All You Need is…Airplay?

The Beatles’
New Song Now and Then

(And Why Isn’t It Being Played?)

Local radio sucks. And that counts the local out-of-state simulcast stations like Bob FM (that supposedly plays anything), owned by Hearst Media that plays the same music at the same time all across America.

I’m a channel flipper, whether it’s watching TV or listening to the radio in my car. When I listen to music, it’s usually the oldies or classic rock stations. Yet I’ve yet to hear ANY chatter or hoopla regarding the November 2023 release of the Beatles latest and LAST song. (Yes, THE Beatles who broke up more than half a century ago).

Now and Then is the final collaboration for the group. Impressive considering it features all four members, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. Extraordinary in every sense, considering that John died in 1980 and George in 2001. And yet they’re here, contributing to the music. This final collaboration involved using an unused music track that John that had sung, which was eventually given to Paul by John’s widow, Yoko Ono. On it, Paul, George and Ringo performed their instruments and supplied backup vocals.

According to Wikipedia, the song reached the Top Ten in the U.S., but I haven’t heard it once. Now, I can’t say for sure that it hasn’t been played in the Erie/Meadville area (I got a job and can’t listen to radio 24-7, after all), but it seems to me that due to their music and worldwide cultural influence, I think it’d be heralded and be on every oldies or classic rock radio station’s playlist.

Right? Wrong.

Beyond their importance as musical pioneers that led to concept albums such as Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, the band broke the mold by abandoning suits for musicians, growing their hair long, and introducing the world to Eastern religions, among many, many other things.

For Baby Boomers and, like me, Gen X-ers, who recall them while they still were a group, you can’t help but appreciate them and all they gave the world. For everyone else, Gen Y, Gen Z, or kids who’ve never even heard of the Beatles and can’t appreciate the importance of their final release to the world, well¦I guess you just had to be there.

While I’m certainly not the biggest Beatles fan, it’s taken me 40 years to actually start listening to songs from John Lennon’s final album, Double Fantasy, when they’re on the radio. It was too hard to listen to since the music was released just before his tragic murder in 1980. I recall radio stations throughout the country played the Beatles and Lennon’s solo music all day.

I’m still saddened from when I heard George died in 2001. I was living in Virginia at the time and it was a only radio announcement. I would’ve thought at least ONE radio station in the area would’ve abandoned their playlist and begun playing George’s and the Beatles music. But instead, nothing. Why? Had radio changed that much in the time being?

While the song’s airplay is nonexistent, there is good news: You have an even better alternative to experience it. You can SEE it.

The video Now and Then is more than just images relating to Lennon’s song. Instead, the song is a remembrance, an homage to the group. It begins by showing Paul and George in the studio with their guitars; Ringo seated behind his drums, prepping to play along with John’s vocals. The remainder of the video shows the Fab Four in various Beatles states: clean cut, dressed in their Sgt. Pepper gear, their later shaggy era as well as photos of the Beatles as boys and burgeoning young musicians.

The technical wizardry of the video is simply awesome. Somehow the nowadays McCartney and Ringo play their music and cavort with images of Harrison and Lennon; the pasted images of of the duo truly look like they’re in the studio, too.

As the song begins to end, the Beatles begin dismantling the studio, taking away instruments and closing things down. With the knowledge that this is the last time the group we will ever perform together, I have to admit, I got a little choked up.

Thus, this video, Now and Then, is a perfect coda to mark the finality of the group.

Go to YouTube, type in The Beatles and Now and Then.

Experience it and enjoy it on YouTube. Don’t be embarrassed if you choke up a little bit, too.

But definitely watch it.

Because you’re not going to hear it on the radio.