The earliest known demo of Free as a bird". An astonishing detail: in some passages John hasn't found any lyrics yet. #beatles #getback #letitbe #johnlennon #paulmccartney #georgeharrison #ringostarr #nowandthan #freeasabird #reallove
As much as I agree, this song and Imagine stand up on their own purely from the quality of the chord structures and lyrics and melody. But of course. All the Beatles songs complimented each others playing/input.
@@mikemccaine4229 yes, I just liked the lines in particular that they wrote. They could have come up with anything, but they went the sentimental route and, tho it's a love song on the surface, I feel they were also singing the line to John. So it tugs at my heart strings.
Me learning today that Paul completed the unfinished line "whatever happened to the life that we once knew" and added "can we really live without eachother" 😭
My father was ill with lung cancer when this song was released...It hit him so hard...I can remember him bursting into tears as he heard it for the first time. He was sooo amazed at how come technology was able to bring the Beatles back to us. He died 10 months later. I wish he was here to celebrate the Beatles again with "Now and then". Carpe Diem, my friends❤
This should be re-released with "Real Love" and put on new Beatles Album with "Now And Then". This song is a killer. Imagine Beatles has 3 songs in top 100 Billboard again..dream.
What a sad tragedy that this creative genius was snuffed out at 40 by an evil maniac. Think of how many other songs like this that John would have written in the decades since then. And we would be humming. Lost FOREVER. 😢
Yes, it makes me so angry how the world was robbed of all of the songs that were to come but some crazy person took John's life. Such a tragedy. So unfair and pointless. 😞
Listening to the incredible chord changes in this demo makes me realize the amazing genius of this hero of song writing. Immortalized forever in songs like this.
Effortless songwriting. Switches keys easily, seamlessly, and just sings so sweetly over the top. No formal musical training - just pure talent. Odd lyrics which half tell a story so perfectly you don’t know what it’s about and yet you do. Just him filling in bits with “do do do” is still perfect.
Agree, except I would caution against implying 'talent' is some mystical zero effort thing. No formal musical training, but one heck of a lot of practice and experience writing songs.
I wondered if they might 'clean up' the two 90's singles, but you know what, I actually love the quality of the demos and the John vocal on the originals. It has a ghostly quality to it. Ethereal. It makes me feel really nostalgic. Leave them as they are I say.
I can cry over and over listening to this. More free than anything is his soul and limitless openness. Way, way up there with his very best songs. I would say I have heard more or less all of the very greatest musicians. Johnny boy trumps them all.
The version they produced for the Anthology album is wonderful of course. But theres something beautifully haunting about this raw version. Lennon on his piano gives it the purest form for the melody to truly hit.
I hear sadness in his voice, and I believe I know why. In 1974, while Lennon was in LA, he visited the studio Lynyrd Skynyrd was in, recording Second Helping (The Record Plant), for just a brief visit in the control room. There are a couple of Skynyrd documentaries that reference this. It's my belief that, if John Lennon visits your studio on the day you're recording, then you've done something he likes. So, you have to wonder, "Why would John Lennon be interested in Lynyrd Skynyrd?" In '69, the Beatles released I Want You (She's So Heavy) with its long jam session ending on Abbey Road. John Lennon loved the jam session (we would have gotten along great because, I do too!), and on Skynyrd's first album they released Free Bird with its long jam session at the end, beautifully adorned with jamming lead guitar solos. Apparently, Lennon never spoke to the band, as they said he left after just a few minutes. Fast forward to October 20, 1977, John's birth month (born the 9th), and news about Skynyrd's plane crash start hitting the airways. We know that during this time, Lennon was in his "house husband" phase and was surely to see the news on TV. I believe when he saw this he IMMEDIATELY became concerned about his own mortality, and this concern led him to begin writing the last three songs we would hear coming from the Beatles. There is sadness in his voice; he sounds despondent, like he just lost a friend. The only other song, I can think of, where he sounds this despondent is "Julia"; singing about his mother, who was killed in a hit and run accident by a drunk off-duty police officer. Even though Paul finished the line, I would be willing to bet that that's where Lennon would have taken it anyway, considering his frame of mind at the time. There's more to this, but I'm running out of time.
This brings thoughts of John leaving so soon and how he left. Very troubling. I am happy to have been enjoying The Beatles since their songs were played on radio well before they came to America. No one comes close to them.
@@tofayeahyeah1905 I disagree, he was intelligent enough to know that communism didn’t work in practice when he was alive, he was the only Beatle who refused to go vegetarian and I don’t think he would have cared too much about oil. He was always for peace and love, yes, he was anti-establishment but for all the right reasons.
Free as a bird It's the next best thing to be Free as a bird Home, home and dry Like a homing bird I'll fly As a bird on wings Whatever happened to The life that we once knew? Can we really live without each other? Where did we lose the touch That seemed to mean so much? It always made me feel so Free as a bird Like the next best thing to be Free as a bird Home, (home) home and dry Like a homing bird I'll fly As a bird on wings Whatever happened to The life that we once knew? Always made me feel so free Free as a bird Is the next best thing to be Free as a bird Free as a bird Free as a bird Oo-oo-oo
He doesn't have the full lyrics then... paul mccartney added the lyrics "can we really live without each other? Where did we lose the touch, that seemed to mean so much?"
A gem. I ve never heard this demo version before and i think that it s simply fantastic. I have no words to describe the emotions that i feel hearing this beautiful, marvellous, touching melody. Better than the “complete” version made by the rest of the band, in my opinion
Yeah. It goes straight for the jugular. The missing lyric is strangely affecting: there's really nothing more to say after that first line. The last thing this song needed was orchestration and polish.
Que bonito. Cuando naces escuchando la música de The Beatles sabes que también morirás con ella. Con 13 años fue devastador ese 8 de Dic de 1980 creo que en ese momento te llevaste contigo millones de corazones y parte de la historia de la música y a nosotros nos dejaste maravillosas joyas musicales. Mi querido John tan único, tan genio. Una vida con The Beatles 💕💕💫💫En momentos de tristeza y en momentos de alegría siempre puedes confiar en The Beatles.
Verdade. John sabia das coisas. Até mais do que, em tese, deveria. Acabou perdendo a vida por isso. De resto concordo com tudo o que você colocou. Parabéns.
¡Qué hermoso lo que escribiste Marisa! Yo soy mayor que vos. Pero siento exactamente lo mismo. Vivir y morir con los Beatles. Soy músico formado: toco Bach y Brahms, enseño en conservatorios. Pero la música de los Beatles me acompaña todos los días.
Absolutely gave me the chills. Just so beautiful, i wish John had released this song in its rawest form because i think it compares with Imagine in its sheer beauty
I've always loved this song. When I was a teen in the mid 2000s, I discovered this song when watching VH1. I got hooked instantly. Didn't know that this was an unfinished Lennon's song & completed by the remaining Beatles.
Ao eterno, ilustre gênio da música 🎵🎸 mundial do século 20 , John Lennon. Eu cresci , ouvindo às suas canções tão icônicas , poética e atemporais! A sua voz tão lindo e melódico vem do outro mundo ! Você é o eterno Beatles, assim como os maravilhosos, Paul MacCartney, Ringo Starr e George Harrison. A eterna banda dos sonhos ! Para este canal maravilhoso. Muito obrigado por editar a esse arquivo histórico estraordinario , o demo de John Lennon, Free as a BIRD A canção é linda demais ! Eu não me canso de ouvi - lo , o som do piano 🎹 é demais ! Eu , como o grande fã brasileiro 😄🇧🇷 mando .lhe uma calorosa salvas de palmas . ✨💫John Lennon 1940 _ 1980 ✨💫🎵🎸🎹💯👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏
Krásný komentář, cítím to úplně stejně 🥹🥹👏👏 Johna také miluji,nejen jako zpěváka, ale také jako člověka,byl úžasný, dodnes se nemůžu smířit s tím, že umřel,byl to opravdu moc hodný a citlivý člověk, který to neměl v životě vůbec jednoduché 🥹😥 Jinak písnička je překrásná, jako všechny Johnovo písně,jeho hudbu naprosto miluji,jeho písničky a hlas mě vždy dostanou do úplně jiného světa 💓💓
Grazie John per le tuoi canzoni, sicuramente continui a suonare e cantare li dove sei, grazie Beatles per la musica che mi ai fatto sentire e la sento ancora. E incredibile, ogni tanto scopro un tema nuovo tuo e dei miei Beatles
Al rato con lo que están haciendo para el 2025 por el 30 aniversario de la antología pueden relanzar las antologías Por eso no las incluyeron en los discos rojo y azul Todo es negocio Para que uno compré La voz de Lennon se escuchará más limpia como en now AND then Y no soy experto como otros que he leído comentarios No es nuestro caso amigo
I love the original from the anthology, I also like it better than the later remix, which was structurally changed. What a beautiful song! And what a great feat to turn it into a studio version back then. The demo is nice too.
Los demos de Jhon si ubieran salido a la luz como temas terminados estoy seguro que serían buenísimos los demos están geniales. Me encanta el trabajo que se hizo por parte de los Beatles restantes para 2 de las antologías los temas Free as a Bird y Real Love, su último tema con apoyo de la inteligencia artificial de Peter Jackson es muy fabuloso el resultado de Now And Then
Music by KR, thank you so, so much for putting this on RU-vid !! It is so much better than the one that was released .. I can't believe how much better ...
My friend said he recorded these demos in a minor key but wanted most of Double Fantasy to be Major so that's why he didn't develop them at the time... if he had lived he might have put them on his next album. We'll never know.
The reworked version they did in 95 and released as a single I've had as my ring tone for years and keep transferring it to every phone I've had over last few years
The music video of this song is too beautiful and touching,that is the most impressive MV I've seen,I'am a 22 year old fan from PRC.Hope the beatles forever in this world.
Played this at my Mom's funeral, walked over to the piano before Everyone arrived and this just came to me for some reason. If your happy or sad, its a perfect song for the mood, gives you hope to someday be "Home and dry"
He was gone so suddenly. He is gone. But… he’s not. He is still with us, ever day of of our lives. Not a week goes by we don’t see his image, hear his music, or are touched by his existence. It would surely blow his mind and elicit that wry smile, if he knew what he’d become.
This raw version Is beautyful; the version completed by the other three Is beauryful... but I can't help love the most the video. It's a piece of art. Love from Guadalajara, México.
If John Lennon had recorded this song, this would’ve become one of the best songs ever, without disregarding the brilliant and moving Beatles remastering of it
Such a gentle song and he seems so at peace. Often wondered if he knew his time was up? Tortured soul, gave us everything, beauty, hate, rage, love, envy, epitome of being a human and not ashamed to convey all what it means. Rest well, will probably never comprehend your impact on the world, neither will you or I. We all matter, treat each other with kindness in your heart, peace.
![Free as a bird - John Lennon (1977 Demo) [AI Remaster]](/img/logo.svg){kind=logo}
