Paul McCartney clears up confusion about use of AI in new Beatles’ track

Paul McCartney said in a recent interview that ‘the last Beatles record’ will be released later this year with the help of artificial intelligence. More news in due course.” The track, which McCartney did not name, is believed to be “Now and Then,” an unfinished 1978 Lennon recording taped in the slain singer’s New York City apartment. So then we could mix the record as you would normally do.” In 1995, the three then-living Beatles — McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr — reunited to record new tracks as part of the multimedia retrospective project “The Beatles Anthology.” The songs came to life thanks to Lennon‘s demo tapes given to McCartney by Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono, a year prior. “That one’s still lingering around, so I’m gonna nick in with Jeff and do it — finish it one of these days.” In a 2021 New Yorker interview, the “Live and Let Die” songwriter reiterated his intention to finish “Now and Then,” despite Harrison having called it “f— rubbish.” The “Hey Jude” musician regained hope for completing the track after working with director Peter Jackson on the 2021 Beatles documentary series “Get Back.” “He was able to extricate John’s voice from a ropey little bit of cassette, where it had John’s voice and a piano,” McCartney said in last week’s interview. “People will say to me there’s a track where John’s singing one of my songs and it isn’t — it’s just AI, you know?” he said.