In another seismic use of the technology, Sir Paul McCartney has revealed that artificial intelligence has been used to create a “final Beatles record”, due out later this year.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, McCartney said AI was used to “extricate” the voice of late Beatle John Lennon from an old demo.
“We just finished it up,” McCartney continued, adding: “It’ll be released this year.” Though the song in question has not been named, it is likely to be ‘Now And Then’, which was written by Lennon in 1978.
‘Now And Then’ was first rumoured to be a potential reunion song for The Beatles back in 1995, a year after McCartney received the demo from Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono. The track was found on a cassette labelled For Paul, made shortly before Lennon’s death in 1980.
Two of the tracks from the cassette, ‘Free As A Bird’ and ‘Real Love’, were released in 1995 and 96 with the help of producer Jeff Lynne. It marked The Beatles’ first released material in 25 years. The band attempted to record ‘Now And Then’, however the session was soon abandoned due to lack of material, technical issues and objections from George Harrison.
“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,” Lynne said.
“It didn’t have a very good title, it needed a bit of reworking,” McCartney later added. “But it had a beautiful verse and it had John singing it.
“[But] George didn’t like it. The Beatles being a democracy, we didn’t do it.”
Read More: How is artificial intelligence going to change music?
There was also said to have been a persistent “buzz” in the background, caused by the electricity circuits in Lennon’s apartment.
In the years since, Sir Paul has repeatedly talked about his desire to finish the song.
Since then, McCartney has expressed a desire to finish the song. “That one’s still lingering around,” he told BBC Four in 2012. “[I’m going to] finish it, one of these days.”
With the help of AI, it seems that finally, he has.
