Monday, November 6, 2023

Then And Now

I wasn't in any great hurry to hear the 'latest' Beatles' single, Now And Then, thinking it was likely to be mediocre late-Lennon with a distinct corporate dad-rock flavour, what with the Peter Jackson video and all. An event that is/was just that - a kind of vacuous PR-driven week or so of a special event that isn't/wasn't all that special.

I couldn't have been more wrong.

The song is gorgeous. Not among the genuinely great Beatles' songs, but a really good one. I know this because I've now listened to it four times and two segments have been on a lovely warm endless ear-wormy loop in my mind since the third listen. And the video is perfection. Somebody decided to go easy on the sentiment and let the simple good humour of the four lovable mop-heads from Merseyside do the job, and got it absolutely right. That's the thing about John, Paul, George and Ringo. They weren't just rock gods. They were always four ordinary (but brilliant) lads from the streets of Liverpool and everyone sort of knew that all along, even when they behaved badly, as lads often do, or said daft things, as lads always do.

And the whole package (horrible word, but let it pass for once) manages to say wise and telling things about time and aging and staying forever young.

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