There have been mixed reactions since Paul McCartney announced there would be a new song by The Beatles being released with the help of AI. While many are excited to hear a final song by the fab four, others believe it’s in poor taste to recreate the voices of George Harrison and John Lennon. However, Ringo Starr recently tried to alleviate fans’ concerns by assuring them that George Harrison and John Lennon’s voices are not artificial.
Ringo Starr revealed George Harrison provided vocals for the new Beatles song before he died
Many were surprised to hear that a new Beatles song would come later this year. Paul McCartney confirmed it in an interview with BBC where he told them that the track would be completed utilizing AI technology that was previously used in Peter Jackson’s The Beatles: Get Back documentary.
“He [Jackson] was able to extricate John’s voice from a ropey little bit of cassette,” McCartney shared. “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’. So when we came 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. Then we can mix the record, as you would normally do. So it gives you some sort of leeway.”
This led to confusion as many thought Lennon’s voice was being recreated using AI. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Ringo Starr wanted to clarify that Lennon and George Harrison’s voices would never be recreated using technology. He also confirmed that Harrison had recorded his vocals on the new track, “Now and Then”, before his death.
“This was beautiful,” Starr exclaimed. “And it’s the final track you’ll ever hear with the four lads. And that’s a fact.”
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Starr also confirmed that John Lennon’s vocals are authentic
McCartney recently clarified that Lennon’s vocals had already been recorded but were only polished and cleaned with the assistance of AI. In a recent interview with People, Ringo Starr also shared that Lennon’s vocals were authentic along with George Harrison’s.
“This is absolutely John Lennon’s voice, taken off, as neat as we can, a cassette,” Starr explained. “And that’s all I can tell you!”
“Now and Then” was one of three songs considered as Beatles singles for the 1995 Anthology project. The other two songs, “Free as a Bird” and “Real Love”, contained unreleased audio of Lennon who didn’t finish the songs before he died in 1980. “Now and Then” was scrapped after they deemed the quality of the song was poor and there was too much work needed to make it releasable.
“We did that in the ’90s, George [Harrison], Paul and I, with the help of Jeff Lynne, who took John’s voice off a cassette,” Starr told People. “Whichever way he did that, I don’t know. Jeff is very… [he] dials in. And he had that job, and he was producing. When we did those two tracks, then we got to the third one, we felt we’d done enough, and we worked on it for 10 minutes.”
