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The “last” Beatles song, “Now and Then,” moved George Harrison's son, Dhani Harrison, to tears according to Peter Jackson.
Here comes the tears
In an interview with the Beatles website, Jackson revealed that Dhani was “immediately” moved to tears upon discussing “Now and Then.” Jackson needed help landing the ending, and Dhani assisted him.
“Fortunately, Dhani Harrison happened to be visiting NZ at this time,” Jackson recalled. “I discussed the ending with him, and described one vague idea I'd been toying with. His eyes immediately filled with tears – so that is the way we went.”
Peter Jackson is known for directing the Lord of the Rings trilogy and the Hobbit films. But recently, he's been working with the Beatles a lot. First, he directed the Disney+ docuseries, The Beatles: Get Back, which documented the Let It Be sessions via archived footage. He cleaned it up and restored hours upon hours of footage.
So much so, that Paul McCartney uses the footage and John Lennon's isolated vocals during his concerts. When he and his band play “I've Got a Feeling,” Lennon's face from the iconic rooftop concert appears behind him. His isolated vocals sing the middle eight and allows McCartney to duet with him one more time.
“Now and Then” was originally written by Lennon in 1977. It was originally a home demo that was left unfinished, but upon Lennon's death, the remaining Beatles wanted to record it. This was considered to e their third reunion single after “Free as a Bird” and “Real Love,” which were similarly spawned from Lennon demos, for The Beatles Anthology album.
Nearly 30 years later, the two remaining Beatles, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, completed the song with overdubs. They also incorporate guitar tracks from George Harrison from the 1995 sessions. Original vocals from Lennon were “extricated” by AI. The song, which is billed as the “last” Beatles song, will be released on November 2.
