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The Beatles to return with one last record featuring John Lennon's voice resurrected via AI assist

The British rock band from the 60s previously cleaned up John Lennon demos to create 'new' songs such as 'Free As A Bird' and 'Real Love.'

The Beatles to return with one last record featuring John Lennon's voice resurrected via AI assist
The Beatles, from left to right Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, John Lennon (1940 - 1980), and George Harrison (1943 - 2001), performing in Manchester, England on November 25, 1963. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

The Beatles have finished a new recording using an old demo tape by John Lennon! They did this with the help of AI, which isolated the late singer's voice. "We just finished it up, it'll be released this year," Paul McCartney, Lennon's former bandmate, told the Today program on BBC Radio 4. The technology helped "extricate" Lennon's voice from an old demo so he could complete the song, he shared. McCartney, 80, and Ringo Starr, 82, are the last two surviving band members of the group. It will be "the last Beatles record," said McCartney.

The Beatles celebrate the completion of their new album, 'Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band', at a press conference held at the west London home of their manager Brian Epstein. The LP is released on June 1st. (Photo by John Pratt/Keystone/Getty Images)
Image Source: The Beatles celebrate the completion of their new album, 'Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band', at a press conference held at the west London home of their manager Brian Epstein. The LP is released on June 1st. (Photo by John Pratt/Keystone/Getty Images)

The British rock band from the 60s previously cleaned up John Lennon demos to create "new" songs such as "Free As A Bird" and "Real Love," according to BBC. They were completed and released in 1995 and 1996, marking the band's first "new" material in 25 years. While McCartney has not announced the name of the new record, it is likely to be an apologetic love song titled "Now And Then," which Lennon wrote in his retirement era. Producer Jeff Lynne said, "It was one day - one afternoon, really - messing with it. The song had a chorus but is almost totally lacking in verses. We did the backing track, a rough go that we really didn't finish."

McCartney later claimed that band member George Harrison refused to work on the song and blamed the sound quality of Lennon's vocals as "rubbish." "It didn't have a very good title, it needed a bit of reworking, but it had a beautiful verse and it had John singing it," he told Q Magazine. "[But] George didn't like it. The Beatles being a democracy, we didn't do it."

The Beatles, left to right, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr and John Lennon (1940 - 1980) arrive at London Airport February 6, 1964, after a trip to Paris. It was reported November 8, 2001 that Harrison is undergoing cancer treatment in a Staten Island, N.Y., hospital. The 58-year-old ex-Beatle was diagnosed with lung cancer and a brain tumor earlier this year. (Photo by Getty Images)
Image Source: The Beatles, left to right, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr and John Lennon (1940 - 1980) arrive at London Airport on February 6, 1964, after a trip to Paris. (Photo by Getty Images)

Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, reportedly gave McCartney several of the late singer and songwriter's home demo recordings. McCartney revealed that a demo recording that Lennon made before his death in 1980 was used to create the upcoming song.

Image Source: John Lennon (1940 -1980), singer, songwriter and guitarist of British pop group The Beatles, with his wife Yoko Ono listening to the playback of one of their tapes. (Photo by Keystone Features/Getty Images)
Image Source: John Lennon (1940 -1980), singer, songwriter and guitarist of British pop group The Beatles, with his wife Yoko Ono listening to the playback of one of their tapes. (Photo by Keystone Features/Getty Images)

"We were able to take John's voice and get it pure through this AI so that then we could mix the record as you would normally do. So, it gives you some sort of leeway," he said. McCartney added that the inspiration to use tech came from director Peter Jackson who resurrected archival materials for "Get Back," his documentary about the band making the "Let It Be" album.

"He was able to extricate John's voice from a ropey little bit of cassette which had John's voice and a piano," McCartney said of the director, reports NPR. "He could separate them with AI. They could, they'd tell the machine, 'That's a voice. This is a guitar. Lose the guitar.' And he did that."



 

Other applications of AI gave the artist cause for concern, but he is hopeful about the recording's release. "I'm not on the internet that much [but] people will say to me, 'Oh, yeah, there's a track where John's singing one of my songs,' and it's just AI, you know? It's kind of scary but exciting because it's the future. We'll just have to see where that leads," he said.



 

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