The Beatles: Why 'Free as a Bird' Remained Unfinished for 17 Years
Ever since the Beatles broke up, fans wished they would reunite. That sort of happened in the years following John Lennon’s death. Here’s how an unfinished demo by John led to a musical reunion for the Beatles.
Ultimate Classic Rock reported that, in 1977, John recorded a demo song called “Free as a Bird” for the musical The Ballad of John and Yoko. He never finished it and he died in 1980. According to The Beatles Bible, George Harrison approached Yoko Ono to see if he and the other surviving Beatles could work on some of John’s demos together. In 1994, Yoko would give Paul McCartney tapes containing four unreleased John tracks: “Free as a Bird,” “Grow Old with Me,” “Real Love,” and “Now and Then.”
Paul was moved listening to them. He said “I’d never heard them before but she explained that they’re quite well known to Lennon fans as bootlegs. I said to Yoko, ‘Don’t impose too many conditions on us, it’s really difficult to do this, spiritually.’”
Source: cheatsheet.com
