Abbey Road is the 12th studio album by The Beatles, formed in 1960. Abbey Road is in fact the last album the band made together although in practice Let It Be, most of which was recorded before Abbey Road, was released after it before The Beatles officially called it a day.
And what an album it is! It feels like everything clicks together on Abbey Road better than on any of The Beatles’ albums before, and the whole is stronger than ever.
The album opens with the gorgeously sweet, swaying groove of ”Come Together”, composed by John Lennon (1940-1980). The song is simple, but very addictive.
Next up is the beautiful ”Something” by guitarist George Harrison (1943-2001), which was also the album’s first single. The delicate song builds up in the chorus with the help of strings and may well be Harrison’s best song ever. Along with the other Harrison song on this album…
The third song on the album is Paul McCartney’s ”Maxwell’s Silver Hammer”, which Lennon hated so much he refused to play on it. It’s not a bad children’s song, though, just a little tiresome. The arrangement is nicely varied and contains some interesting sounds (e.g. Moog). And although Lennon called the song ”Paul’s grandma music”, the lyrics have some pretty dark moments:
Bang! Bang! Maxwell’s silver hammer
Came down upon her head
Bang! Bang! Maxwell’s silver hammer
Made sure that she was dead
The album continues with another McCartney composition ”Oh! Darling”, which is a rather unremarkable doo-wop-inspired rock track and the album’s most unnecessary offering. McCartney’s vocal performance is fine, although there is something a little forced about it.
Composed and sung by drummer Ringo Starr (b.1940), ”Octopus’s Garden” returns the album from its fifties atmosphere to a slightly more child-like mood. Ringo’s song is a fun and escapist tune about a relaxing day under the sea. The song has also been given a nice aquatic feel with the help of some studio trickery in terms of sounds.
With Lennon’s ”I Want You (She’s So Heavy)”, the album moves into a much more adult atmosphere, as the song describes obsessive love with only a few repeated phrases. The almost eight-minute song starts with an arpeggio guitar pattern played in 6/8 time and then moves into a heavy and steady 4/4 rhythm. The song is the second longest song by The Beatles, and is often said to have been something of an inspiration for bands of the heavy rock genre around this time. American R&B musician Billy Preston makes a guest appearance on the track, playing Hammond organ.
The second half of the album opens with George Harrison’s second track ”Here Comes The Sun”, a breath of fresh air after the heaviness of ”I Want You”. The song, which opens with an acoustic guitar, seems on the surface to be a rather simple little song, but is actually a surprisingly sophisticated composition with subtle changes of tempo and chord changes. But above all, the song is catchy, elegant and simply charming in its optimistic brightness. A wonderful, wonderful song!
Lennon’s ”Because” begins with a somewhat anguished guitar pattern, over which a rather complex vocal arrangement is built, with the voices of the three vocalists (Lennon, McCartney, Harrison) tripled to form a nine-voice vocal harmony. The trio sings beautifully, and the vocal voicings are top-notch. In addition to the humming horn of the Moog synthesizer, the song also features an exotic instrument such as the electric harpsichord played by producer George Martin (1926-2016).
As is often the case with The Beatles’ albums, Abbey Road contains very different types of songs, but somehow they seem to form an exceptionally coherent whole this time. Even to the extent that, as individual songs, I don’t necessarily get excited about nearly all of them, but together they form something quite irresistible. Perhaps at least partly thanks to Martin’s production, which is more refined than ever before. The album still sounds really good to this day. And timeless. Incidentally, the recording was co-produced by a young Alan Parsons, who later went on to make a name for himself not only as Pink Floyd’s recording engineer but also with his own band.
The 15-minute ”Medley” contains 8 small songs that McCartney and George Martin combined into one, not seamless whole, but a little something like that. Not all sections of the ”Medley” would have stood on their own, but as part of this whole, they also gel together nicely.
The highlights of the medley are McCartney’s upbeat ”You Never Give Me Your Money”, Lennon’s sleepy ”Sun King” and especially the last two movements of the set, ”Carry That Weight” featuring McCartney’s orchestra and a ”choir” of four Beatles, and the upbeat, rocking finale ”The End”.
In ”The End”, Ringo plays a rare drum solo (15 seconds long), which he says was inspired by the heavy band Iron Butterfly’s epic ”In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida”. Ringo’s drum break may be short, but it’s actually quite entertaining and effective. The song also features a dialogue between the three guitarists – Lennon, McCartney and Harrison – with each guitarist playing two bars in turn. After the guitar interludes, an incredibly beautiful vocal part begins, which is sung only once and whose lyrics would have been the perfect ending to the story of The Beatles:
And in the end
The love you take
Is equal to the love you make
But in fact, they are not even the end of this album, but after a short break we hear the first hidden track in the history of the vinyl recording, ”Her Majesty”, which is a music hall romp of less than half a minute. The song ended up on the album half by accident. Originally it was supposed to be in the middle of Medley, but the song didn’t work there, and McCartney ordered the recording destroyed, but recording engineer John Kurlander saved the song and included it at the end of the album, which ended up pleasing the band.
Abbey Road may well be The Beatles’ best album. The whole is really strong, almost all the songs are brilliant, the arrangements are full of ingenious little details, and Martin’s production is more polished than ever. Abbey Road was intended to be The Beatles’ last album, and in many ways it seems like the climax of their career, but in the end the Let It Be project was revived and the album, recorded mostly before Abbey Road, was released in 1970 as the band’s last studio album. It’s a shame, in a way, but even that album has its moments.
Best tracks: ”Come Together”, ”Something”, ”Here Comes The Sun, Because”, ”You Never Give Me Your Money”, ”Carry That Weight” ja ”The End”
Author: JANNE YLIRUUSI
Tracks:
John Lennon: vocals, guitars, electric piano, Moog synthesizer, sound effects, percussion Paul McCartney: vocals, bass, rhythm guitar, piano, electric piano, Moog synthesizer; sound effects, claps, percussion George Harrison: vocals lead, guitars, bass, organ harmonica, Moog synthesizer; claps, percussion Ringo Starr: drums, percussion, vocals
Other musicians:
George Martin: harpsichord, organ, percussion Billy Preston: Hammond organ
Producer: George Martin
Label: Apple
Pienemmät Purot 
Here Comes the Sun is one of the best songs ever, and certainly the best on this album. Complex times signatures and a fantastic feeling of the sun coming out during ’Sun, sun, sun….’. REALLY clever!
TykkääTykkää