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<div class="header reader-header reader-show-element"> <a
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href="https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-65881813">bbc.com</a>
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<h1 class="reader-title">Sir Paul McCartney says artificial
intelligence has enabled a 'final' Beatles song</h1>
<div class="credits reader-credits">By Mark Savage</div>
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<div data-component="image-block">
<figure>
<p><span><picture><source type="image/webp"><img
alt="The Beatles"
src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/14498/production/_130069038_gettyimages-519726116.jpg"
class="moz-reader-block-img" width="276"
height="155"></picture></span><span
role="text"><span class="visually-hidden">Image
source, </span>Getty Images</span></p>
<figcaption><span class="visually-hidden">Image
caption, </span>
<p>The Beatles previously cleaned up John Lennon
demos to create the "new" songs <font
size="6"><b>Free As A Bird and Real Love</b></font></p>
</figcaption></figure>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p><b>Sir Paul McCartney says he has employed
artificial intelligence to help create what he
calls "the final Beatles record".</b></p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>He <a
href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0ftvczc">told
BBC Radio 4's Today programme</a> the technology
had been used to "extricate" John Lennon's voice
from an old demo so he could complete the song.</p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>"We just finished it up and it'll be released
this year," he explained.</p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>Sir Paul did not name the song, but it is likely
to be a 1978 Lennon composition called Now And
Then.</p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>It had already been considered as a possible
"reunion song" for the Beatles in 1995, as they
were compiling their career-spanning Anthology
series.</p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>Sir Paul had received the demo a year earlier
from Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono. It was one of
several songs on a cassette labelled "For Paul"
that Lennon had made shortly before his death in
1980. </p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>Lo-fi and embryonic, the tracks were largely
recorded onto a boombox as the musician sat at a
piano in his New York apartment.</p>
</div>
<div data-component="image-block">
<figure>
<p><span><span></span></span><span role="text"><span
class="visually-hidden">Image source, </span>Getty
Images</span></p>
<figcaption><span class="visually-hidden">Image
caption, </span>
<p>Lennon wrote Now And Then during his
"retirement" era, when he had no record
contract and was busy raising his son, Sean</p>
</figcaption></figure>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>Cleaned up by producer Jeff Lynne, two of those
songs - Free As A Bird and Real Love - were
completed and released in 1995 and 96, marking the
Beatles' first "new" material in 25 years.</p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>The band also attempted to record Now And Then,
an apologetic love song that was fairly typical of
Lennon's later career, but the session was quickly
abandoned.</p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>"It was one day - one afternoon, really - messing
with it," Lynne recalled.</p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>"The song had a chorus but is almost totally
lacking in verses. We did the backing track, a
rough go that we really didn't finish."</p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>Sir Paul later claimed George Harrison refused to
work on the song, saying the sound quality of
Lennon's vocal was "rubbish".</p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>"It didn't have a very good title, it needed a
bit of reworking, but it had a beautiful verse and
it had John singing it," he told Q Magazine.</p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>"[But] George didn't like it. The Beatles being a
democracy, we didn't do it."</p>
</div>
<div data-component="image-block">
<figure>
<p><span><span></span></span><span role="text"><span
class="visually-hidden">Image source, </span>PA
Media</span></p>
<figcaption><span class="visually-hidden">Image
caption, </span>
<p>The three remaining Beatles (L-R Ringo Starr,
Paul McCartney and George Harrison, pictured
with producer George Martin) re-entered the
recording studio in 1995</p>
</figcaption></figure>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>There were also said to have been technical
issues with the original recording, which featured
a persistent "buzz" from the electricity circuits
in Lennon's apartment.</p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>In 2009, a new version of the demo, without the
background noise, was released on a bootleg CD.
Fans have speculated that this recording may not
have been available in 1995, suggesting it was
stolen from his apartment, along with other
personal effects, after his death.</p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>In the intervening years, Sir Paul has repeatedly
talked about his desire to finish the song.</p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>"That one's still lingering around," he told a
BBC Four documentary on Jeff Lynne in 2012. "So
I'm going to nick in with Jeff and do it. Finish
it, one of these days."</p>
</div>
<p data-component="subheadline-block"></p>
<h2 tabindex="-1" id="Ropey-cassette"><span
role="text">'Ropey cassette'</span></h2>
<p></p>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>It would seem that technology has now afforded
the musician a chance to achieve that goal.</p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>The turning point came with Peter Jackson's Get
Back documentary, where dialogue editor Emile de
la Rey trained computers to recognise the Beatles'
voices and separate them from background noises,
and even their own instruments, to create "clean"
audio.</p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>The same process allowed Sir Paul to "duet" with
Lennon on his recent tour, and for new surround
sound mixes of the Beatles' Revolver album to be
created last year.</p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>"He [Jackson] was able to extricate John's voice
from a ropey little bit of cassette," Sir Paul
told Radio 4's Martha Kearney. </p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>"We had John's voice and a piano and he could
separate them with AI. They tell the machine,
'That's the voice. This is a guitar. Lose the
guitar'. </p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>"So when we came to to make what will be the last
Beatles' record, it was a demo that John had [and]
we were able to take John's voice and get it pure
through this AI. </p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>"Then we can mix the record, as you would
normally do. So it gives you some sort of leeway."</p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>However, the musician admitted that other
applications of AI gave him cause for concern. </p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>"I'm not on the internet that much [but] people
will say to me, 'Oh, yeah, there's a track where
John's singing one of my songs', and it's just AI,
you know? </p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>"It's kind of scary but exciting, because it's
the future. We'll just have to see where that
leads."</p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>The star was talking to Radio 4 ahead of the
launch of a new book and accompanying photography
exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery.</p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>Titled Eyes Of The Storm, the project features
portraits taken by Sir Paul on his own camera,
between December 1963 and February 1964, as the
Beatles were catapulted to global fame.</p>
</div>
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<h2>More on this story</h2>
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