Beatles album of the week: Abbey Road

[jamier42]

1. Come Together
2. Something
3. Here Comes The Sun

[AKA]

George Harrison on "Abbey Road"

"Newer" LP will precede Get Back

Rolling Stone

Abbey Road, the Beatles upcoming new LP, came about as suddenly as any Beatles project. As George Harrison told it: "We had Get Back in the can, but one day we just decided that we'd like to do a newer album. There was no particular reason -- we just wanted to some of our newest songs. The trouble with making albums is that it is difficult to represent the group, as it is at present, I mean like right now. Abbey Road was only finished a few weeks ago, so it does fairly present the Beatles as we are it this point in time."

Harrison contributes two tunes to Abbey Road, "Something" and "Here Comes the Sun." However excellent his compositions, Harrison stays in the shadows of the Lennon-McCartney team. Still, he writes because "I feel you can say more in two minutes of a song than in ten years."

George gave Rolling Stone the following track-by-track observation of the songs on Abbey Road:

"Come Together," the first track on side one, was one of the last trucks to be recorded. John wrote it about a month ago, just after his car accident. It's a 12 bar type of tune -- and one of the nicest things we've done musically, Ringo's drumming is great. [Ringo, sitting across the room, grinned.] It's an upbeat, rock'-a-beat-a-boogie, with very Lennon lyrics.

"Something" is a song of mine. I wrote it just as we were finishing the last album, the white one. But it was never finished. I could never think of the right words for it. Joe Cocker has done version too, and there's talk of it being the next Beatles' single. When I recorded it, I imagined somebody like Ray Charles doing it, that was the feel I thought it should have. But because I'm not Ray Charles -- I'm much more limited in what I can do -- we just did what we could. It's nice though, probably the nicest melody I've even written.

"Maxwell's Silver Hammer" is just something of Paul's. We spent a hell of a lot of time recording this one. It's one of these instant, whistle-along tunes which some people will hate and others will love. It's like "Honey Pie," a fun sort of thing, but probably sick as well because the guy keeps killing everybody. We used my Moog synthesizer on this track, and I think it came out effectively.

"Oh! Darling" is another of Paul's songs which is typical 1950-1960 sort of period in its chord structure. It's a typical 1955 song which thousands of groups used to make -- the Moonglows, the Paragons, the Shells and so on. We do a few ooh-oohs in the background, very quietly, but mainly it's Paul shouting.

"Octopus's Garden" is Ringo's song, the second he's written. It's lovely. Ringo gets very bored playing the drums, so at home he plays the piano. But he only knows about three chords. And he knows about the same on guitar. He mainly likes country music, so this has a C&W feel. It's really a great song. On the surface, it's a daft kids song, but I find the lyrics very meaningful. I find very deep meaning in the lyrics which Ringo probably doesn't even know about.

Lines like "resting our head on the seabed" and "we'll be warm beneath the storm." It makes me realize that when you get deep into your consciousness its very peaceful. So Ringo writes his cosmic songs without knowing it. [From across the room Ringo grinned again].

"I Want You (She's So Heavy)" is very heavy. It has John playing lead guitar and singing the same as he plays. This is good because the riff he sings is basically a blues.

But it's a very original Lennon-like song, even though I'd written it. The middle bit is great . . . John has an amazing thing with his timing. He always comes across with different timing things, for example "All You Need Is Love," which sort of skips beats out and changes from 3-4 to 4-4 all the time, in and out of each other.

Yet when you question him about it, he doesn't know. He just does it naturally and you can't pin him down. The bridge section is like that -- it's an excellent chord sequence he's using.

"Here Comes the Sun," the first cut on side two, is the other song I wrote for the album. It was written on a very nice sunny day in Eric Clapton's garden. We'd been through real hell with business, and it was all very heavy. Being in Eric's garden felt like playing hooky from school. I found some sort of release and the song just came.

It's a bit like "If I Needed Someone" with the basic riff running through it. But it is very simple really.

"Because" is one of the most beautiful things we've ever done. It has three-part harmony -- John, Paul and George. John wrote the song, and the backing is a bit like Beethoven. It does resemble Paul's writing style but only because of the sweetness it has. Paul usually writes the sweet things and John does the rave ups and freakier things. But every now and then, John just wants to write a simple 12-bar thing.

I think this is my favorite track as the album, it's so simple, especially the lyrics. The harmony is very difficult to do, we had is really learn it.

I think this is the tune that still impress most people. Hip people will dig it and the straight people and serious music critics will think it's really good.

Then begins the medley of Paul and John songs all shoved together. It's hard to describe them unless you hear them at the same time. "You Never Give Me Your Money" is like two songs, the bridge of it is like a completely different song. You whip out of that and into "Sun King," which John wrote. He originally called it "Los Paranois."

"Mean Mr. Mustard" and "Polythene Pam" are two short songs which John wrote in India 18 months ago.

"She Came In Through the Bathroom Window" is a very good song of Paul's with great lyrics. "Golden Slumbers" is another very melodic song by Paul which links up.

"Carry That Weight" keeps coming in out of the medley all the way through.

"The End" is just that, a little sequence which ends it all.

Despite the fact that Abbey Road was only recently completed, George says he has no overall image of it yet. "I just can't get any complete impression of Abbey Road. With Pepper and even the white album, I got an overall image of the complete product, but with this one, I'm still at a loss. I think it's a bit like Revolver, but I still feel very abstract about it. I just can't see it as a whole entity yet."

(RS 44 - October 18, 1969)

[AKA]

Beatles Splitting? Maybe, Says John

Lennon "off and on" breaking up

Rolling Stone

Life as a Beatle for John Lennon was never as fab or gear in the days of Beatlemania as most people believed. Nor is life as a Beatle today all that pleasant for Lennon.

In fact, he said in interviews to the British pop press, a Beatles split-up is a possibility. "It just depends bow much we all want to record together. I don't know if I want to record together again. I go off and on it."

John, talking to the New Musical Express, explained the problem; "in the old days, when we needed an album, Paul and I got together and produced enough songs for it. Nowadays, there's three of us writing prolifically and trying to fit it all into one album. Or we have to think of a double album every time, which takes six months."

"That's the hang-up we have. It's not a personal, 'the Beatles are fighting' thing so much as an actual, physical problem . . . . None of us want to be background musicians most of the time. We didn't spend ten years making it to have the freedom of recording studios, to be able to have two tracks on an album.

"It's nothing new, the way things are. It's human. I'm more interested in my songs, Paul's more interested in his, and George is more interested in his, that's always been. It's just that usually in the past, George lost out because Paul and I are tougher."

"We've always said we had fights," Lennon said, "It's no news that we argue."

Apparently the fighting goes pretty far back. In an interview with Melody Maker last week, Lennon discussed earlier peeves:

"In the beginning," he said, "it was a constant fight between Brian Epstein and Paul on one side, and me and George on the other. Brian put us in neat suits and shirts, and Paul was right behind that. I didn't dig that, and I used to try to get George to rebel with me. I'd say 'Look, we don't need these f--king suits. Let's chuck them out of the window.'"

"My little rebellion was to wear my tie loose, with the top button of my shin undone, but Paul'd always come up to me and put it straight."

"I saw a film the other right," he continued, "the first television film we ever did . . . and there we were in suits and everything -- it just wasn't us, and watching that film I knew that that not where we started to sell out."

"We had to do a lot of selling out then. Taking the MBE was a sellout for me."

Lennon says he stalled on accepting the MBE when the Beatles first got notice from the Royal Palace of the award -- "I chucked the letter in with all the fan-mail" -- until Epstein and others persuaded the Beatles to accept.

It was hypocritical to take the MBE, Lennon said, "but I'm glad, really, that I did, because it meant that four years later I could use it to make a gesture."

While the Beatles did accept the MBE in 1965, Lennon said, they did manage to refuse "all sorts of things that people don't know about." For example, the group did a Royal Variety Show and was asked to make it a yearly thing -- but we always said 'stuff it.' "So every year there was a story in the papers saying; 'Why no Beatles for the Queen?' which was funny, because they didn't know we'd refused it."

The power to be different -- and still be accepted -- was among the greatest rewards of being a Beatle, said Lennon - "and conquering America was the best thing. You see, we wanted to be bigger than Elvis -- that was the main thing. At first we wanted to be Goffin and King, then we wanted to be Eddie Cochran, then Buddy Holly, and finally an arrived at wanting to be bigger than the biggest -- and that was Elvis."

"We reckoned we could make it because there were four of us. None at us would've made it alone, because Paul wasn't quite strong enough, I didn't have enough girl-appeal, George was too quiet, and Ringo was the drummer. But we thought that everyone would be able to dig at least one of us, and that's how it turned out."

But just as four distinct individuals pulled together to form the Beatles, the distinct individualism of each Beatle now seems to be pulling the group apart. Ringo has completed his second film role and is working on a solo album; George is increasing his volume of songwriting and has hitched up a tour with Delaney and Bonnie and Friends, while Paul has become the isolated family man, estranged from Apple and Beatle activity.

The split between Paul and John is especially noticeable when Lennon discusses the Beatles:

"Paul and I have differences of opinion on how things should be run," he told the New Musical Express. "But instead of it being a private argument about how an LP should be done, or a certain track, it's now a larger argument about the organization of Apple itself."

The major disagreements, Lennon said, are over Allen Klein, the Beatles' business manager. "Paul was always wailing for This Guy to just appear and come and save us from the mess we were in. And we were in a mess, and only my saying it to the press that time enabled Klein to hear about it, and come over.

"It's no use pretending we can be here all the time. But all my income was going into Apple and being wasted by the joy-riding people who were here. I just wanted it to stop, flu we needed a business man."

Now, John says, "Our job is to put the creative side into Apple. If the Beatles never recorded together again, but each put their creative efforts through Apple . . . that at least would be better than me doing a company, Paul having a company, George having a company, and Ringo having a company. Together we at least have that much more power."

The Beatles never cutting a record together again sounds like a distinct possibility to John. "I can see it happening," he said, "The Beatles can go on appealing so a wide audience as long as they make albums like Abbey Road, which have nice little folk songs like 'Maxwell's Silver Hammer' for the grannies to dig."

Lennon's music, more and more, is Plastic Ono Band music. When he wrote, in his letter explaining why he was returning to his MBE, that part of the reason was "Cold Turkey" slipping down the charts, the tongue was only half in cheek.

"Cold Turkey" was important to John, he said, for a simple reason: "Because it's my record. When I wrote it, I went to the other three Beatles and said, 'Hey, lads, I think I've written a new single.' But they all said, 'Ummm . . . arrr ... wellll,' because it was going to be my project, and so I thought, 'Bugger you, I'll put it out myself.'"

"But that had happened once before, when I was wanting to put 'Revolution' out as a single, but 'Hey Jude' went out instead."

"I don't bother so much about the others' songs," John said. "For instance, I don't give a damn about how 'Something' is doing in the charts -- I watch 'Come Together' (the flip side) because that's my song.

"That is why I started with the Plastic Ono and working with Yoko . . . to have more outlet. There isn't enough outlet for me in the Beatles. The Ono Band is my escape valve. And how important that gets, as compared to the Beatles for me, I'll have to wait and see."

If the Beatles can loosen up, a la Plastic Ono, Ginger Baker's new Air Force, and Delaney and Bonnie, John will be more likely to stay at it. "I always wanted to have other people on our records," he said, "like the Stones and our other friends. But some of the others wanted to keep it tight -- just the Beatles, you know? But you wait -- it's starting in get looser, and there should be some fantastic sessions in the next few years. That's what I wanted all along."

(RS 50 - January 21, 1970)

[Jrnygrl]

Originally posted by AKA
George wrote "Something" for Ray Charles, who rejected it. When listening to George's demo on Anthology 3, you can still hear the soulful, Ray Charles-esque passage:

"You know I love that woman, mine
And I need her all of the time
You know I'm tellin' you
That woman, that woman don't make me blue"

These lyrics were deleted from the final version of the song.

By the way, Frank Sinatra referred to "Someting" as his favorite Lennon/McCartney song. Poor George!

OUCH!!!!! I know, George never really got the credit that he deserved as being a part of the Beatles. I think people also underestimate his talent as a guitarist as well. I can't believe Ray Charles passed this up, he did such a wonderful version of Eleanor Rigby.

[AKA]

Originally posted by Jrnygrl
OUCH!!!!! I know, George never really got the credit that he deserved as being a part of the Beatles. I think people also underestimate his talent as a guitarist as well. I can't believe Ray Charles passed this up, he did such a wonderful version of Eleanor Rigby.

I love Ray's cover of "Eleanor Rigby!"

Yeah, I never understood why he never recorded "Something." It's a great song, and it's well-suited (custom-made, even) for him. All he has to do is sit in front of a piano and sing it like only he can.

[Penny Lane]

I chose" Oh Darling "because Paul sings it. But I really like George's recordings too!(Here Comes The Sun, Something)

[Steve M.]

Abbey Road Fun Facts

"Come Together" borrowed a riff and its opening lyric from Chuck Berry's "You Can't Catch Me."

In addition to mistakenly crediting it to Lennon and McCartney, Frank Sinatra declared "Something" to be "the greatest love song in fifty years." Exactly which song from 1919 did George Harrison's song earn such praise to be compared to?

"Something" was the third bestselling Beatles single in the U.S., after "Hey Jude" and "I Want To Hold Your Hand."

The opening line of "Something" - "Something in the way she moves" - was pinched from the opening of James Taylor's song of the same name. There, though, the similarities between the two songs end.

"Maxwell's Silver Hammer," Paul's song about a homicidal medical student, wasmenat to epitomize the downfalls in life. Just as everything's going fine, BANG! BANG! - down comes Maxwell's silver hammer to ruin everything. John and George both hated it anyway.

"Maxwell's Silver Hammer" debuted the Moog synthesizer on a Beatles record.

"Maxwell's Silver Hammer" was "sung" by Steve Martin in the godawful 1978 Sgt. Pepper movie.

Paul screamed himself hoarse for five days to perfect the Little Richard-style vocal in "Oh! Darling." The song was attempted during the Get Back / Let It Be sessions.

"Oh! Darling," backed with "Here Comes The Sun," was released as a single in Japan.

Ringo wrote "Octopus's Garden" after a trip to Sardinia, where a local told Ringo about how octopuses made little "gardens" on the sea floor out of shells and coral.

John deliberately added white noise on "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" to add to the intensity of the track. The sudden ending was an act of serendipity; during final mixing, John asked Geoff Emerick to cut the tape and leave it rather than fading it out.

John is the only Beatle that does not appear on "Here Comes The Sun."

The melody of "Because" is Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata played backwards. John reversed the chords, liked the result, and added the lyrics.

"You Never Give me Your Money" was about the group's financial dificulties at Apple. The "funny paper" was a reference to coupons the Beatles were given in lieu of cash.

"Mean Mr. Mustard" had been written in India about a weird chap John read about in the paper. His sister's name was orignally Shirley.

"Her Majesty" was originally included between "Mean Mr. Mustard" and "Polythene Pam." It was then cut out - along with the final chord of "Mean Mr. Mustard" - and tacked on the end. When Paul heard it like that, he left "Her Majesty" where it was, even though its final chord had been buried in the intro of "Polythene Pam."

"Polythene Pam" was written about a female pervert and her equally perverted boyfriend.

"She Came In Through the Bathroom Window" was about an obviously psychotic Paul McCartney fan who got into his London house on Cavendish Avenue through his bathroom window. The song was originally run through during the Get Back / Let It Be sessions.

"Golden Slumbers" was lyrcially based on a lullaby from Sir Thomas Dekker, a sixteenth-century British composer. The music was Paul's own.

"Carry That Weight" musically reprised "You Never Give Me Your Money" in the bridge.

"The End" was originally titled "Ending."

[sara]

I voted for Something. It's one of my all-time favorite Beatles songs.

[Steve M.]

One other fun fact -

Abbey Road was almost named Everest, after a brand of cigarettes engineer Geoff Emerick smoked. The Beatles were planning to go to the foothills of Mount Everest for a cover photo session, but decided it was a waste of time, and that you can't name an album after a cigarette brand, besides. So they went outside the studio, took the cover photo there, called the album Abbey Road, and left it at that. And all because they couldn't be bothered to go all the way to Nepal for a photo shoot!

[Steve M.]

Here's another Abbey Road cover - British glam rocker Steve Harley and his group Cockney Rebel covered "Here Comes the Sun."

[Steve M.]

On August 20, 1969, all four Beatles attended the mix-and-running-order session that compiled the master tape for Abbey Road. It was the last time the four of them were together in Abbey Road Studios.

[Crapple]

Originally posted by Steve M.
Abbey Road Fun Facts
The melody of "Because" is Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata played backwards. John reversed the chords, liked the result, and added the lyrics.

This is a popular misconception, one perpetuated by even John Lennon himself. "Because" was clearly inspired by "Moonlight Sonata," but it's nowhere close to being "'Moonlight Sonata' played backwards."

For starters, "Because" is in 4/4 and "Moonlight Sonata" is in 6/8.

[Crapple]

I'm not a big fan of this album, but I think I'll have to go for "You Never Give Me Your Money," as it's the song I never get tired of.

Two years ago, it would have been "I Want You."

[laceyinthesky]

I chose "Come Together."

[MaryElizabeth]

This one was tough, but I chose "Maxwell's Silver Hammer." I named my cat after that song.