It's the Next Best Thing To Be

When The Beatles released the exhaustive Anthology project in the mid-90s, they reworked two John Lennon demos into official Beatles tunes. I remember watching the first installment of the Anthology series on TV with boyish excitement at the promise of a new Beatles song at the end. While Free As a Bird didn't rival the classic Beatles tunes, it was thrilling nonetheless. With the second installment of the Anthology came Real Love. Both "new" songs are truly excellent, but they could never ever come close to expectations. Impossible. With Anthology 3, I was disappointed that there wasn't a new one on there. It didn't make much sense after releasing one for each previous installment. I was hoping for Lennon's excellent Grow Old With Me, which was rumored at the time. Instead, nothing.

Paul McCartney has recently revealed that a third tune was in the works, but they could never quite get it right. Now and Then, aka I Don't Want to Lose You, evidently had too much tape hiss despite having a "beautiful verse" sung by Lennon. Macca told Q Magazine that he regrets they never finished it. Allegedly, there was also work on a McCartney-Harrison song called All For Love. It is highly unlikely either one will ever get a legitimate release, particularly with Harrison out of the picture. But a Beatles nut can dream, yes?