What does it sound like?:
Yes, I thought I would review one of the best known LPs of all time. And why not? You never know, someone here might never have heard it. Or someone who professes to dislike The Beatles might be persuaded by my review to give it another go.
The way Abbey Road fits into the Beatles mythology is like this. Inspired by Pet Sounds, they hit a psychedelic high with Revolver (1966) and Sgt Pepper (1967), and turned pop music into art. Floundering for direction they spent much of 1968 messing about in the studio, and the resultant splurge of half-baked recordings became The White Album (a classic, but a flawed classic). In January 1969 they tried to record a live album, jamming and recording every minute, until they finished at the end of the month, cold and exhausted, with one last impromptu show for posterity on their office rooftop on Baker Street. By that point the game was up, they were all fed up being Beatles, and they had nothing left to say.
In that context, Abbey Road seems nothing short of miraculous. In the astonishingly compressed timescale of Beatles world, it was effectively a comeback album. Anecdotal legend says it was Paul who realised they needed to rally one last time to put a proper full stop on their career, and he enticed producer George Martin back to the studio with the promise that the boys would be on their best behaviour and it would be like old times again. Paul had the desire to make a snappy, polished LP, and the consensus is that they managed it.
It’s actually quite slim pickings for proper stand-alone pop songs. You could conceivably create a Beatles ‘best of’ sampler and not include any songs from this album at all. If anything, the balance was tipped in George’s favour – clearly sitting on a few gems (his songwriting having been sidelined until now by virtue of being in a band with two of the biggest egos on the planet), he contributed Something and Here Comes The Sun, two gorgeous, shimmering ballads which sounded as free as sunshine and as deep as the ocean.
John at this point was into gnomic, bluesy, stripped down fare, and his main contributions (Come Together and I Want You) opened and closed side one. What might have sounded primitive and one dimensional was made to soar by the addition of Billy Preston’s gospel and funk inflected organ sounds.
Paul appeared to be in novelty hell at this point, getting lost in fussy, clever clever compositions that warned of his patchy solo career to come. With the memory of Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da still fresh, he outdid himself with Maxwell’s Silver Hammer, perennial favourite for Worst Ever Beatles Song.
But where Paul shone was on what I feel is Abbey Road’s humble classic – Oh! Darling. Clearly inspired by John’s Yer Blues from the previous year, Paul decided to go full doo wop, with a stomping 6/8 staccato piano and lots of wooh and waah backing vocal harmonies. In that delicious Beatle-y way, he didn’t stick to a traditional doo wop circular chord sequence, but turned the chords upside down to make it a bit stranger, a bit more otherworldly. (Bowie would later pull the same trick with things like Five Years and Drive-In Saturday). It’s a gut-wrenching song with a histrionic vocal (Paul at his peak was notable among white singers for his screaming), dripping with irony and foreshadowing glam rock. And Ringo plays a blinder, with some of the most spectacular and downright orgasmic drum fills this side of Ginger Baker.
Abbey Road could be regarded as an object lesson in rhythm guitar. From the capo nine D-sus twinkling of Here Comes The Sun to the sensitive colouring of piano ballad Golden Slumbers, the playing throughout is unflashy and delicate, lending an AOR sheen to the whole thing. Even John, notoriously clumsy and limited as a guitarist, brings his A-game. (You can sense the excitement and relief when our trio of guitarists let rip in a brief three-way guitar battle on The End at, er, the end of the LP – The Beatles doing Freebird).
This AOR sheen was new for our boys. To be honest, they hadn’t really got fully to grips with the studio since Sgt Pepper, and lots had changed since then. Everything was sonically warmer and cleaner, with instruments properly separated in the mix, subtler reverb, and a deeper, more satisfying bottom end. The heavy use of the Moog in colouring the tracks also gave things a wholly modern feel, offsetting the sometimes sugary orchestrations. Sonically, Abbey Road is in the same ball park as Dark Side Of The Moon (which it clearly inspired).
It’s an album that’s actually quite difficult to describe, which reflects the fact that it’s greater than the sum of its parts. Papering over the cracks to hide a dearth of decent new material, the sequencing is a stroke of genius (especially the celebrated medley which closes side two), a condensed journey through a ragbag of disparate songs – against all odds, it all flows majestically.
Lyrically opaque, it’s effectively a combination of nonsense verse (‘Sticks a ten bob note up his nose’) and cryptic clues to the financial mayhem underpinning the band at this time (‘You never give your money’). But the superficiality of the words allows the occasional trite sentiment to ring with the weight and simplicity of myth, retrospectively tinged by the knowledge that these are some the closing statements of the mightiest pop group to ever walk this planet: ‘Boy, you’re gonna carry that weight a long time’, ‘All that magic feeling, nowhere to go’.
After a last euphoric, meaningless aphorism (‘The love you take is equal to the love you make’), it all ends with a resounding, full on, orchestral C major chord, which is allowed to fade naturally and give you time to reflect on the preceding forty minutes.
(Paul spoils the mood with a little 30 second acoustic ditty as a hidden track. But at this stage, who can blame him for wanting to keep the party going for just a few more moments?)
I experienced this LP through my dad’s record collection, and it was (and IS – I still have it) a serious, heavy 1969 original pressing. The four guys walking across the zebra crossing on the front cover seem untouchably mature, cocksure with a thousand years’ experience crammed into a decade, not one of them over the age of thirty. No need for sleevenotes or embellishments – just a tracklisting and an apple on each side of the vinyl. Even now, this still feels like a grown-up artifact, a reminder in times of doubt that pop music is not just a childish pursuit.
I finally visited the real zebra crossing for myself a couple of years ago. It seemed small and fake next to this otherworldly image that has dominated my Beatle-obsessed brain for nearly thirty years now. But I confess to an uncontrollable rush of emotion when I crossed from one side to the other. I’m not normally an emotional person, but I couldn’t help myself.
What does it all *mean*?
It’s a statement of intent, the colossus at the heart of twentieth century pop culture. Or, if you like, just a great run of addictive tunes put together in just the right order.
Goes well with…
Drunken attempts to match the vocal harmonies. (Sheesh, I didn’t even mention the harmonies in my review!)
Release Date:
Might suit people who like…
Blonde On Blonde, Déjà Vu (CSNY) and Dark Side Of The Moon.
Fantastic review Arthur and a wonderful idea overall to revisit classic albums.
I’m sure that Here Comes The Sun is played in dropped D tuning, capo’d on the 7th fret and Oh Darling is in 12/8, but that’s splitting hairs.
Written on a mobile, without recourse to google or other fact checking, in the knowledge that someone was bound to pick up on the pedantic details….
I got carried away with my inner Iain McDonald, and I expect no better. Thank you for your pedantry.
What is the difference between 6/8 and 12/8 anyway? I’ve never been quite sure…
(I still don’t think it’s drop D though…)
6/8 is waltzy and 12/8 is still counted in 4, just in 4 groups of 3.
That’s a great review, Artie. Abbey Road is my favourite Beatles album, perhaps because I was old enough to really appreciate it upon its release.
McCartney screams are great ,the sound and sequencing excellent.
I used to work alongside a woman who with her husband ran a modest bed and breakfast in Dundee. Ian Macmillan was a regular guest.
Not sure it’s my favourite but I seem to play it more than any of the others. Top work, Arthur.
Brill review. I’ll be playing it tonight.
I love Maxwell’s Silver Hammer… the real turkey for me is Sun King partly because it brings to mind the ‘I buried Stig/Have you a water buffalo’ line from the Rutles.
There’s the thing though. You’ve expressed quite clearly that this album is greater than the sum of its parts, and I don’t mind the slightness of some of the material when taken as a whole. The observation about the sound vs. Dark Side of the Moon is a good one.
Much as I love it, Sun King was the moment when I realised the Beatles were listening to and absorbing the music around them, instead of single-handedly changing the face of pop music every few months as they had done since 1963. When I first heard Sun King I just thought “Ah, Lennon’s been listening to Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac”.
That’s a good point. Maybe it shows that they HAD to stop?
That, Sir, is a splendid point.
Err, sorry, I have nothing else to add.
If anyone doubts its continuing influence, this is strangely hypnotic.
http://www.abbeyroad.com/crossing
Good review. Wonderful record, but…
Dug out Abbey Road in the summer, and the whole time it was playing I rather regretted that I wasn’t playing Please Please Me, With the Beatles, A Hard Day’s Night or Beatles For Sale instead.
They’re my go-to Fab Four fixes.
I’m not too sure I’ll ever listen to Abbey Road, or indeed Sgt. Pepper’s, again.
I’m on board with that.
I’m off board. Can’t you play both Dazey?
Great writing, great read. Great album
Last year, I proposed a different view, stating that it is the worst Beatles album. I got five thumbs up, too!!!! 🙂
Great art divides opinion!
I was about to mention your brave review @tiggerlion! Mr Cowslip is of course on the right side of this debate….terrific review and let’s have more of this sorta thing….
I’m on a roll now so I’m certainly going to do more!
Nice work, Arthur – Keep ’em coming. Good point about smart sequencing making an album more than the sum of its parts. I often think, along with bothering to design a decent cover, clever track sequencing diminished with the CD format.
Good point. I still think of albums a having a break in the middle to flip sides. I Want You makes infinite more sense as a track to close a side, for example.
And now you say that, I’m reminded of the way Belle & Sebastian always leave a wee gap halfway through their CDs, as though you were getting up to “turn over” to side 2.
They are the greatest, but I find Abbey Road to be somewhat overrated. Side 1 in particular is extremely patchy (Octupus’s Garden, Maxwell, Oh Darling) and while the medley is stunning overall, songs like Mean Mr Mustard and Polythene Pam hardly rank with their greatest. The best moments belong to George and Paul (You Never Give Me Your Money).
You are correct that the sum of it’s parts is greater, but I rank it 6th of their albums behind Revolver, The Beatles, Rubber Soul, A Hard Day’s Night and Pepper.
The one I’m least likely to play is Sgt. Pepper’s, but then of the first 10 Stones’ LPs, the one I’d put 10th, by a quite considerable distance, is Sticky Fingers.
Cough, splutter… What??
Yep, and it’s lucky to get 10th.
Listening to my old 99p ebay LP right now. I’d forgotten how blimmin’ great Octopus’s Garden is!
Do you know what, I bet a Pencilsqueezer painting inspired by the medley would be just awesome.
Awesome.
A very good review and, based on that review, I am very tempted to give it a listen. I am not sure though….stupid name for a group and I just can’t picture anyone walking into a record shop and asking for ‘the Beatle’s LP”
They (the Beatles) don’t help themselves either as their name doesn’t appear on the front sleeve. What’s with the clothes too? Are they trying to look a bit retro? To me they look like odd! That one on the left looks like a grave digger. I wonder if that Beetle car belongs to one of them? Maybe they (foolishly) thought it would be funny to name themselves after that car! It looks in great condition though and is certainly a mid-late 60’s model.
The name has the word “beat” in it. Geddit? Quite clever actually. The guy Lennon is quite a wordsmith, and he does funny poetry as well.
I’d definitely recommend the group. They’re sure to go on to big things. I thought guitar groups were on their way out until I heard them.
And the number plate of the beetle? 281F – 28 if. Paul McCartney would have been 28 IF he had lived. It’s all starting to fall into place.
On a serious note I know a guy who works as a professional photographer for the press association and the Abbey Road sleeve bugs the shit out of him because of that VW behind George’s head. ‘It completely ruins the composition”, he never tires of saying.
What’s amazing to me is that the photographer only took six shots. Six! Bloody hell. He was lucky, the rest are shite and the one he used is brilliant.
http://www.whizzpast.com/cover-story-11-fascinating-facts-about-the-beatles-abbey-road-album-cover/
Except, as you know JC, he was 27.
When the legend becomes fact, print the legend, as some old inkie said.
That IS the west.
Yes, that’s true in the world we live in Gary. But the conspiracy theorists were probably using the Tibetan Book Of The Dead calendar which, as any fule kno, tells us we’re already one year old when we are born.
“Sticks a ten bob note up his nose” isn’t nonesense. In those days, ten shillings was a note, not a coin (50p in modern parlance), and, I imagine, could be used to snort cocaine.
It’s “keeps a ten-bob note up his nose” to be precise. Yes, we had ten shilling notes in the UK until we went decimal on the day after Valentines Day, 1971.
I didn’t get the cocaine association (if that’s what it was) until a few years later however. Using a banknote to snort coke didn’t become common until the early 70s and it was unheard of in 1969. But the Fabs were always ahead of the game.
Now it’s reckoned that 80% of all UK banknotes (and an incredible 92% of US notes) are contaminated with cocaine.
http://i.imgur.com/S6nwXP3.jpg
That’s why we have these new wipeable fivers. No waste!
Ah, cocaine. When pop stars take that you’re sure of an enjoyable and concise listening experience.
But hold on, it was 1969…..wow!
The Beatles were WAY ahead of the game there.
When did it actually become the go-to drug?
In the early 1970s, cocaine emerged as the fashionable new drug for entertainers and businesspeople (it says here).
But I think usage peaked in the early 80s.
I suspect Donovan may have had something to do with it.
Wasn’t it strictly speaking a revival? Cocaine was around a lot in the roaring twenties, among Great Gatsby/Bright Young Things types (thereafter Disturbingly Bright-Eyed Young Things). In the 70s it was a retro drug!
Speaking of which, where’s me banana skins?
I fondly remember the sense of infinite wealth I briefly experienced when my Grandma gave me one of these for my birthday, instead of a clinking envelope containing two half-crowns.
You could have a good night out on a ten bob note when I was a lad #cliche
When I started medical school in 1975, Youngs Special was 22p a pint in the bar, so a couple of quid was usually enough.
1969 prices: (*rounded up/down)
A pint of beer cost 2 shillings (10.7p)*
A large loaf of bread cost 2 shillings (9p)*
Cigarettes were 4 shillings (20p) for 20
The average house price was £4,975
A pint of lager cost 4 shillings (20p)
A pint of milk cost 1 shilling (5p)
I live in Hull, and that house price has held.
I live in Stockholm, and that pint of beer price has not held.
As above, great review and great read. Cheers Arthur. Agree all your points. Would love to read your fresh take on a few other classics – Exile, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road etc?
They never topped In Spite of All the Danger.
Good review and I agree entirely. I’d been thinking about reviewing an old album so with this precedent I shall go ahead…
These days the cover image of a record by a big artist would be all over the internet, magazines and TV for weeks or months before release. But it wasn’t like that in 1969.
I remember the first time I laid eyes on a copy of Abbey Road. It would have been early October 1969. I was walking along Euston Road, near where Capitol Radio studios were located in the 70s, when I passed a record shop. Just like guitar shops, it’s compulsory to stop and look in the window, isn’t it? So I pressed my nose up against the glass and peered inside.
There was a window display of around 10 copies of Abbey Road neatly laid out showing the front and back of the sleeve alternately.
I must save up and buy a copy, I thought.
That’s something else people no longer do,
Wow! You mean there wasn’t a fawning 1-hour special on BBC1 presented by the then-equivalent of Davina McCall. “These national treasures have been the Princes of our Hearts since back in the day…”
Ahem. Allow me to second-draft you: “These iconic national treasures..”
Like another album from the same year (The Crimson one; it came out a fortnight later) this LP had me rapt from start to finish when I first heard it, and the second side completely blew me away. That so many nuggets of creativity could be thrown into the mix, leaving behind only brief glimpses of their individual possibilities as the medley warped and twisted onto another direction altogether was reckless, joyful, astonishingly generous musical profligacy of an Olympian order. The absolute pinnacle of Beatlesness. Terrific review, please do more.
Lowering the tone of this fine thread enormously, here is an oddity which I discovered late last night.
Four guys in a band who love the Fabs and love Metallica. So what do they do? Create music which is a mashup of their two idols: Beatallica.
What next? Iron Maidness, Twisted Sister Sledge, Faith No Moby?
I’ll get my coat. Fast!
Iron Maidness?
Excellent!
Return of the Los Palmas Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
Can I Play With Madness, Madness, They Call It Madness
Hey You! Don’t Watch That! Bring your Daughter to the Nuttiest Sound Around!
Bed and Breakfast Man On The Edge
Other mixed genre bands:
Neil Diamondhead
Rolling Stoneroses
Coope, Boyes, Ashford and Simpson
…..mmm, I think that would be interesting…
Excellent review of the record that signalled the final decline of The Beatles. The shock that they could release a shoddy record full of filler was at the time enormous.
Off back into deepest Norfolk now where that there internet don’t exist – hold you hard till I return….
Hev Yew Gotta Loight, Boy?
Come together, Something , Here Comes The Sun …filler???
How apt your Afterword moniker seems today.
*removes Lodestone from Christmas card list, moves to Philistine list*
From the perspective of someone who was 6 at the time it was released it’s awseome. It’s the Beatles!
But without the benefit of being there, maaaan, and from a reasoned adult perspective, Side 1 is mostly filler. Depending on where you stand on Oh! Darling.
I think this was my thinking, Lodestone. Side Two is brilliant because it strings together bits and pieces of filler and makes them pallatable. Still filler though.
Come Together and Something are superb. Oh Darling is OK. You Never Give Me Your Money & Golden Slumbers could have been so much better. Here Comes The Sun is a very slight children’s ditty.
All you really need is the double A side single.
Hey Tigs,
Mind blown a bit there. Could you clarify how you’d improve GS and YNGMYM? Genuinely curious.
I think he should have written his own lyrics to Golden Slumbers and finished the other into a stand alone complete song.
Interesting. I think the lyrics he borrowed are pretty unimprovable – and it’s not like anyone else was using them or that I’d even be aware of them had he not half inched them.
Re YNGMYM, I’m not sure I can see it as incomplete, but each to their own!
Here Comes the Sun I remember wasn’t Iain Macdonald’s favourite either. But you have a go at writing such an instantly memorable ‘simple’ catchy song, like this or I’m Looking Through You – it’s blinking hard!
He should have credited Thomas Dekker at the time, even though his words were out of copyright.
Here Comes The Sun is impossible to object to, I admit, but it’s hardly the greatest song ever.
Talent borrows, genius steals and all that, as no doubt Bobby Zimmerman would agree.
Although, sometimes attempting to circumvent copyright produces much better work. See me after class Kate Bush, for replacing
To where the water and the earth caress
And the down of a peach says mmh, yes
with
And Gibraltar as a girl where I was a flower of the mountain yes
When I put the rose in my hair like the Andalusian girls used
Or shall I wear a red, yes
On the reworked Sensual World from The Director’s Dog’s Breakfast a few years back.
Here Comes… impossible to object to? Predictably Ian McDonald manages it…
“All you really need is the double-A side single.”
Hmm, the release of this single really did spell the end of the Golden Age.
What a great pity they didn’t release 45s off Abbey Road for the next three years…..give the great unwashed real value for money just like ol’ Wacko did in the dire 1980s.
Was it still a children’s ditty when Nina Simone sang it?
I don’t think Nina is capable of sweet and innocent. She suits Revolution much better.
A good, well-written review invariably makes you feel like listening to an album, even when it is one you are familiar with.
Mission accomplished.
Nice work, Mr Cowslip! (Should we pronounce that ‘Cow’s Lip’ or ‘Cow Slip’?)
Abbey Road:
On tip-top form:
1. Paul
2. George
3. George Martin
Not on tip-top form:
1. John
If only they’d let him put Cold Turkey on and have a whole side of his songs eh?
4. Ringo
And for that matter,
5. Geoff Emerick
True, dai and Bartleby.
I should’ve included Ringo and Geoff.
Surprised at the lack of love here for I Want You (She’s So Heavy). I adore it, and it fitted in nicely on the “Heavy Beatles” compilation I made for my brother a couple of years ago.
That and Oh Darling are the two tracks that often seem to determine whether you’re a lover or hater of Abbey Road. Without it, Lennon’s Abbey Road contribution is pretty meagre.