Counting down!!!

[billylentz]

I´m excited alright, but not quite as much as back in the 90s when "Free as a bird" was released, perhaps because the song is already known. But back then I didn´t had access to the demo. First time I heard "Free as a bird" was on the lunchtime news the day after it was first aired in England, slide guitars, new vocals and everything.

But, yes, I´m looking very forward to it! November 2nd is holiday in Brazil, so I´ll be ready waiting for it when it´s 10h30am in my local time!

[DrRobert]

I cannot wait.

I end up buying most stuff because I can afford it and I want it.

They were and are one of the most important things in my life. They always make it better so anything they do, even stuff like Eight Days A Week, is a bonus to me.

Bring it on.

(I'll not be able to listen to it until the Thursday evening so will be avoiding everything until then)

[Rickenbacker325]

Lots of memories of the premiers of Free as a Bird..and Real Love…I loved them both then and still do…I’ve always been a big fan of Jeff Lynne and his production methods.. To say I’m excited about Now & Then would be an understatement.. I’ve already preordered the colored vinyl sets…the CDs as well as the cassette.. I’m sure I’ll add the 12” as well…it’s a sickness that’s very much still infecting me to this day

[beckman99]

Lots of memories of the premiers of Free as a Bird..and Real Love…I loved them both then and still do…I’ve always been a big fan of Jeff Lynne and his production methods.. To say I’m excited about Now & Then would be an understatement.. I’ve already preordered the colored vinyl sets…the CDs as well as the cassette.. I’m sure I’ll add the 12” as well…it’s a sickness that’s very much still infecting me to this day

u should earn an mbe for doin so much for the beatles economy . to keep the world in ying and yang, I won´t buy anything of it .

[Rickenbacker325]

Lots of memories of the premiers of Free as a Bird..and Real Love…I loved them both then and still do…I’ve always been a big fan of Jeff Lynne and his production methods.. To say I’m excited about Now & Then would be an understatement.. I’ve already preordered the colored vinyl sets…the CDs as well as the cassette.. I’m sure I’ll add the 12” as well…it’s a sickness that’s very much still infecting me to this day

u should earn an mbe for doin so much for the beatles economy . to keep the world in ying and yang, I won´t buy anything of it .

As I stated previously…it’s a sickness…my collection reflects just how ill I am!

[plasticsoul]

If Peter Jackson and others have been able to produce miracles with John's Now And Then demo and improve it significantly (as reported), I wonder if they could revisit FAAB and Real Love to enhance them too..??

[Kwai Chang]

Good Morning! (ALL: KAILI!!!)
I know everyone is excited. EVEN I don't feel any of the trepidation that I felt in 1995. Technology may be artificial...but, when hasn't it been? Was there any REAL reason to buy BC-13 in 1978? Was that SPIN artificial in EVERY WAY? Certainly. As technology will cultivate a new disregard for essence, it will not bring harm to the Beatles or the things that we love about them. Just the opposite...failure can prove intelligence by a set of consistent standards to use as a totem. If Capitol and EMI have ever hedged on a sure thing...as the theme of Spizer's The Beatles Are Coming! details, then that is all the artificiality that we need! Moving forward, as in legitimate reasons to embrace openmindedness, it is important to enjoy things based on other's hopes and needs! There is plenty for everyone to be excited for. The technology that will eliminate the barrier of language and make all conversation connected will be a Laurel Wreath laid at all of our feet...
EVERYONE can be Beatles fans! I think it will be the common denominator of a new arithmetic. That is just generalized hyperbole that is just inexact but guaranteed. The excitement is for everyone and it's coming...it's been here before...and, it's already upon us. In the name of all things sacred...
I will tell you why next time is here...NOW!
I mean, next time...we will give Lord Reith a reason to be confident in very New, and REAL ways.
Think from North To South...from then to now...from math to science!
It will be a very different SAME old thing!
Advantage: Unity!
Steve Hofmann is a part of this. We all are...
argue while you can! The Beatles ARE COMING!
KC

[JosRem]

First review:
L.A. Times Provides More Details on Beatles' Upcoming 'Now and Then' on October 30, 2023
Some more details on the new Beatles tune from the Los Angeles Times:
McCartney has spent nearly 30 years with “Now and Then” lingering in the back of his mind — amazingly, the time separating its release and “Real Love” is longer than the distance between “Free as a Bird” and “The Long and Winding Road,” the final single the Beatles released in their lifespan — so it should come as no surprise that the finished product hardly sounds haphazard. It’s deliberate and sumptuous, savvily disguising the flaws in the original cassette tape and the age in McCartney’s voice through seamless studio trickery.

Most of this sleight of hand comes from McCartney, who is credited for production alongside Giles Martin — the son of original Beatles producer George Martin who has become the caretaker of their recorded legacy — and plays every instrument outside of Ringo’s drums and the trace elements of Lennon’s piano and Harrison’s rhythm guitar parts from the 1990s. The studio can be deceiving: The soaring slide guitar solo seems unmistakably like George but Paul designed it as a tribute to his late bandmate.

Back in 1994, McCartney bristled at Harrison playing slide guitar on “Free as a Bird” — “I thought, oh, it’s ‘My Sweet Lord’ again” — so there’s some measure of irony that Paul replicates every one of George’s slide signatures on the “Now and Then” solo. Yet it also feels loving, a way of communing with the departed.

That feeling applies to “Now and Then” as a whole. Where the “Anthology” reunion tracks carry a sense of bright nostalgia, there’s a wistful undercurrent flowing through the recording, an appreciation of what was given as much as a mourning for what was lost. Almost all of these emotions are conjured through the recording itself. Unlike “Free as a Bird,” which was given a bridge that was a bit on the nose, McCartney pares away Lennon’s words; a second verse with a “lose you or abuse you” rhyme has been excised, as has a wandering bridge.

One place where there’s an additional word is when McCartney sings “then we will know for sure I will love you” at the close of a verse, an addition that buttresses a melody that dissipated during this moment on the original Lennon demo. That is also the only moment where McCartney’s voice can be distinctly recognized. Throughout “Now and Then,” the voices of the other Beatles are more felt than heard, with McCartney teasing out the song’s inherent emotion with his arrangements, letting his bass, Ringo’s rhythms and George’s chugging strums, not their vocal harmonies, carry the weight.

Robbed of the opportunity to participate in a true final collaboration with his greatest muse, McCartney instead elevates this suggestion of a song into a realized record, one where its elegant, softly psychedelic flow lets Lennon’s longing linger in the subconscious. That regret is articulated clearly in a chorus of “Now and then, I miss you / Now and then, I want you to be there for me / Always to return to me,” words that sharpen John’s original intention with its second newly written clause. It’s a passage where Lennon’s yearning for McCartney intertwines with Paul’s mourning for John, a shared grieving for the partnership that defined both their lives. In that sense, “Now and Then” does provide something of a fitting conclusion to the Beatles’ recorded career — not so much a summation but as a coda that conveys a sense of what the band both achieved and lost.

[ExDalek]

I am looking forward to the song and I have ordered the red and blue cds. To hear a new song and stereo remixes on expanded albums is fine by me. If you don't like them, then you still have the originals. No one really loses. As long as the next one isn't oldies but goldies expanded with free as a bird and real love on it. We all have limits.

[Lord Reith]

I'm wary of reading any reviews (and watching the making of video) because I don't want spoilers. I want it to be completely new to me. And unless Macca has lost all critical facility in his old age then it's sure to be a winner. If it isn't then, well, so be it I but I'm optimistic it will at the very least be a good record and at best a brilliant one.

This record is more poignant than the 1995 ones to me because then there were three of them. Now there's only two. So it's about George as well as John.

If Peter Jackson and others have been able to produce miracles with John's Now And Then demo and improve it significantly (as reported), I wonder if they could revisit FAAB and Real Love to enhance them too..??

At one of the listening events it was hinted that Anthology will be reappearing, so I'd guess that they're holding them back for such an eventuality.