By Danny Abriano
 
All hardcore Beatles fans know that Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr reunited in 1994 and 1995 to record “Free As A Bird” and “Real Love” for release on the upcoming Anthology 1 and Anthology 2 albums respectively.
 
What some may not know, is that there was another John Lennon demo the three living Beatles were planning to record for release on Anthology 3.
 
That demo was “Now And Then.”
 
Originally recorded by Lennon at the Dakota in 1979, Now And Then (along with the other Lennon demos) was given to Paul McCartney by Yoko Ono in January of 1994.
 
On March 20th, 1995, McCartney, Harrison, and Starr began working on Now And Then, recording a backing track that was to be used on what would’ve been the finished product. However, after one more day of working on the track, all plans to finish “Now And Then” and have it included on Anthology 3 were scrapped.
 
According to those who were there, there were two reasons why Paul, George, and Ringo stopped working on Now And Then.
 
The first, was that some of the verses and part of the chorus weren’t finished and/or were unintelligible on the demo. Paul, George, and Ringo would’ve had to finish writing those parts for John, which is something Paul later stated George “didn’t want to do.” The original lyrics by John are as follows:
 
I know it’s true, it’s all because of you
And if I make it through, it’s all because of you
And now and then, if we must start again
We will know for sure, that I love you
 
I don’t want to lose you – oh no, no, no
Lose you or abuse you – oh no, no, no, sweet darl’
But if you have to go, away
If you have to go (unintelligible)
 
Now and then, I miss you
Oh now and then, I (unintelligible)
I know return to me
 
I know it’s true, it’s all because of you
And if you go away, I know you (unintelligible)
 
I don’t want to lose you – oh no, no, no
Abuse you or confuse you – oh no, no, no, sweet darl’
But if you had to go
Well I won’t stop you babe
And if you had to go
Well (unintelligible)
 
As can be seen above, there are four spots where John Lennon’s words either trail off, are unintelligible, or both. Those are the verses the remaining Beatles would’ve had to have re-written.
 
The second issue with the track was that the quality of the original Lennon demo contained a technical problem – a humming noise that lingered on the tape throughout.
 
In a bootleg that was released in 2009, the humming noise from the original Lennon demo was removed, meaning that the song could potentially be finished by McCartney and Starr if they so choose.
 
In 2012, McCartney was quoted as saying he would be open to completing Now And Then with Jeff Lynne as the producer.
 
Perhaps the song will eventually be finished by Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr (also utilizing the backing track that includes George Harrison) and released. Until then, you can listen to John Lennon’s demo and imagine what the finished product might sound like: