The Beatles' "Final" Music Video Is an Abomination

As the other members of the Beatles sing and play, Lennon, ever the cut-up, clowns around, bouncing from one leg to the other with a grin on his face. His hands move like flippers, turned out at an odd angle and making frantic circles in the air, as if he's wiping down an invisible window. And as his body moves from side to side, his head seems to lag slightly behind it. The larkish ebullience feels strained and off-kilter, like an audience that wants to clap along but can't find the beat. The music video for "Now and Then," which has been billed as "the last Beatles song," starts off as an affectionate nostalgia trip, intercutting present-day footage of the two surviving Beatles with archival footage of their late bandmates.