Revisiting “Abbey Road”, The Beatles Swan Song
The influential album was released on September 26, 1969
Revisiting “Abbey Road”, The Beatles Swan Song
“Abbey Road”, released on September 26th, 1969, was the last album The Beatles recorded together as a band, though it came out before “Let It Be” released in 1970 (recorded before “Abbey Road” as “Get Back,” but the band not satisfied with its results, delayed the release for further production and mixing). This Beatles album it’s the definitive turning point in their sound, sometimes reminiscent of 1968 “The Beatles” (White Album) however the songs are much more solid and denote a team effort as a band that lacked to its predecessor. It’s no better or worse than “Revolver” or “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” it’s different, a new musical direction and sound, partially due prominent use of the Moog synthesizer and the Leslie speaker. Helped by collaborator Bill Preston on keyboards and produced by George Martin, who hadn’t produced their previous unreleased album “Get Back” (that would become “Let It Be”), “Abbey Road,” aside of all the imagery present on the iconic cover, it’s one of the best Rock albums of all time, the Psychedelic influences that had taken over just 3 years before are all gone, instead, the songs are heavily based on Blues and Progressive Rock , which was a the time in its infancy.
David Warren an editor and author for Pop Expresso and in the free time enjoys making instrumental music – davidwarrenmusic.com – and to learn about history and cultures. Reach out at david@popexpresso.com
The album opens with “Come Together,” destined to become a classic, a Lennon track with crafty lyrics (reminiscent at times of Beat poetry) with a distinctive bass guitar line and electric guitar riff, George Harrison’s “Something,” another song that was destined to become a classic, it defies the Lennon/McCartney compositions and it was actually Lennon’s favorite song in the album, the mellow distinctive signature guitar sound and vocals of Harrison are brilliant. The third track, McCartney’s “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” uses some of the classic upbeat Beatles sound that was developed during their 1966-67 era, but its dark lyrics talks about murder, “Oh! Darling” it’s another McCartney song and one of the most memorable from the album, it’s a doo-wop style song that lays strongly on electric guitar, “Octopus’s Garden” is the Ringo Starr song on “Abbey Road,” as usual Ringo always had at least one lead vocal song on every album, this is a special one due to being the second song that Ringo Starr ever wrote by himself and he gets the full songwriting credit. An upbeat song that almost sounds like a children’s chant with catchy lyrics (sort of like “Yellow Submarine”). The first side of the album ends with Lennon’s “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” and we can clearly recognize his late 60’s style in this song. Lots of experimental noise, background sounds and heavy guitar, by then he was forming Plastic Ono Band, the highly experimental band with Yoko Ono. Side 2 opens with another Harrison composition, “Here Comes The Sun” another song that was destined to become a classic, an interesting thing in “Abbey Road” is the fact that George Harrison’s compositions are some of the strongest in the album, unlike what happened on Beatles previous records. “Because” was inspired by Lennon listening to Ono playing Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata” on the piano, it’s a mellow vocal track with three-part harmonies by Lennon, McCartney and Harrison, which were then triple tracked to give nine voices in the final mix. Harrison played the Moog synthesizer, and Martin played the harpsichord, it’s one of the album’s favorites, it represents the vocal power the 3 main voices of The Beatles had when put together. The record ends with a medley of 9 songs (almost like in a stage musical fashion), “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,” The End” and “Her Majesty.” The highlights are “You Never Give Me Your Money” which is the longest song in the medley, and “Carry That Weight,” all the tracks link perfectly together and there are mellow moments such as “Golden Slumbers” and “Sun King,” and edgier Rock moments such as in “Polythene Pam.” “Abbey Road” it’s an essential album, not just for Beatles fans but for all music fans in general. It’s their swan song, but a fair one, a very righteous goodbye from the band. Soon after the recordings of “Abbey Road” The Beatles broke up and Lennon went on full time with the Plastic Ono Band, in part, because The Beatles had rejected his song, the raw and rough “Cold Turkey,” the song went on to become one of Lennon’s biggest hits.
Watch The Beatles 1969 promotional film for “Something”
Listen to “Abbey Road” on Spotify
Watch more The Beatles related videos
Images and photographs can be from different ranges of sources such as Pinterest, Tumblr etc. except when/where noted. If you are the copyright holder and would like them removed or credited, please get in touch.
