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The Beatles released a cryptic post on their official Instagram page on October 25, 2023, featuring an orange and white cassette tape on its A-side. The tape features the words 'type I Normal position' at the bottom right, with more description lines blurred to be unreadable.
The post links to the band's official website, which has a link to subscribe for more updates. The cryptic post was followed by projections in Liverpool featuring the same cryptic tape. The campaign of ads has attracted the attention of netizens, who wasted no time in speculating on what it actually might be, as exemplified by the tweet below:
Netizens react to The Beatles tape teaser
Netizens were quick to react to The Beatles cassette tape teaser, taking to social media, particularly Twitter, to speculate on the teaser. Some speculated it was the lost track featuring all four members that Paul McCartney revealed earlier had been restored by AI.
Others speculated it could be the Carnival of Light, an unreleased Beatles track originally on January 6, 1967. The track represented the band's efforts to engage with the avant-garde and has since its recording gained cult status among the band's fans.
Some netizens also speculated that the tape could be either the White album or a rerecording of the Red or Blue albums respectively. The White album refers to the ninth studio album, while the Red and Blue are the first two greatest hits album respectively.
In an exclusive interview with Radio 4 on June 13, 2023, Paul McCartney revealed the lost track was a recording by John Lennon in a demo tape, stating:
"He [Jackson] was able to extricate John’s voice from a ropey little bit of cassette.We had John’s voice and a piano and he could separate them with AI. They tell the machine, ‘That’s the voice. This is a guitar. Lose the guitar’"
The singer-songwriter continued:
"So when we came to make what will be the last Beatles’ record, it was a demo that John had [and] we were able to take John’s voice and get it pure through this AI. Then we can mix the record, as you would normally do. So it gives you some sort of leeway.We just finished it up and it’ll be released this year."
The singer also elaborated on his feelings on using AI to restore The Beatles track, stating:
"I’m not on the internet that much [but] people will say to me, ‘Oh, yeah, there’s a track where John’s singing one of my songs’, and it’s just AI, you know?.It’s kind of scary but exciting, because it’s the future. We’ll just have to see where that leads."
The Beatles are best known for their eighth studio album, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, which was released on May 26, 1967. The diamond-certified album peaked as a chart-topper in nearly all major album charts.
