Some songs feel like they arrive from another time, carrying with them both memory and longing. “Now And Then,” released in 2023 as the Beatles’ final song, is exactly that — a piece that began as a fragile demo by John Lennon in the late 1970s and, decades later, was lovingly completed by Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, with George Harrison’s earlier guitar work woven in.
At the heart of the song is Lennon’s voice: vulnerable, yearning, and unmistakably human. Technology may have lifted it out of the hiss of an old cassette, but the emotion remains raw. “Now and then, I miss you…” feels both like a love song and a farewell — to Yoko, to his bandmates, and perhaps to the past itself.
Around him, Paul and Ringo add their touches of devotion. McCartney’s harmonies rise with tenderness, his bass steady as ever, while Ringo’s drumming gives the song its heartbeat — gentle, supportive, never overpowering. And then, there’s George: though no longer here, his guitar from the mid-’90s sessions threads through the arrangement like a ghostly presence, ensuring that all four Beatles are part of this last moment together.
What makes “Now And Then” so powerful is its humility. It doesn’t try to be another “Hey Jude” or “Let It Be.” It is smaller, quieter, more intimate — a letter left unfinished that the surviving Beatles chose to complete, not for spectacle, but for love. It is a song about absence, about longing, but also about connection that refuses to die.
For fans, the track feels like both a gift and a goodbye. To hear Lennon’s voice, supported so carefully by his friends, is to be reminded that the Beatles’ story was never just about music — it was about friendship, love, and the enduring bonds of creation.
When the final notes fade, “Now And Then” leaves behind more than silence. It leaves gratitude — that four boys from Liverpool found each other, changed the world, and even half a century later could come together, across time and loss, for one last song.