September 26, 1969 - Abbey Road

About "a month" since my last album, the Beatles are back for their eleventh studio album (and sixth that I have), releasing "Abbey Road" on September 26, 1969. It was named after the street that EMI studios was on and the album cover of the four of them walking across it's crosswalk became one of the most iconic images ever. This album continued the tensions in the studio between the members, with Yoko Ono, now John Lennon's wife, a constant presence at sessions. During the recording, Lennon and Ono were in a car accident and Ono was told to rest in bed for several weeks. Lennon had a bed installed in the studio so she would not miss any of the sessions. Wow. George Harrison introduced the rest of the band to the synthesizer, which would feature on several songs on this album. Side 1 has distinct, individual songs where Side 2 is a medley of shorter songs that all flow together, an idea Paul McCartney loved, and Lennon did not. Let's check it out!

Side 1 begins with Lennon's "Come Together", a great song that would become another Beatles classic. The lyrics don't make a whole lot of sense, but the communal message of coming together shines through. It's driven by a very catchy bass riff, and some cool electric piano by Lennon. Harrison plays a nice guitar bit to close out the song. The next song would end up being the biggest hit off the album, Harrison's "Something". It's a beautiful slow love song with strings. It's driven by some more cool bass by McCartney, but it's Harrison's soft singing that carries the song. He also plays a pretty good guitar solo in it! Up next is McCartney's first song on the album, "Maxwell's Silver Hammer", on which he plays the Moog synthesizer. It has some rather dark lyrics, but it's sung in such a happy way! Lennon does not feature on the song and called it "granny music". Ouch. There is a very old-timey sounding piano that drives the song, but I like McCartney's "granny" singing. The synthesizer sounds interesting indeed and I think it's just too great that they're singing so happily in the background while Paul talks about killing several people. McCartney is on lead vocals still on "Oh! Darling", which is done in a doo-wop style. It has some catchy bass and some great sounding electric guitar from Harrison, as some excellent piano by Lennon. It starts with McCartney singing about not wanting to be left, but when she leaves him his yelling vocal style is just awesome. Track 5 is Ringo Starr's customary lone lead vocal, "Octopus's Garden", which he also wrote. It's a fun little song about wanting to live underwater, and I think it's definitely my favourite Starr-sung tune. He delivers it very well, and it's driven by a very fun guitar riff. It has some cool pianos well, bit the highlight is definitely a great guitar solo by Harrison. Side 1 ends with Lennon's near 8-minute "I Want You (She's So Heavy)", which he wrote about Ono. The "I Want You" parts are some more great blues-y stuff from the Beatles and Lennon sings very passionately. There's a cool bass riff and some organ from guest musician Billy Preston as well. The "She's So Heavy" parts are very progressive, with almost no lyrics. Preston plays some awesome organ and Lennon plays synthesizer on this song during these lengthy instrumental parts. The song drones to an abrupt halt for over 3 minutes and is a very odd way to end this side of the record, which was what Lennon wanted. 

Side 2 kicks off with another great Harrison track, "Here Comes The Sun". The acoustic guitar sounds very light and uplifting and you can't help but sing along. The lyrics are happy and there's even some more synthesizer. Lennon wrote the next track "Because" after hearing Ono play some Beethoven backwards on the piano. It has Harrison on synthesizer, as well as McCartney and Lennon joining him on vocals. They triple tracked all their voices so it sounds like 9 people are singing it. It still doesn't seem too much though, as a slow guitar riff carries the song and there is some trippy synths from Harrison. Track 9's "You Never Give Me Your Money" is the first song in an 8-song medley that would close out the album. McCartney sings lead on what sounds like a very sad song at first with slow piano, but after a minute it picks up with some much more upbeat keyboards. It then slows down again and both Harrison and Lennon provide guitar solos. The next 3 short tracks in the medley are all written by Lennon, starting with "Sun King". Like "Because", this song has McCartney, Lennon and Harrison on vocals. It has some slow bass and trippy guitars, with organ added later as well as some spanish vocals. Following it are "Mean Mr. Mustard", which Lennon wrote in India last year, and "Polythene Pam", which reference each other. They are both cool rock songs just over a minute long, bit very different, and both good! The last four songs in the medley are all McCartney-written, beginning with "She Came In Through The Bathroom Window", about a girl who entered his house this way. For just a 2 minute song, it's quite solid with cool bass and guitar and McCartney turning it up a bit again on vocals. After this is "Golden Slumbers", a slow piano lullaby with some more great singing by McCartney. This segues into "Carry That Weight" which has all four Beatles on vocals in the chorus. They also throwback to the melody from "You Never Give Me Your Money". The medley ends suitably with "The End", which has a drum solo from Starr (what?!) that is decent but not too show-y and alternating guitar solos from the other 3 Beatles. They each took turns playing for a couple bars, and the result is some fantastic stuff. I love the variety of the different solos, and they go back and forth so quickly. It all comes to a perfect flour9shong ending and it sounds like the final track. After some silence is a hidden song titled "Her Majesty". It was originally meant to be cut, but an engineer mistakenly added it to the end of the album after some silence. The Beatles liked it and kept it. It's a 25 second McCartney bit that manages to still have some pretty good acoustic guitar.

And that is the end of "Abbey Road", which I thought was quite a good album. Even the 1-2 minute tracks on side 2 are pretty good and side 1 has some of the best stuff the Beatles ever made in my opinion, with no weak songs at all. So how does it rank with their other albums I have? I think without a question it is better than "The Beatles", and therefore better than the albums I had ranked under it. Only with a little hesitation do I say I think it's better than "Sgt. Pepper's" as well. The big question is does it top "Revolver"? While "Revolver" is definitely a great album, I think "Abbey Road" is even better and believe it to be their best album yet. It really was a great album and I'm sure it'll end up somewhere on my year-end list. More great English bands are debuting almost every month this year and next month brings another. Stay tuned!