Peaceful Finality
Now and Then by The Beatles (Newer Music Friday)
“To still be working on Beatles music in 2023… wow.” Wow indeed, Paul McCartney!
I spent a good amount of time today trying to figure out whether I would talk about “Now and Then” or not. However, when I reflect on how The Beatles make me feel, the love I have for them, I just couldn’t sit idly by without giving some of my thoughts on the song.
I’ll start by saying that while I’m not technically a Beatles scholar (which, by the way, is a pretty cool kind of scholar to be), I like to think I know my stuff when it comes to the Fab Four. Yes, they were one of my many musical obsessions, but they might be the one I dove the deepest with. In fact, The Beatles are the reason I began writing about music in the first place, when I finally put pen to paper and wrote my very first review after being inspired by the countless biographies and essays I had written about them. I was lucky enough to have a box set of all their CDs in my house, and I used to alternate between those and The Beatles Channel on Sirius XM. I wrote an essay on John Lennon for history class, pored over the Anthology albums, drifted off to sleep to the soothing sounds of Revolver. I was all Beatles, all the time! Even though my frequency of listening to them has faded over the years (not much though, I assure you), of course I was still over the moon at the announcement of “Now and Then”.
The song begins with a Paul count off, similarly to how their very first album began. However, instead of a energized “a-one-two-three-FAW!”, this one is a synchronized, methodical “ONE-two”. There’s two extra counts left unsaid before the song really begins, perhaps symbolizing the “three-four” who have passed on. I think the song begins perfectly, with a heavy piano chord and acoustic guitar strums that are high in the mix, establishing importance and requiring attention right from the start.
I’ve gotta come out right now and make it clear that I am a staunch defender of “Free as a Bird” and “Real Love”. I have never understood the hate that is directed towards those songs. Yeah, they don’t have a stereotypically Beatle-like sound. The Beatles have been broken up for years at that point, John Lennon is dead, Jeff Lynne is the producer.. of course it’s going to have a different sound. Accept it already! The thing that I find most interesting about the trio that is “Free as a Bird”, “Real Love”, and now “Now and Then” is that while the songs don’t have a particularly sad message, they always come out sounding incredibly melancholy, and I believe this is due to the grief of missing a friend. This is most clear in “Now and Then”, as George is now gone as well. However, it can’t be skipped that this grief was clear in the original demo, too, when everyone was alive and well, just missing each other.
“Now and Then” is a great vehicle to prove just how great of a drummer Ringo really is. His drumming is light, adding a perfect complement to the heaviness of the rest of the song. The beat is kept perfectly, with fills every now and then (no pun intended) that keep a pretty repetitive song energized. The guitar solo is a moment that feels like the clouds of heaven have opened up, an important weight placed upon that moment that I feel is a perfect tribute to George.
Another thing that’s impossible to skip over is the nods to other Beatles songs within “Now and Then”. It’s a head-turning, mind-boggling collage of some of their greatest moments as a band. The strings are reminiscent of “Eleanor Rigby” and “She’s Leaving Home”. At 2 minutes and 59 seconds, a perfect replica of the harmony from Abbey Road’s “Because”! Other than these moments, there’s also small details that thrill the headphone user who has this song cranked up, such as the striking of a wooden block!
As this is the end of The Beatles (for real this time!), I’d like to end with the ending. Nothing makes me love a song more than a slowed-down, tumbling finale, and “Now and Then” is one of the best examples of this in action. I used to replay “I Am the Walrus” numerous times, fascinated with the chords that the strings played at the beginning. The ending of “Now and Then” is the same way for me. The chord progression and the pause before the last one almost had me thinking that the song wouldn’t end on a resolution, which was a thought that had me envisioning the nightmares that would inevitably follow as I tossed and turned at night, wondering why they didn’t resolve the chord. But then it comes, sweet, sweet resolution, made even better by a drawn-out finish and the shaking of a tambourine. This is a fitting end to the Beatles, tragic chords representing their original, bitter ending, while the resolution represents the peaceful finality that is “Now and Then”.
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