Last year, we got the release of “Now And Then,” which was promoted as the final single from the Beatles. The song is the fleshed-out, AI-enhanced demo of a track that John Lennon recorded in 1979, and Lennon is the sole credited songwriter. It didn’t seem like we’d get anything else from the fabled Lennon/McCartney team, but we’ve got one today. It’s just that this new song doesn’t come from John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Instead, it comes from their sons.
Paul and Linda McCartney’s son James has contributed to solo music from both of his parents, and he’s also a singer-songwriter with a couple of records to his name. Today, he’s released “Primrose Hill,” a new single that he co-wrote with John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s son Sean Ono Lennon. On social media, James McCartney writes, “I had a vision as a child in Scotland, on what was a lovely summers day. Letting go, I saw my true love and saviour in my mind’s eye. ‘Primrose Hill’ is about getting the ball rolling with me & finding this person.”
Sean Ono Lennon has a long musical resume, with a bunch of solo records and stints in bands like Cibo Matto, the Ghost Of A Saber Tooth Tiger, and the Lennon Claypool Delirium. “Primrose Hill” is a flowery ballad, and if it sounds Beatles-indebted, it’s only really to the extent that every flower singer-songwriter ballad sounds Beatles-indebted. Listen below.