Abbey Road (album)

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Abbey Road was the eleventh official album released by The Beatles. Although its release preceded that of Let It Be, it was the last to be recorded, and is therefore widely considered as the band's swan song. It was released on September 26, 1969 in the UK and October 1, 1969 in the US. It was produced and orchestrated by George Martin for Apple Records. Geoff Emerick was the engineer and Tony Banks, tape operator. It is considered one of the Beatles' most tightly constructed albums, although John Lennon dismissed the album in later years^{[citation needed]}, possibly because its focal point—"The Long Medley" (which Lennon disliked anyway^{[citation needed]})—was designed almost entirely by Paul McCartney. The album has a sunny, optimistic feel to many of its tracks, which is ironic since it was recorded in an atmosphere of often open hostility between all the band members. For this reason it is on Abbey Road, of all The Beatles albums, that the steadying influence of George Martin can perhaps be felt at its strongest.

Genesis of the album

After the near-disastrous sessions for the proposed Get Back album (later retitled Let It Be for release), Paul McCartney suggested to producer George Martin that The Beatles get together and make an album "just like the old days... just like we used to", free of the conflict that began with the sessions for The Beatles (aka the White Album). Martin agreed to this if the band would be "the way they used to be", and the final result was this album.

The two album sides are quite different in character, designed to accommodate the differing wishes of McCartney and John Lennon. Side one (to please Lennon) is a collection of single tracks, while side two (to please McCartney) consists of a long suite of compositions, many of them being relatively short and segued together.

Song information

John Lennon

"Come Together", the album opener, was written by Lennon originally for Timothy Leary's 1969 campaign for governor of California, with the original title "Let's Get It Together". A rough version of this can be heard in outtakes from Lennon's second bed-in event in Canada. "Come Together" was released as a double A-side single with "Something". It was the subject of a lawsuit brought against Lennon by Morris Levy due to the fact that one line in "Come Together" is similar to a line of Chuck Berry's "You Can't Catch Me". It has been suggested that each verse of "Come Together" is about one of the Beatles: respectively George ("He one holy roller"), Ringo ("he wear no shoe-shine"), John ("He got Ono sideboard") and Paul ("Got to be good looking").

"I Want You (She's So Heavy)", conceived in part with Yoko Ono, is a combination of two somewhat different recording attempts; the first occuring almost immediately after the "Get Back" sessions in February 1969 and featuring Billy Preston on keyboards. This was combined with a second version made during the "Abbey Road" sessions proper and when edited together ran at over 7 minutes long, making it the second-longest released Beatles song ("Revolution 9" being the longest). It also features one of the earliest uses of a Moog synthesiser to create the white-noise or "wind" effect heard near the end of the track. During the final edit, as the repetitive guitar riff continued on and on, John told the engineer to "cut it right there", creating a sudden, jarring silence which concluded side one of "Abbey Road". The final overdub session for "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" would be the last time all four Beatles worked in the studio together.

"Because" also features a Moog synthesizer (which was played by Harrison). The chords in "Because" were inspired when John heard Yoko playing Ludwig van Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata", on the piano after which, according to Lennon, he played the notes backwards. "Because" features three-part harmonies by John, Paul and George which were then triple tracked to sound like nine singers. As remembered by Geoff Emerick, during the recording of the harmonies, they sat on a bench around the mic and Ringo sat there along with the others, perhaps in a subconscious display of love and brotherhood, despite their increasing differences at the time.

Paul McCartney

Paul's first song on the album, "Maxwell's Silver Hammer", is about a hammer-wielding murderer and was originally from the Let It Be sessions as seen in the Let It Be documentary. When recording "Oh! Darling", McCartney attempted recording only once per day, so that his voice would be fresh on the recording. He would practice the song when in the bath.

George Harrison

George Harrison was rapidly growing as a songwriter, and with Abbey Road, he gave what's perhaps his most significant contribution to a Beatles album. He wrote and sung lead on two of the most famous songs of the album, including the first number one single by The Beatles that was not a Lennon-McCartney composition.

"Something" was George Harrison's first A-side single with The Beatles. Originally written during the White Album sessions, the first line is based on the James Taylor song "Something in the Way She Moves" (Taylor was signed to Apple at the time). After the lyrics were refined during the "Let It Be" sessions (tapes reveal John giving George some songwriting advice during its composition), "Something" was originally given to Joe Cocker, but then recorded by The Beatles for Abbey Road. "Something" was Lennon's favourite song on the album, and McCartney considered it the best song Harrison had written. Frank Sinatra once made the comment that "Something" was his all-time favourite Lennon-McCartney song—the joke being it was not written by them at all, but by Harrison.

"Here Comes the Sun" is Harrison's second song on the album and one of his best-known songs, written in Eric Clapton's garden while George was "playing hookey" from one of Apple's tedious board meetings. It was influenced by the Cream song "Badge" (which was co-written by Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Ringo Starr).

Ringo Starr

Ringo wrote and sang one song for the album, "Octopus's Garden", his second Beatles' composition. It was inspired when Starr left the band for two weeks during the sessions for The White Album and went to Sardinia with his family. While there, he composed the song, which is arguably his most successful writing effort. While Ringo had the lyrics nearly pinned down, the song's melodic structure was partly written in the studio by Harrison (which can be seen in the Let It Be film), although Harrison gave full songwriting credit to Starr. (A similar occurrence took place nearly a year later with Starr's "It Don't Come Easy".)

The medley

Many consider the climax of the album to be the sixteen-minute medley consisting of several short songs, both finished and unfinished, tagged together by McCartney. Most of these songs were written (and originally recorded in demo form) during sessions for The Beatles (also known as the White Album) and Let It Be. McCartney's "You Never Give Me Your Money" (based loosely on The Beatles' financial problems with Apple) leads off the long suite, followed by three Lennon compositions, "Sun King" (which, along with "Because" from earlier on the album, showcases Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison's overdubbed harmonies), "Mean Mr. Mustard" (written during The Beatles' trip to India), and "Polythene Pam", followed by four McCartney songs, "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window" (written after a fan came into Paul's residence literally through the bathroom window), "Golden Slumbers" (based on Thomas Dekker's 17th-century poem), "Carry That Weight" (one of the few Beatles' songs to feature vocal harmonies from all four band members), and the fitting climax, "The End". This features the first and only Starr drum solo to make it to tape (in its original album form), and the three extended guitar solos performed in turn by Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and John Lennon, in tandem for nine measures. Each had a distinctive style which McCartney felt reflected their personalities. An alternate version with Harrison's lead guitar solo played against Starr's drum solo appears on the Anthology 3 album. The final line, "And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make", in the view of many fans, captures the essence of the Beatles' message.

The song "Her Majesty", tacked on the end, was originally part of the side two medley, appearing in between "Mean Mr. Mustard" and "Polythene Pam". McCartney did not like the way the medley sounded with "Her Majesty" included, so he had the medley re-edited to remove it. However, second engineer John Curlander had been instructed never to throw out anything the Beatles created, and he placed it at the end of the medley after 20 seconds of silence. The Beatles liked this effect and left it on the album. On the first printing of the LP cover, "Her Majesty" is not listed; however, it is shown on the record label. Upon listening, you can hear the last crashing chord of "Mean Mr. Mustard" at the start while the final note of "Her Majesty" remained buried in the mix of "Polythene Pam". Some consider it to be the first hidden track on an album.

Production notes

Abbey Road was the only Beatles album exclusively recorded on an 8-track Studer reel to reel, as opposed to 4 track. This is noticeable by the better sound separation and micing of the drum kit. The album was also the first to be recorded and mixed entirely on a solid state sound board, giving the album's sound a noticeably different "feel" from its predecessors—Harrison once remarked that the new sound was too "harsh" for his liking. Also, the burgeoning Moog synthesizer features on the majority of tracks, not merely as a background effect, but sometimes playing a central role, such as in Because; where it's used for the middle 8. It is also prominent on Maxwell's Silver Hammer and Here Comes the Sun. The instrument was introduced to the band by George after a stay in Los Angeles where he was introduced to the instrument. (The first song to employ the Moog was "Daily Nightly" by the Monkees.) Harrison released Electronic Sound on Apple's short-lived experimental label Zapple in 1968, an album featuring dissonant sounds entirely made from a Moog. George had anticipated, if not set trends before with the introduction of the sitar on Rubber Soul in 1965.

Also of note, one of the assistant engineers working on the album at the time was a young then-unknown apprentice named Alan Parsons. He later went on to engineer Pink Floyd's landmark album The Dark Side Of The Moon and produce many popular albums himself as The Alan Parsons Project.

The famous photograph

"At some point, the album was going to be titled Everest, after the brand of cigarettes I used to smoke," recalls Geoff Emerick. The idea included a cover photo of The Beatles in the Himalaya, but by the time the group had to take the photo, they decided to call it Abbey Road and take the photo outside the studio on August 8, 1969. The cover designer was Apple Records creative Director Kosh. The cover photograph was taken by photographer, Iain MacMillan. MacMillan was given only ten minutes around 10 that morning to take the photo. That cover photograph has since become one of the most famous and most imitated album covers in recording history.

 

"Paul Is Dead" clues

The cover also supposedly contains clues adding to the "Paul Is Dead" phenomenon: Paul is barefoot, with eyes closed, out of step with the others, and holds a cigarette in his right hand, though he is left handed, and the car number plate "LMW 281F" supposedly referred to the fact that McCartney would be 28 years old if he was still alive. (While the "I" in "28IF" is actually a "1," it is hard to tell on the cover. As an aside, Paul was only 27 at the time of Abbey Road's release, though some take this to mean he would have been 28 "if" he had lived despite the fact that McCartney has supposedly been dead for years at this point.) "LMW" is said to stand for "Linda McCartney Weeps." Paul had married Linda Eastman in March of 1969, though strangely, the rumor suggests he was already dead several years before this time. Therefore, Linda would never have even met Paul. The four Beatles on the album cover, according to the "Paul is Dead" myth, represent the priest (John, dressed in white), the Mourner (Ringo in a black suit), the Corpse (Paul, in a suit but barefoot—like a body in a casket), and the Gravedigger (George, in jeans and a denim work shirt). The man standing on the pavement in the background is Paul Cole, an American tourist who was unaware that he was being photographed until he saw the album cover months later.

Imitations and Parodies

One imitation cover came with a unique tribute. Booker T. & the M.G.'s, famed soul combo, covered most of the songs on the Abbey Road in their 1969 album McLemore Avenue, named after the street address of the Stax records studio. The Red Hot Chili Peppers have also imitated the album cover, on their The Abbey Road E.P., with the band appearing nude, apart from tactfully placed socks. McCartney himself revisited the famous album cover for his live album Paul Is Live and at the end of the video for the theme to Spies Like Us with Chevy Chase and Dan Aykroyd.

In Eric Idle's parody of The Beatles, The Rutles, their parody album, known as Shabby Road shows the fictional band crossing the same street. However, in reference to the 'Paul is dead' rumour, the Stig character is wearing no trousers, supposedly an indication of death in certain cultures.

Bob and Tom's second comedy album, Shabbey Road, released Christmas 1987, parodied Abbey Road in both title and hand-drawn cover art—as opposed to photographed. The cover depicted a faithful re-creation of the Abbey Road cover, complete with VW bug parked askew, and traversing the crosswalk are the radio show's titular stars Bob Kevoian and Tom Griswold, along with Richard Nixon and an unknown male of short stature at the back of the line. This is the second of two B&T compilations to be named after or parody Beatles albums (the other being their first release, The White Album.) Both albums are out-of-print.

In the opening titles of the 2006 series of Grumpy Old Men, Rick Wakeman, Tim Rice, Rory McGrath and Arthur Smith are walking across the crossing when they get run over by a speeding chav talking on his mobile while driving.

The promotional photo of the 2004–2006 Reebok home shirt of Liverpool FC (the last home shirt made by the company before the club resumed association with adidas in 2006) deliberate homage to the photo. It featured Steven Gerrard, Sami Hyypiä, Harry Kewell and John Arne Riise. The original version of the advert, first featured on the club's website,[1] featured Michael Owen, but following his transfer to Real Madrid shortly afterwards, he was airbrushed out and replaced with Riise—at the same time, Gerrard's visible shirt number was digitally altered from 17 to the 8 that he had since been allocated.

The photo has also made the particular zebra crossing at Abbey Road a popular tourist destination, and each day visitors can be seen posing in the popular position.

In the television show The Simpsons, Homer's successful barbershop quartet The Be Sharps second album Bigger Than Jesus included a parody of the cover with the four band members walking on water.

In the video of their debut single, "5 Colours in Her Hair", the band McFly are seen walking across the zebra crossing in imitation of the picture.

The 1998 Walt Disney movie The Parent Trap featured a brief imitation when Annie (who is actually Hallie) James and her mother, Elizabeth, walk across Abbey Road while on an errand. During the walk, the movie does a freeze frame to make the imitation obvious.

The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers soundtrack, recorded at Abbey Road, has a picture of Peter Jackson (barefoot), the composer, and two producers crossing Abbey Road.

The Criterion Collection DVD of The Royal Tenenbaums features drawings on the back cover of the DVD case of the family featured in the film crossing a street in similar fashion as the cover of Abbey Road, with some family members walking barefoot.

In 2006, a video of U2 and Green Day posing on Abbey Road doing a photo shoot was released onto the Internet. The video can be seen here [[2]]

The Beetle

The Volkswagen Beetle parked next to the intersection belonged to one of the people living in the apartment across from the recording studio. After the album came out, the license plate was stolen repeatedly from the car. In 1986, the car was sold at an auction for $23,000 and is currently on display at the Volkswagen museum in Wolfsburg, Germany. Originally, the Beatles wanted to move the Beetle, but as the owner was away on holiday, they were unable to do so.

Cover versions

• One month after Abbey Road's release, George Benson recorded a cover version of the album called The Other Side of Abbey Road.
• Zakk Wylde covered the song "Come Together" in 1994 on his Pride & Glory re-issue bonus disc.
• Joe Cocker played a version of "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window" during his 1970 Mad Dogs and Englishmen tour.
• As mentioned above, in 1970 Booker T. & the M.G.'s recorded McLemore Avenue which covered the Abbey Road songs and has a cover photo which mimicked the Abbey Road cover. Stax Records was located at McLemore Avenue.
• In 1998, Phil Collins covered the medley "Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End" for the George Martin/Beatles tribute album In My Life.
• Ben Folds covered "Golden Slumbers" for the soundtrack to the 2001 movie, I Am Sam.
• Aerosmith has a particularly famous cover of "Come Together", recorded for the film version of The Beatles' earlier album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
• Richie Havens had a top twenty hit with his cover version of "Here Comes the Sun" in 1971.
• Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel had a British top ten hit with their version of "Here Comes the Sun" in 1976.
• The Legendary Pink Dots covered a small portion of "Here Comes the Sun" in the song "I Love You In Your Tragic Beauty".
• Elliott Smith covered the song "Because" on the American Beauty soundtrack.
• Tenacious D have also been known to include the "You Never Give Me Your Money" part of the medley in their live performances. The band also covered "Something" during concerts shortly after George Harrison's death.
• Coldplay and Belle & Sebastian have both covered "Here Comes the Sun" in live performances. Travis performed the song at the first Top of the Pops awards on 30 November 2001, in tribute to George Harrison, who had died the previous day.
• Dream Theater covered the "Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End" medley as part of their 1988 Xmas Demos. The Live In Tokyo video also includes footage of Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy joining countless tourists in mimicking the Abbey Road cover (barefoot, a la Paul).
• Transatlantic also covered a large portion of the Abbey Road medley, as well as some other Beatles songs, on their Live in Europe DVD, which was released in 2003.
• Trey Anastasio has covered the medley from "Mean Mr. Mustard" through "The End" with his band 70 Volt Parade. The first performance of this took place at New York's Hammerstein Ballroom on May 13, 2005.
• Coroner covered "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" as the closing track to their 1991 album Mental Vortex.
• On their album Paul's Boutique, the Beastie Boys use the guitar and drum solo from "The End" as the background to their song "Sounds of Science".
• Noel Gallagher of Oasis would occasionally add "Octopus's Garden" to the end of "Whatever" at live performances. Also, the third album by Oasis, entitled Be Here Now's cover features a replica of the police car's license plate on a car inside a pool. The cover also features a number of other rock references, citing historical moments of The Beatles, and The Who to name just a few
• On his album Whose Garden Was This, John Denver covered "Golden Slumbers" along with his original composition "Sweet Sweet Life" and a reprise of a previous album track called "Tremble If You Must", before seguing into the last track on the album, a cover of "Jingle Bells".
• The song "Come Together" was covered by Michael Jackson. It is performed in a mock up live performance at the end of the movie Moonwalker. It also appears on his HIStory album.
• "Something" was covered by Taylor Hicks on American Idol.
• The side B medley was covered by the Brain Damaged Eggmen, a group consisting of members from Umphrey's McGee and the Disco Biscuits, on August 8th, 2006.
• Children's entertainer Raffi recorded "Octopus's Garden" on his album One Light, One Sun.
• Gov't Mule has covered the song in live performances.

Accolades

In 1997, Abbey Road was named the 12th greatest album of all time in a 'Music of the Millennium' poll conducted by HMV, Channel 4, The Guardian and Classic FM; it received the same ranking in a 1998 poll of Q magazine readers. In 2000, Q placed it at number 17 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever. In November 2003, it was named the 14th best album of the rock era by a Rolling Stone poll of critics, journalists, and others in the industry. Also in 2003, the TV network VH1 named it the 8th greatest album ever.

In November 2004, it was named the 14th best album by Rolling Stone.

Track listing

• All tracks written by Lennon-McCartney, except where noted.

Side one

1. "Come Together" – 4:20
2. "Something" (Harrison) – 3:03
3. "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" – 3:27
4. "Oh! Darling" – 3:26
5. "Octopus's Garden" (Starkey) – 2:51
6. "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" – 7:47

Side two

1. "Here Comes the Sun" (Harrison) – 3:05
2. "Because" – 2:45
3. "You Never Give Me Your Money" – 4:02
4. "Sun King" – 2:26
5. "Mean Mr. Mustard" – 1:06
6. "Polythene Pam" – 1:12
7. "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window" – 1:57
8. "Golden Slumbers" – 1:31
9. "Carry That Weight" – 1:36
10. "The End" – 2:19
11. "Her Majesty" – 0:23

Note: "Her Majesty" is regarded as the first ever hidden track. ^{[citation needed]}

• One cassette tape version in the US had "Come Together" and "Here Comes The Sun" swapped so that Harrison's composition actually opens the album. All subsequent versions (including the CD) have restored the track listing to its original order.

Note: "You Never Give Me Your Money", "Sun King", "Mean Mr. Mustard", "Polythene Pam", "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window", "Golden Slumbers", "Carry That Weight" and "The End" are sometimes noted as one song (medley) called "The Abbey Road Medley". This has also been loosely referred to as "The Rock Symphony".

A cartoon filmed with regard to the song "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" was presented to the BBC TV pioneer Rowan Ayers, who launched Abbey Road on his show Late Night Line-Up. It is now owned by an evangelist who bought it from Rowan Ayers. [3]

Clips

Release history

See also

• The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time

External links

• Overview of Abbey Road - Soundstream
• Beatles comments on each of the songs
• Recording data and notes
• Q readers 2006 100 greatest albums ever
• Abbey Road album reviews