Free Now

“Free Now” is a track from the 2000 album “Liverpool Sound Collage” by Paul McCartney, Super Furry Animals, and Youth. It features various samples from The Beatles era, including:

• 0:02-0:07: George Harrison says, “The bit that John finally got just after that. And we’ll do both of the do what you want to do.” [Think For Yourself]
• 0:07-0:15: George Harrison’s speed varied loop with distortion of “Do what you want to do.” [Think For Yourself]
• 0:38-1:42: Paul McCartney sings “I feel it, I feel it, oh baby now I feel it … Gotta be free now”. The original singing was released in 2017 as part of the “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” reissue, on the track “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band [Take 9 and Speech]” at around 2:08.
• 1:08-1:10: Sample from the ending of “Magical Mystery Tour” [behind Paul singing “Free Now”]
• 1:29-1:33: Sample from the ending of “Magical Mystery Tour” [behind Paul singing “Free Now”]

From BeatlesBlogger.com, April 28, 2017:

Alternate versions of some of the songs from the forthcoming 50th Anniversary Edition of The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band are beginning to appear on the web.

There’s this one, a stripped-back example of the title track, ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band [Take 9 and Speech]’.

It’s interesting on a whole range range of levels, not least because we now know exactly where Paul McCartney went for inspiration for his experimental album Liverpool Sound Collage, released back in the year 2000.

If you listen to the ‘Sgt. Pepper [Take 9]’ track at around 2’08” in, he’s singing the same words we hear on the track ‘Free Now’.

On the Liverpool Sound Collage album cover McCartney credits The Beatles (and collaborators the Super Furry Animals), but not exactly where the Beatle samples used across the album come from. Now we know the origins of at least one of them.

Variations

• A Stereo version • From "Liverpool Sound Collage"

Officially appears on

Live performances

Paul McCartney has never played this song in concert.

Going further

• https://web.archive.org/web/20020212081520/https://home.earthlink.net/~tomjbr/Tom/Beatles/LiverpoolSoundCollage.html
• https://web.archive.org/web/20020212081520/https://home.earthlink.net/~tomjbr/Tom/Beatles/LiverpoolSoundCollage.html

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