The Beatles: In Review

Written By: Josey Ikker (’24)

I don’t know anyone else who has a good knowledge of the Beatles except for maybe a Houghton professor and a sibling, but I’ve been listening to the Beatles since I was about 7 or 8. The first instance I was introduced to this classic boy band was Yellow Submarine, a jukebox musical adaptation, based on the song of the name, released in 1968. The story focuses on a fantasy world that is taken over by henchmen called the Blue Meanies and numerous other villains who despise music-making. A captain, Fred, then travels to Liverpool, London to seek help from the fab-four to return to Pepperland and bring music back into the paradise. The film uses a lot of unique art styles done by Czech-German Heinz Edelmann; however the voices for the Beatles were done by counterpart actors with a live-action sequence at the end of the film of the original members. Growing up, I often overheard my sibling, who is also a Beatles fan, listening to a handful of albums throughout the day including, Rubber Soul, Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts, White Album, Abbey Road and a handful of others. Recently I began collecting vinyls and my first Beatles record, as a birthday present, was Rubber Soul, which has been in my top 3 favorites for some time now. Though Rubber Soul showed a lot of growth in their style, I was a little shocked, but realized that it made sense when I found out that the Beatles were in a rush to complete Rubber Soul. Yet they put most of their time and effort, not even on a Tour or filming session. It took almost 2 weeks to record and another six days to mix everything together. In November 2023, I had discovered news that the Beatles would be releasing their “Last song.” This final song would be called Now and Then. But how was this possible? John Lennon hasn’t been with us since December 1980 and George Harrison since November 2001. Well, back in the ’90s, Paul, Ringo and George had attempted to use demo recordings of John Lennon’s and mix those with their instrumentation. They had completed 2 of 3 songs from John Lennon; those being Free as a Bird and Real Love as part of their Anthology project. However, the one that wasn’t completed at the time was of course Now and Then as the vocals muffled with the piano made it too difficult to interpret and they didn’t have the technology at the time to complete it. Fast forward to 2022, Paul and Ringo, as George had passed away in 2001, came back to tackle Now and Then again. Peter Jackson, director of the Lord of the Rings films, had done a lot of work restoring archives of The Beatles, specifically for the Disney+ documentary series: Get Back from 2021. Jackson was able to create a technology to create separate tracks for the vocals, and accompaniment. Jackson shared in the Get Back Short Film, found on YouTube, “That ultimately led us to develop a technology, which allows us to take any soundtrack and split all the different components into separate tracks based on machine learning.” Now and Then represented a legacy the Beatles created and is still recognized to this day, with uses of 1970s vocals and contemporary instrumentation with simple, yet powerful lyrics. A week after Now and Then’s release, The Beatles had also come out with re-releases and expansions of the Red and Blue Albums including the new single. Overall, The Beatles, to me, still hold a place in my heart with the many genres and styles in rock and roll they portrayed, including creating that final song for a whole new generation. I would recommend listening to Now and Then, even if you’re not into the Beatles as much. You might be surprised how deep and meaningful it is. ★