Opinion Now and Then: The Beatles came back to say goodbye — and they are going out on top

I heard The Beatles for the first time in 1984, 14 years after they had ceased to officially exist and four years after someone shot John Lennon dead. Yet I picked up my first guitar because of The Beatles. I wanted to sing just one of their songs. I hummed my first line because they existed. I still strum my first and last notes in the day because they existed. I often wonder — how can some individuals have such a profound impact on someone. John, Paul, George and Ringo will never know me, yet they became my soulmates — this is true for so many across the globe. Life just changed when I heard The Beatles for the first time, 40 years ago. They became the background music in my joys, highs, lows — in almost everything life had to offer.

The Beatles is not just about music. It is and was about bonds — friendships, love, yearning, hope. It was about telling stories — yours and mine — in a way that made the group the soundtrack of our lives. Like Einstein impacted the way we understand the laws of physics and look at the universe, The Beatles seamlessly left a mark on the cross-section of music, popular culture and fashion, without new-age listeners ever even being aware of it.

Billed as the last Beatles song, ‘Now and Then’ features the voice of the late John Lennon. It also features parts recorded by surviving members Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr as well as the late George Harrison. It’s a masterful bluesy track, a combination of beautiful lyrics, arrangements and, of course, the unadulterated vocals of John Lennon from the 1975 tape recording (with the use of new technologies).

The song is addictive, the video is just as good. You will cry. It’s a grand tribute by Paul and Ringo to their soulmates, to a smiling and playful John and a serious yet smiling George. The lads couldn’t say goodbye in 1970 to the millions who ate, slept and breathed them. When they finally did, the fountain of emotions wilted millions away. Only The Beatles could have said it so beautifully. The depiction of Paul’s loneliness, the flashbacks into their past, remembering John and George as their happy and playful friends and the words — “Every now and then, think about you and if I make it through, it will be all because of you” — make it a nostalgic, sweet and weepy ballad. With the final bow that dissolves into a heartbreaking empty stage, The Beatles seem to be saying, “Goodbye, friends”.

This extraordinary story of musical persistence once again reflects The Beatles’ endless creative urge and shared fascination with experimenting with technologies. ‘Now and Then’ is a celebration of the legacy of the foremost, timeless, most loved and most influential band in popular music history. ‘Now and Then’ also inspires us to never give up, to believe in the power of persistence.

For those who have been following the band, it’s been an emotional blockbuster. It is also the vindication of their faith in the Fab Four and in being able to explain to the new generations — who have grown up listening to Tupac, Ed Sheeran, Drake, Taylor Swift or BTS — why The Beatles can be breaking records even 54 years later.

It’s a triumphant way for the band to say goodbye and to go out on top. Stuff legends and dreams are made of.

The writer is Singer, Composer Pop Group The Aryans, Ex-Director General, PIB, Chairman and Co-founder, Kalaclap Technologies