Did you cry when you heard the AI-enhanced swan song from the Beatles. It's OK. You're not alone. And it's not weird.
Across social media, Beatles fans revealed how listening to the song, "Now and Then," released Thursday, brought them to tears. "I teared up immediately hearing John's voice so clear," Mark Smotroff, a communications specialist and music reviewer for the Analog Planet website, posted on Facebook and Instagram.
Fans on The Beatles Instagram page – and each of the individual band members' pages – noted how emotional it was hearing the song. "So this is how it feels to witness a new Beatles song being released!!! I’m crying tears of joy!! this is so freaking good!!! LONG LIVE THE BEATLES!!!!" posted one listener on the official Instagram page of the late 'George Harrison.
"My eyes are…leaking! Wishing my dad was here to share a listen 😭" one fan posted on The Beatles page.
"Listening now. Shed some tears. But so happy to hear this song. Thank You Beatles!!!!" posted Roy Orbison Jr., the son of the late Roy Orbison, on Ringo Starr's Instagram page.
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Liam Gallagher, former frontman of the British band Oasis, which unapologetically produced more than a decade of music influenced by the Beatles, posted on X, the social network formerly known as Twitter: “Now n Then (is) absolutely incredible biblical celestial heartbreaking and heartwarming all at the same time,” he wrote in an initial post this morning. “Long live The Beatles.”
Among the hundreds of replies to Gallagher's post, several said listening to the song brought on tears.
"Not me crying uncontrollably this morning. What a beautiful final song," posted Ryan McQuade, who is the executive editor at AwardsWatch, on X.
"We're all still crying, right?! Tell me it's not only me," posted Mariana Stanley Smith, a researcher of Lennon's life, on X.
"So, this is what hearing a snippet of John Lennon's voice on a new Beatles single in 2023 does to a 54 year old man. Inevitable, really," read an Instagram post from Thomas Walsh, who previously recorded as Pugwash and has a new album of his own, "The Rest is History," out this month.
Tears also flowed among the crowds gathered to listen to the song's release Thursday at the Cavern Club and the Liverpool Beatles Museum, the Daily Mail reported.
"I cried like a baby when I heard it. ... Just gorgeous," BBC Radio 6 Music DJ Lauren Laverne posted on X.
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Amy Belfi, an associate professor of psychology at the Missouri University of Science and Technology, who researches the influence of music on people, said she was "totally unsurprised" to learn listeners were crying upon hearing the new Beatles song.
"It's reminding people of the past" including the Dec. 8, 1980 murder of John Lennon outside his home in New York City. "It's tragic and people were so sad," she said. Hearing Lennon's voice on an unheard song "really probably got to people," Belfi said.
A song's structure and sound itself can trigger emotions, too. But in the case of "Now and Then," listeners "who really like the Beatles are probably more likely to have an emotional response to it," she said.
George Harrison also died tragically – he suffered a stabbing attack in his home two years before he died from cancer Nov. 29, 2001 – and hearing him, Lennon and the surviving Beatles reunited can remind us that death is inevitable, an effect known as mortality salience, and makes us nostalgic, said Krystine Batcho, a psychology professor at Le Moyne College in Syracuse, New York, who focuses on the psychology of nostalgia.
Even if it leads to tears, nostalgia can help us reflect on how our own lives, despite "times of adversity, times of failure … (and) disappointment, but in all," Batcho said, "it really was meaningful. It had a purpose. It was worth it."
The song's lyrics, written by Lennon at home in the late 1970s, are simple, but the song "is not as simple as it sounds," she said. Lyrics include “Now and then I miss you. … I want you to be there for me/Always to return to me.”
"The song reflects this expression that, even if people are gone … it's arguing that we can keep alive not just the memory of, but the work of, John Lennon and George Harrison with this song," Batcho said. "And I think that's a beautiful tribute to them."
"Now and Then" would have had an impact whenever it was released, but it particularly "packs more punch today," Batcho said, because of the aftereffects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the ongoing the Ukraine-Russia war and Israel-Hamas conflict.
Current events have contributed to high rates in the U.S. of loneliness, anxiety disorder and depression, according to the American Psychological Association.
John Lennon's mission of world peace – he released the song "Give Peace A Chance" as a single in 1969 which was recorded during his and Yoko Ono's bed-in honeymoon for peace – resonates because of these current conflicts, she said. "There's just so many twists and turns to what you can think when you hear this very simple melody and very simple set of lyrics," Batcho said. "So that's why I think of it as multi-layered. I think it has a particularly poignant relevance today."
Another message in the song can help us feel less alone. "Now and Then" delivers, she said, "almost a hope that there will always be someone with us who loves us, whom we love, that we can trust ... to be there even if they physically can no longer be with us."
In the 12-minute short documentary film about the making of "Now and Then," even the surviving Beatles were emotional about the technology's ability to isolate John Lennon's voice on the early recording.
"It's like John's there," Ringo Starr said in the video. "It's far out."
"All those memories come flooding back," Paul McCartney said. "Oh my god. How lucky was I to have those men in my life and to work with … so intimately. And to come up with such a body of music, to still be working on Beatles music in 2023. Wow. We're actually messing around with state-of-the-art technology, which is something the Beatles would have been very interested in. 'Now and Then,' it's probably the last Beatle song and we've all played on it, so it is a genuine Beatle recording."
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The "Now and Then" music video, directed by Peter Jackson, released Friday, left viewers weeping, too.
"This song and video are so emotional, that I cried! Your music will be forever remembered, you will remain in history! Even though this is the end, it's an end anyone of us can continue. Love ya, boys!" posted one viewer on the video's YouTube page.
"I've had the tune stuck in my head all morning. Now, along comes the video and, yeah, I'm getting a bit teary-eyed," another viewer posted. "Bravo to all involved, especially Paul for getting it across the finish line."
Another said, "I'm 75 and had tears in my eyes the whole way through. Me and my wife grew up with the Beatles. She died two years ago and would have loved this. The Beatles will go on forever."
"Make sure you have a tissue or two available while you watch it the first time," Smotroff posted on Instagram Friday.
Smotroff agrees that everyone will have different reactions to this Beatles revival. "I do think it depends on an individual's connection to The Beatles. If you are a lifelong fan like me and know their trajectory intimately, there is a bittersweet beauty to hearing – and now, today with the release of the video, seeing – them all together again with such clarity," he told USA TODAY.
The Beatles' breakup in 1970 "was one of the first big life disappointments I remember dealing with emotionally so anything that brings them back together to make new music is heartwarming," he said. "But if you have even a little bit of heart, and appreciate some of their legacy and back story, the music and Peter Jackson's amazing new video can't help but pull at some heartstrings in a good way."
He hopes the surviving Beatles and Jackson use the demixing technology to restore "Free As A Bird" and "Real Love," both Lennon demos finished by the remaining Beatles and released in 1995 and 1996 as part of “The Beatles Anthology.” Other tracks released as part of the Anthology series "could be restored and remixed to create a dedicated new Beatles rarities album," Smotroff said. "The possibilities for broader uses of this technology are exciting."
Follow Mike Snider on X and Threads: @mikesnider & mikegsnider.
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