In 1969 the Beatles released Abbey Road onto the world. It was the last time that all four were together in the studio and the final album released under their longtime collaborator George Martin.
Artist: The Beatles {John Lennon – vocals, rhythm guitar; Paul McCartney – vocals, bass guitar; George Harrison – lead guitar, vocals; Ringo Starr – drums, vocals}
Album: Abbey Road
Year: 1969
Genre: Rock
Rating: 5/5
Worth Your Time? Since it includes some of the greatest moments in modern music history, it is a must listen for everyone.
Twitter Review: Despite relationships between the fab four being strained at this point, the Beatles put out a classic album filled with many surprises.
Top 3 Tracks:
Things to Look For:
- George’s Peak. Harrison’s songwriting tends to have a hard time shining on a Beatles album since he is always competing with Lennon and McCartney. But on Abbey Road, Harrison is absolutely at the top of his game with Something and Here Comes the Sun. Something is such a beautiful love song. In particular, I appreciate the lyrics: You’re asking me will my love grow, I don’t know, I don’t know, You stick around now it may show, I don’t know, I don’t know. Those lines beautifully capture the uncertainty of relationships that we all face. Here Comes the Sun is also expertly crafted as you can easily feel the snow melting and picture the animals coming out of slumber to enjoy the budding spring weather while the song plays.
- The Medley. A significant portion of the second half of the album is dedicated to a medley made up of eight songs. It is includes 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. It doesn’t flow perfectly at all transitions because there were some changes afterwards in ordering. And even though Lennon has referred to some of the songs he wrote for the medley as “a bit of crap,” I consider The Medley the high point of the album. The combination of the eight pieces far exceeds anything a single part could accomplish. Basically, John wrote the front half and Paul wrote the back half for those interested.
- Ringo’s Drumming. Starr is not a fan of drum solos. So on The End, they turned Ringo’s playing into a drum solo by dialing back the other instruments that were being played at the time. It’s very fitting for him to have a solo on this track as Paul, George and John take turns playing 2 bar guitar solos for much of the song. I know it’s not a particularly complicated solo but I think it’s absolutely perfect. And he is, of course, rock solid on the rest of the album.
- Hidden Track. Her Majesty, which was cut from The Medley originally, is one of the earliest examples of hidden tracks on a rock album. It’s incredibly short at 23 seconds but I love the innocence and simplicity of it. Referring to drinking alcohol to get up the nerve to talk to a woman as a “I gotta get a bellyful of wine” combines an adult activity with a childlike innocence to create an authentic portrait of the hopeless romantic.
Low Points: While I thoroughly enjoy Lennon’s contributions to The Medley and love the uniqueness of Because, I don’t think I Want You (She’s So Heavy) was an ideal execution. Nobody should be surprised here when I say the song is a love song about Yoko Ono. It is the Beatles second longest song in their discography at nearly eight minutes. It’s a fairly basic song in its structure but is dragged out through massive repetition and additional ever increasing white noise at the end. I understand how highly influential and important this song is with such a dark sounding riff being featured. But I would rather have them carried it out in a more straight forward manner such as they did in Oh! Darling where they did a flawless execution of a traditional sounding song. If you love the song, that’s great. I don’t.
Anything Else: Abbey Road created an incredibly unique experience for me during the week that no other album has done to date. Every morning on the way to work I would listen to the album and be in complete awe of how amazing it was. And during every commute back home I would loathe the album wondering if I could stand it another day. I know that makes no sense. Maybe the Beatles don’t lend themselves well to being listening to on repeat? Maybe I’ve listened to them too much in my lifetime as Come Together being played on a 7″ record by my mom as she showed me her collection is my earliest musical memory I have? Maybe it was all the stress from being extremely busy at work? I honestly don’t know. It will be interesting to see if this happens on another one of their albums.
Special Guest Review
by renowned Beatles expert, Adolf T. Cat
The Beatles are an overrated boy band without a single musical bone in their collective bodies. Unless you’re a 12 year old girl stuck in 1963, you have no business liking this crap. Lennon is and should always be remembered as a pretentious twat. God, do I hate him. His other three cohorts Denim Dan, Shoeless Joe and Dufus have no business ever being in a band. All of their “songs” were secretly about sex or drugs. They corrupted an entire generation back then and continues to corrupt today’s youth. My current theory for the Beatles longevity is that incredibly bad taste in music must be a dominant gene. Abbey Road, like all of their other albums, sucks. Get over it and go find a real band. (0/5 stars)
Additional Links:
Project Lt. Morning 
One thought on “Week 19 Review”