Original: The Beatles photographed at St. Pancras Old Church gardens in London on July 28, 1968. Courtesy.

So the Beatles are releasing their new single this week.

I do know it’s 2023 and half of them are dead. I don’t care.

Well, I don’t want them to be dead. They just are. But as far as the last two releasing “Now and Then” on Thursday, I’m all for it. I can’t really understand why anyone would have a problem with it.

I don’t typically have much respect for the corporate milking of dead artists in the name of “doing it for the fans.” The fans usually get watered down audio turds that never made it to a record for a reason.

But the Beatles are simply the one band that’s ever graced the planet where I can’t get enough. Ever. They could’ve recorded during a horrific, band-wide bout of stomach flu, and I’d be listening to every awful sound their bloated, suffering Beatle bodies made.

I still don’t know why. It’s like magic – I don’t want to know why.

“Now and Then” was one of the songs, along with “Free as a Bird” and “Real Love,” of which John Lennon recorded demos at home during the late ‘70s but didn’t finish or properly record. Yoko Ono gave the tapes to the surviving band members to finish for The Beatles: Anthology in the mid-’90s.

Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr got together and finished the first two, but the technology of the time didn’t allow them and producer Jeff Lynne to pull anything usable from Lennon’s demo of “Now and Then.”

But in what may be a grand victory for technology – which will still end up murdering us all horribly in the end – Peter Jackson used some tech he developed for the incredible “Get Back” documentary (he’s also known for his films about little people with hairy feet) to extract enough of Lennon’s voice to finish the track. As a bonus, they had tracks of Harrison trying to add guitar to the song during the Anthology sessions. McCartney also added a slide solo he says was inspired by Harrison.

And, just for fun, they went back and added some subtle backing vocals from old recordings of “Here, There and Everywhere,” “Eleanor Rigby” and likely the song with greatest harmonies ever recorded for a rock song, “Because.”

So … bingo. We get a new Beatles song. And will also get a 12-minute documentary of the making of the song. Lucky us.

I haven’t actually heard it, because I’m not special that way. But I’m not sure that’s necessary yet to get excited.

The more books I read, the more I’m convinced the Beatles would’ve absolutely got back together to make music. It would’ve been a different time and, in a lot of ways, they weren’t the same people as the ones who made all that magic in the ‘60s. So who knows how good it would’ve been?

Then again, judging by their uneven solo material, they definitely brought the best out of each other. All you have to do is watch “Get Back,” which was supposed to be a bad time for the band. Yet watching Lennon and McCartney lock into and inspire each other, compete with each other and hear the amazing material that just appears from somewhere … it’s convincing enough. Something great would’ve happened.

Maybe they would’ve toured again, and … wow. Unimaginable. For all the great music we still have, it still feels like we were robbed.

So – for lack of a better impulse – fuck Mark David Chapman and the ability of one person to get a gun, walk up to whoever they want in this country and just shoot them. It’s still soul-crushing 43 years later.

That aside, I’ll be listening to “Now and Then” a lot Thursday. I’m actually scheduled to be a wedding, where I hope no one notices I’m wearing headphones and singing along.

It’s a great time for old rockers and their dead bandmates. The new Rolling Stones record is the most surprising thing to happen to rock and roll since Fred Durst somehow gained the ability to make money and attract women. The Stones record also included a dead bandmate, with tracks from late drummer Charlie Watts playing on two songs.

McCartney’s fuzz bass playing on the Stones’ “Bite My Head Off,” a song that somehow reminds me of the Sex Pistols’ “Problems,” for some odd reason – is just the latest reminder that talent doesn’t have to evaporate once someone hits their 80s.

McCartney and Ringo say this is the last new Beatles song we’ll ever hear. So really enjoy Thursday.

Follow music critic Tony Hicks at Twitter.com/TonyBaloney1967.