The story behind the cover art
There was one final bit of happenstance, eventually reflected in the image used - along with a new painting by the acclaimed American artist Ed Ruscha - on the song's accompanying cover art. It's a clock featuring the words "Now and Then" created by an American artist called Chris Giffin, bought by George Harrison in 1997 from a shop in Providence, Rhode Island, and kept for years at the home he shared with his wife Olivia.
She recently decided to have a closer look at it. "I put it on the mantelpiece," she says. "Then the phone rang. It's Paul, and he begins to remind me of this third song with Real Love and Free as a Bird. I said, I remember it.' He said, It's called Now And Then.' I'm standing there with the phone in one hand, looking at the clock that said Now and Then.
I was sort of dumbfounded. I said, "I think this is George saying it's OK?"
