Sir Paul McCartney Says AI Has Enabled a 'Final' Beatles Song - Slashdot

Posted by msmash

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  by nealric ( 3647765 ) on Tuesday June 13, 2023 @10:50AM (#63598452)

  This is basically the same thing that was done in the 1990s when they released Lenon's "Free as a bird" with the Beetles anthology. No AI really required. Back then they used then nascent digital enhancement and remixing to turn a rough demo tape Lennon made into a polished record. I suppose the only possible difference with this one is if they used AI to make Lennon sing words he had not actually sung in the demo tape as essentially a deep fake (rather than just cutting up the words he actually did sing like they did in the 90s).

  • Re:

    Yeah the full article basically describes it as better filtering from computers to isolate the vocal track, and possibly a better track than was available in 1990. The title is hugely click bait, and he even goes into how deep fakes are not something he's familiar with.

  • Re:

    So you say it has done before by bringing up a loosely related event a few decades ago, and then proceed to explain precisely why this is new. Or at least new for the Beatles, since AI has been used for deep fakes for quite some time.

  • Re:

    I didn't like the vocal sound on "Bird", it still had that in-the-restroom sound of John's rough demo it was built around. I'd personally like to hear it "cleaned up" with modern approaches.

    • Re:

      They didn't have the technology in the 1990s to fill out the vocals. Jeff Lynne and the engineer performed a minor miracle in managing to get rid of the glitchiness of the original cassette. Normally, with a thin vocal, they would have overdubbed another matching vocal (John was very big on this back on double tracked vocals back in the day), but I'll wager with the poor quality of even the "repaired" vocal recording, and the fact that the piano was also on the track (there was no real way at the time to s

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        Note that I'm not criticizing the effort put into the 90's version, only saying now that we have better tools, let's use them to get closer to the (current) Beatles' vision of the song.

        • Re:

          I think it was a pretty astounding achievement for the time, even if the result wasn't perfect. That's probably the most significant advantage of AI, even when you have multiple instruments on a single track, it can recreate each individual instrument and vocal. That's what was used for the new remix of Revolver. Up until the White Album sessions in 1968, George Martin and his engineers would record the instruments and vocals on different tracks and then bounce them down, so individual tracks contained mult

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      +1 Agree

  • Re:

    Except that George Harrison isn't around to put down any guitar tracks so not really a Beatles song.

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      Yeah, this would be more authentic if the estate of Harrison contributed unreleased George guitar from an unrelated project as a mashup of the 4 musicians.

  • Re:

    And on the "Bird" (Charlie Parker) soundtrack (1988) - https://www.allmusic.com/album... [allmusic.com] the did the same thing. Extracted Bird's saxophone and had a band record tracks to go with the songs he was playing.

  • Re:

    There were still pretty sharp limits to what they could do to extract Lennon's vocals at the time, and as I recall, they never really extracted the vocals, they worked with the piano and vocals (it was from a one track cassette). They varispeeded the demo to get a consistent tempo and time, then Paul laid down a piano track to match john's, as well as a vocal track to "fill out" the original demo's vocals. They added to the song pretty significantly as well, with a bridge (as I recall the demo didn't have o

    • Re:

      Well, the fundamental problem is anything that was truly their best work was turned into a proper record a very long time ago. Every artist has some less successful efforts. Those are usually never widely released. Even if "Free as a Bird' had been a very high quality recording, the song itself was nowhere close to being Lennon's best work.

• All four... talent beyond any words that I can type.

  I look forward to hearing what Paul comes up with, and bless John for leaving behind a special gift for Paul, and for all of us.

  • • You SHILL!! Downmod to oblivion!

      "Let me mod you down
      'Cause I'm going to, strawperson fields
      Nothing is real
      Yet something I got hung about
      Neg strawperson mods forever

      Living is easy with eyes closed
      Misunderstanding all I see
      It's getting hard to beat someone
      but it'll force it out
      It's a big matter to me

      [chorus]

      Always, no it's never me
      But I know when you are dreaming
      I think I know, I mean a... yes
      But you're always wrong
      That is, I know I disagree

      Let me mod you down
      'Cause I'm going to, strawperson fields...

  • Re:

    Beatles are amazing. Paul McCartney is an annoying old man.

    • Re: The Beatles are amazing

      Let me guess: you disagree with his politics?

  • Woulda Coulda Shoulda

    > and bless John for leaving behind a special gift for Paul

    The financial and IP squabbles got nasty over the breakup, so it's indeed nice to see a kind of musical apology.

    While everyone tries to pin the breakup blame on a specific individual, there's lots of hints that they all were itching to go their own way anyhow, even George, who was growing prolific in the late 60's.

    There's one studio recording of John and George discussing a contractual way to put out individual albums without outright breaking u

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      People don't seem to realize how young they were at the time. There were all 29 or 30 years old at the time of the breakup. Having gained that much fame and influence all before turning 30. It's a wonder they held together that long.

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        They grew up in a poor neighborhood where one couldn't survive without cooperation. I suspect that was a large part of their bonding.

        For example, if they didn't have a buddy with them, their musical instruments would get stolen or broken on the way to the studio via bus.

        Another time on the bus to a pre-fame concert, the windows had been broken out such that ice-cold air poured in. They survived the cold by huddling up, a Beatle Sandwich (Yellow Submarine Sandwich?)

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    My favorite Album of theirs is Revolver. The early pop stuff doesn't do much for me but when they started getting more experimental it's fantastic. It was a bit mind blowing to hear The Chemical Brothers song Let Forever Be https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com] before finding out it's a take on Tomorrow Never Knows https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

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      Revolver is an under appreciated album even by Beatles standards. It's not quite the heights that they reached for with Sgt. Pepper's, but many of the tracks are mind-blowing. In particular "I'm Only Sleeping" and "She Said She Said" are some of my favorite songs, not just of theirs, but of anyone. It's an album from a band of extremely talented musicians just starting to come into full bloom. My only real criticism of the album is that at 35 minutes it's criminally short. Easily their best album cover thou

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        I find Revolver a far more even effort. Pepper's cultural impact was enormous, I remember one journalist describing as a very brief moment when the 1960s underground and counterculture and the mainstream met. It was something of an accident that Pepper came out right at the beginning of the Summer of Love. And certainly it had some amazing moments, with A Day In The Life certainly ranking in my books in the top five or six greatest Beatles songs.

        But Revolver is a masterpiece, a stunningly even record with v

• ...with John Lennon on vocals.
  
  We are not worthy.
• It's not the Complete Beatles, it's Paul and AI with Lennon's recordings,

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    You do know that Ringo is still alive. (And he's NOT the Walrus.) Maybe he'll contribute some drumming. He could probably do it in his home studio if he's not up to travelling. The editor/producer can sync it in.

    (Baby I'm) amazed at all the energy Paul still has. He must drink Shatner Coffee...or Shatner Tea.

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      Paul got a blood transfusion from the Vampire Keith Richards, so he's good to go for another 100 years..;)

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        But I'm not convinced Keith is actually alive, at least not in the usual sense.

  • What do you mean Ringo?

    What do you mean Ringo? Meh, I gave up on the Beatles when they let go of Pete Best! It's not been the "Complete Beatles" since '62!

• It's important for him to get this shlock out now, before his principle audience dies out completely and/or is physically unable to find new material anymore. Though - given the demographic of Beatles fans, it's likely most of them won't even hear this song unless it plays endlessly on the radio for the next year+.

  Which, it probably will. And anyone working in the trade fields (where they often have radio on in the background) will suffer for it.

  I also doubt it will be the "last" Beatles songs. You'll have

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    > I also doubt it will be the "last" Beatles songs. You'll have people using old Beatles recordings and feeding the voices into AI to synthesize

    I believe they meant last Beatle song sanctioned by the Beatles.

  • Re: Just in time before all the Boomers pass

    I see where you're coming from, and musical taste is subjective but surely there is something non-derivative in Helter Skelter or Blue Jay Way?

    I always liked the maybe true story of George Harrison asking Bob Dylan whether he'd play Blowing in the Wind at the Concert for Bangladesh. Dylan responded with "are you gonna play I Wanna Hold Your Hand?". I mention it to show that there's a lot of variation in the most songwriters and performers output, even those like Dylan who win Nobel Prizes for Literature.

    • Re: Just in time before all the Boomers pass

      Fucking

      Carriage

      Returns

      Do

      You

      Speak

      Them?!

  • Re:

    Hot take happening right here. The early stuff was pop music for the radio but the techniques and experimentation they did on Sergeant Pepper forever changed how albums were recorded. https://www.npr.org/2017/06/01... [npr.org]

    • Re:

      Their music is derivative, the lyrics simplistic, and the tunes are mindless jingles which get stuck in your head because every radio station plays like 5 of them... over, and over, and over.

      About the only point of agreement I can find here is that they were over-played at some point, especially during the 70s and 80s; but these days you'll barely hear them on those stupid Clear Channel stations, and you have to seek them out.

      All music is "derivative" so what does that even mean? As for the tunes being "

  • Re:

    >>>....the Beatles are the most insipid, obnoxious band in the past 80 years.

    Hard to disagree if you're talking about their "I wanna hold your hand" period. Hard disagree on the later albums, but that may be because my personal preference is the moodier, more cynical, more thoughtful style they embodied.

  • Re:

    The Beatles' fan base is a lot more than boomers. I saw McCartney at Dodger Stadium a few years ago, and the boomers in the audience were outnumbered by much younger people, most of whom appeared to know the words to all the songs.

    By the way, your opinion of the Beatles earns you a membership in that huge group of people who think it's cool to be contrarian. Congratulations on being so original!

• Sir Paul wants to slurp all the money left in Beatles fans pockets.

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    I don't think it's about money; he doesn't need money. He's a workaholic who likes projects.

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      agreed. he seems to have kept his feet on the ground, as they say.

      he seems to be living a very decent lifestyle, with no pretense.

      someone that i wish i could emulate, but i am just a human pig compared to him.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

  • Re:

    Any such reconstruction is going to have recording royalties going to Paul, Ringo and John and George's estates. Publishing rights might be trickier, if Paul adds lyrics or any additional music (like a bridge or new verses). As I recall from Free As A Bird, that ended up being kind of dual licensed to John and then to John, Paul, George and Ringo. I think Real Love was pretty much a pure John song, so he was given sole writing credits. In this case, I would think that the writing credit would be solely John

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    If "Sir Paul" / "slurp all" was deliberate, I tip my hat to you.

• ... there are literally infinite Beatles songs yet to come.
• There's no chance AI will produce a "Beatles" song. It'll just make some kind of sick burlesque that anyone could make.

• Quote: "Sir Paul had received the demo a year earlier from Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono. It was one of several songs on a cassette labelled "For Paul" that Lennon had made shortly before his death in 1980."

  Basically, (here's the NEWS) Yoko One has RETAINED, NOT GIVE AS INDICATED, a cassette for 43 YEARS for Sir Paul.

  So, Yoko Ono has FAILED to COMPLY with John Lennon's will.

• Since Paul didn't name the song, and I spent yesterday listening to a few "AI Beatles" tracks, I'll give links to a few - probably soon to be taken down:

  "New" [youtube.com]
  This is actually a latter-day song Paul wrote and recorded on his own. BUT, they have replaced old-man-Paul's vocal with an AI vocal of young Paul. That part actually sounds amazing. They added AI-Lennon for a few brief lines, the pronunciation sounds a bit off. Overall a very Beatlesque composition, not a bad listen.

  "Grow Old With Me" [youtube.com]
  Lots more AI-Lenn