“And if you go away / I’ll know you’re there.” I must start with this one, though it really involves the afterlife of a song. It begins with a demo of three John Lennon ballads, recorded in the mid-seventies on a cassette that Yoko Ono passed on to Paul McCartney in the nineties. The three surviving Beatles gathered in the studio in 1994 to rework two of the demos as “Free as a Bird” and “Real Love.” However, after some effort the third song was shelved, as being too poor quality to release.
Twenty-eight years later, filmmaker Peter Jackson’s digital necromancy was used to clean up Lennon’s vocals and isolate them from the piano accompaniment - impossible until now. Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr contributing vocals, drums and base to the refurbished track, which even includes a slide guitar part by George Harrison - made during the abortive mid-nineties session - that Paul recreated as homage to his bandmate. Producer Giles Martin, son of the ‘fifth Beatle’ George Martin, slapped on some strings - and voila!
Of the three demo songs by Lennon, this is the best of the bunch. And it’s uncanny that over a half-century after the band’s breakup we’d have a ‘new’ song from them. “Now and Then” is an impressive resurrection of Lennon’s bare-bones composition and a fine addition to the Beatles catalogue. As a bonus, the music video is clever and moving.
The music videos I’ve curated below might seem anticlimactic after this blast from above.
The Beatles, “Now and Then”
Short doc on the making of the song here.
Paul Simon, “The Afterlife”
You got to fill out a form first, and then you wait in the line. The great singer-songwriter does an inventive take on Heavenly bureaucracy. From his 2011, album, So Beautiful, or So What.
Norman Greenbaum, “Spirit In The Sky”
What? A film was made to accompany this one-hit wonder’s epic 1970 shoutout to the afterlife? Wonders never cease. Either way, my find is your treat.
Bob Dylan “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door”
The legendary marble-mouthed folkie performs a 1992 live version of his great 1966 single about a gunfighter on the precipice of death. RIP Tom Petty.
Ian Hunter, Life After Death
This song takes no position on life after death; it’s just a rock n’ roller desperately and loudly putting the question to the listener, with the best abrupt musical ending ever: “Is there life, is there life, is there life after death? / Do you believe, I've run out of breath!”
Stellar lead guitar work by the late, great Mick Ronson spirals this song up into to the empyrean. From Hunter’s terrific 1979 album, You’re Never Alone With a Schizophrenic.
Bryan Ferry, “Where or When”
“Some things that happened for the first time / Seem to be happening again / And so it seems that we have met before / And laughed before, and loved before / But who knows where or when.” A character falling in love feels the tug of destiny at his sleeve…and it feels uncannily familiar. Do the couple go back further in time than they think? Originally written by Rodgers and Hart for the 1937 musical Babes in Arms, “Where or When” is handled here with a light touch by former Roxy Music singer Bryan Ferry.
Julian Cope, “I Have Always Been Here Before”
A more explicit position statement on reincarnation, in a remake of a Rory Erikson song by Julian Cope at his mid-nineties artistic peak.
Lene Lovich, “You Can’t Kill Me”
“Since we'll both be here again, we might as well try being friends.” The most musically metaphysical argument I’ve ever heard for peaceful relations. From Lovich’s 1980 album, Flex.
Neil Young “It’s a Dream”
“In the morning when I wake up and listen to the sound / Of the birds outside on the roof / I try to ignore what the paper says / And I try not to read all the news / And I'll hold you if you had a bad dream / And I hope it never comes true.” A simple, beautiful ballad with a powerful yet ambiguous theme. Worthwhile to listen to the song in its entirety here.
Ringo Starr, Fading In, Fading Out
“Lightning strikes and shines so bright / But when it's gone, we're never left without the light / But I believe there's more than this / It all can't be just show biz.” Still going strong into his eighties with a recent string of catchy tunes, the ex-Beatles drummer cleverly touches on posthumous survival in this 2012 toe-tapper. Gotta love Ringo.
Natalie Merchant and David Byrne, “Let The Mystery Be”
“Everybody is wondering what and where they all came from / Everybody is worrying 'bout / Where they're gonna go when the whole thing's done / But no one knows for certain and so it's all the same to me / I think I'll just let the mystery be.” A younger Merchant and Byrne performing the classic Iris Dement song about deferred belief. (As the writer Robert Anton Wilson once observed, the most underused word in the English language is ‘maybe.’)
Recently my wife and me went to see Peter Gabriel in concert, great gig the guy's a dynamo, and the thought that sprung to mind was that I'd never looked too deeply into the song Solsbury Hill. The line that really seems relevant is the one about "Stepping right out of the machinery". It seems to fit right in with this weeks songbook selection. And a great selection as always; especially loved the John Lennon and the Lene Lovich.
Great way to start the weekend...thanks Geoff!