Beatles engineer and co-producer Giles Martin is refuting recent claims by “Now and Then” video director Peter Jackson that there may be more “new” Fab Four material in the future. Jackson — best known for his “Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit” film series — recently told Britain's Sunday Times that creating more Beatles songs using the AI technology he developed for 2021's “Get Back” docuseries is “certainly conceivable,” saying that, “We can take a performance from 'Get Back,' separate John and George, and then have Paul and Ringo add a chorus or harmonies. You might end up with a decent song but I haven't had conversations with Paul about that.”
According to Martin, who's been working on Beatles archival projects for the last 15 years, Jackson needn't bother:
“I mean, God bless him. He'd love that, by the way; there's no bigger fan than Peter Jackson. But it wouldn't be the Beatles. I mean, that's the thing. It wouldn't be…What makes this the Beatles is the fact George is there and George is in the song and it was fundamental in the making of 'Now and then,' for Paul and Ringo, that we respected George's guitar player. So we couldn't do this and have George on it as well. Y'know, we could take a John demo and Ringo and Paul could play on it, but that wouldn't make it the Beatles.” : 44 OC: wouldn’t make it the Beatles
“Now and Then” is featured on the new remixed and expanded edition of the compilation “1967-1970,” aka “The Blue Album,” which came out on Friday, November 10th.
Nine additional tracks have been added to that album and to its companion, “1962-1966,” aka “The Red Album.” Martin — the son of original Beatles producer George Martin — remixed nearly 40 tracks for the sets using state of the art technology.
Giles Martin has been working with the band since 2008, when he created mixes for The Beatles: Rock Band game. His other projects have included “1+” 50th anniversary editions of “Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band,” “The Beatles” (aka “The White Album”) and “Abbey Road,” “Get Back” and last year's “Revolver: Special Edition.” He's also worked on reissues for the Rolling Stones and Elton John.
