This should be a time of rejoicing for Beatles fans: The Fab Four are coming out with a new recording — more than a half-century after they disbanded.
In a Tuesday interview with the BBC, Paul McCartney said the group is tapping into AI technology to “extricate” the late John Lennon’s voice from an old demo and turn it into “the last Beatles record.” He described the technology as “kind of scary but exciting” and ultimately said: “We will just have to see where that leads.”
I’ve been listening to the Beatles since, well, almost as long as they’ve been around. I was born in 1964, the same year they initially made their way to America. The first album I ever purchased — back in my elementary-school days — was a Beatles compilation. And in the several years I worked as a music critic for a newspaper in Florida, my single biggest thrill was interviewing Ringo Starr — even if the chat lasted a mere five minutes.
So, am I rejoicing today? Hardly.
Make no mistake: I’ll listen to the song when it’s released, which McCartney said would happen later this year. And I’ll probably get a nostalgic kick out of it, much as I did when the Beatles released “Free as a Bird” and “Real Love” back in the ‘90s — recordings that were created from old Lennon demos using the then-available technology.
But this isn’t how I really want to remember the Beatles, a group that admittedly always knew how to embrace technology and wasn’t afraid to experiment (ever listen to the sound collage “Revolution 9” from the “White Album”?). But it’s a group that also knew how to deliver the powerfully melodic, lyrically expressive goods without too much adornment. You don’t need a robot to make a song like “Penny Lane” any more perfect than it already is.
In a sense, the Beatles are no different than a lot of classic artists who find ways to stay relevant or just keep themselves in the public eye long after their heyday. Some embark on farewell tours that seemingly last forever (Elton John has been saying his goodbyes since 2018). Others tap into technology in arguably more bizarre ways: ABBA has reunited, but if you want to see the group in concert, you’ll have to settle for a hologram version.
Still, in the case of ABBA, the four original members of the group are around. Not so with the Beatles, who have lost both Lennon and George Harrison. So you’re basically talking McCartney and Ringo Starr presumably trying to recreate the magic with whatever AI is able to do with Lennon’s voice. It’s unclear if and how Harrison’s work will figure into this, though a report from NBC News said Harrison “may have worked on the song” before his death in 2001.
“You don’t need a robot to make a song like ‘Penny Lane’ any more perfect than it already is.”
In short, it all sounds a bit creepy, doesn’t it? And a bit gimmicky. I suppose it’s part of a playbook that the remaining members of the Beatles have followed over the years, always releasing or being involved in projects of one kind or another, from the “1” greatest-hits compilation album in 2000 to Peter Jackson’s “Get Back” documentary in 2021. As Ringo himself told me when I interviewed him in 2001: “We’re moving all the time.”
But there’s a difference between moving forward and desperately trying to stay relevant. And I worry this new recording will feel more like the latter. These days, we’re bombarded with all sorts of AI tricks or treats. As a journalist, I am constantly getting press releases about them. Just this week, I learned that McDonald’s restaurants in Turkey have created the perfect recipes for smoothies using AI.
The Beatles don’t need AI and all its smoothie-making wizardry to be the Beatles. They just need to live on in those albums — “Revolver”! “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”! “Abbey Road”! — that forever changed the face not just of rock ‘n’ roll, but of music and pop culture in general. If anything, the group’s relatively short history of being together has made what exists from that roughly decade-long period all the more special. And something that should be remembered and preserved, not potentially disgraced with projects of such an oddball nature.
Or as the Beatles themselves put it, “Let it be.”
See also: Ray Dalio says AI technology both ‘fabulous’ and ‘dangerous’
This post was originally published on Market Watch
