe is a nice complement to the "other" two late Beatles songs, Free As A Bird and Real Love. Together they are a nice trilogy.

• First impression of the music video: a little sappy, a little corny, WHOA the AI did some weird things to Young George...

• Second impression of the video: ok actually this is a technological and creative feat, they are looking at each other across decades, why am I crying all of a sudden??

• All subsequent viewings of the video: this is a miracle, we don't deserve this, bless these four men forever and ever

• Also, I CANNOT believe they put the clip of George undressing from the Hello Goodbye outtake in this video.

• Using so much Hello Goodbye footage feels cheesy, but I get it—it's a romp and also conveniently in the same tempo.

• I'm still in awe of how well the AI inserted 2023 Paul & Ringo into the HG video. Inserting John and George in 2023 felt a little cringe, though.

• I'm sure in 30 years all this nascent AI stuff will seem so primitive, but how exciting to be here while it's still being used for wholesome things like Beatles music videos.

• (Is Peter Jackson the 5th Beatle?)

• They've really marketed themselves into a hole calling this THE LAST BEATLES SONG, but I'm hopeful we might still get remixes of Free As A Bird and Real Love (would be awesome to see what Peter Jackson's AI can do with those songs) and while we're at it, maybe a 30 year Anthology re-release?!

• So many members of the extended Beatles family came together (SWIDT?) to make this happen. THANK YOU Yoko, Olivia, Sean, Giles, Peter Jackson, Pete Best even!, Paul, and Ringo. ❤️❤️❤️