George Harrison‘s widow, Olivia, has shared a “surprising, magical” story about how a clock the guitarist bought 25 years ago seemed to pre-empt the release of The Beatles‘ final song, ‘Now and Then’.
The title of their landmark song, which Far Out said in a review is “a piece of art created with unrivalled chemistry, even via the conduit of AI,” was on a clock Harrison bought decades before its release.
In a video shared on her late husband’s social media channels, Olivia explained: “We were in this store, George saw this clock made out of bits and pieces, and it had some Scrabble letters, and it just said ‘Now And Then’. He was attracted to it for some reason, he just took it off the wall and bought it.”
Harrison then built a “little Russian dacha” in their garden and hung the clock there, where it hung for 25 years. Over the summer, she cleaned it up and put it on the mantelpiece, which is when the phone rang.
“It’s Paul [McCartney],” she recalled, “And he begins to explain, reminding me of this third song that was on the cassette tape with ‘Real Love’ and ‘Free As A Bird’. I said, ‘I remember it, it’s called ‘Now and Then’. And I’m standing there looking at the clock.”
The clock touchingly features on the back of the vinyl sleeve on the song’s single release, which recently became the fastest-selling single of the century in the United Kingdom on vinyl.
“We were so moved and happy that this thing that George had held in his hand somehow magically appeared,” she Harrison. “And I said, ‘I think this is Georgie saying it’s OK.’”
