Abbey Road was the last album ever recorded by the greatest band of all time, the Beatles. During their relatively short recording career (eight years), the Beatles created 13 albums, almost all of which are serious candidates for the best album of all time. Of these albums, Abbey Road is probably the favourite among fans and critics. After the disastrous Get Back sessions (later released as the Let It Be album), the Beatles proved that they could still make wonderful music together.
Part of what makes Abbey Road so unique and unlike anything the Beatles had previously done is the fact that most of the entire second side of the album (or last half of the CD) is made up of a medley of unfinished songs. Each song seems to flow right into the next, and the entire medley is just a work of genius.
Of course, the first half of the album is just as good, starting off with the magnificent Come Together and Something. Abbey Road showcases some of the three main songwriters' greatest works, with John Lennon's Come Together, Paul McCartney's Oh! Darling, and George Harrison's Something and Here Comes the Sun. Ringo Starr even gets a songwriting credit, for the silly but fun Octopus's Garden. Although this was the last album the Beatles ever recorded together, Abbey Road shows them unified as a group.
The album starts off with Lennon's Come Together. In typical Lennon fashion, the lyrics make little sense, but it's just an awesome song. John's bluesy guitar licks, Paul's first-rate bass-playing, and the memorable little "shoop" sounds make this a great opening to the album. And how can you not love those lyrics? "He got feet down below his knee/ Hold you in his armchair you can feel his disease/ Come together right now over me." This was a number one hit for the Beatles.
It would be hard to top such a fantastic opener, but Harrison's Something does just that. This is one of the most romantic songs the Beatles ever did, featuring sincere, beautiful lyrics and a Harrison guitar solo that is perfection itself. "You're asking me will my love grow/ I don't know, I don't know/ You stick around now it may show/ I don't know, I don't know." It is amazing to hear how much Harrison's voice and songwriting skills had improved since the Beatles' beginnings. This was Harrison's first (and only) A side single with the Beatles, and it (deservedly) reached number one on the charts.
After these terrific opening songs, McCartney's Maxwell's Silver Hammer seems like an odd follow-up. A bouncy, fun little tune about a medical student who uses a silver hammer to kill, this is admittedly a very weird song, but I still like it. "Bang! Bang! Maxwell's silver hammer came down upon her head/ Clang! Clang! Maxwell's silver hammer made sure that she was dead." Paul's bass guitar and piano dominate the song, with the sounds of a Moog synthesizer courtesy of George, a clanging anvil played (?) by Ringo, and hilarious backing vocals from George and John thrown in for good measure.
McCartney's next song, Oh! Darling, is more serious and demonstrates his vocal skills. Paul literally screams out the chorus, "When you told me, you didn’t need me anymore/ Well you know, I nearly broke down and cri-i-ied/ When you told me, you didn’t need me anymore/ Well you know, I nearly broke down and die-i-i-ied!" His exceptional vocal performance is accompanied by some bluesy guitars, a perfectly-played piano, and pounding drumbeats.
Octopus's Garden is the second and last Beatles song to list Ringo Starr as the sole songwriter (although George rewrote the chord sequence). This is a cute little song, with a catchy chorus of "I'd like to be, under the sea, in an octopus's garden in the shade." This song is very reminiscent of "Yellow Submarine," and, like that song, Octopus's Garden is viewed as mainly for children. It has a nice melody that is country-style, but with an underwater feel. In addition to the guitars and drums, Paul does some piano work while George plays around with the synthesizer. It's not a masterpiece, but it's a fun little song.
I Want You (She's So Heavy) hands the album back over to John, who contributes an almost-metal jam. The lyrics are very simple, with John basically repeating, "I want you, I want you so bad/ I want you, I want you so bad/ It's driving me mad, it's driving me mad" for the song's almost eight-minute runtime. His vocal performance on this song is one of his best, and you can actually hear him shred his vocal chords during a crazed scream about four-and-a-half minutes through. John also plays lead guitar on this track and has an organ solo, with Paul's melodic bass actually dominating at times, George contributing some cool guitar riffs, and Ringo holding it all together on the drums. The song ends with a buildup of white noise, courtesy of George and his synthesizer.
Next is George's second contribution to the album, the classic Here Comes the Sun. It starts off with an instantly recognizable acoustic guitar riff, and the whole song is very gentle and soft, with acoustic guitars, drums, handclaps, and the synthesizer once again (I guess George was a pretty big fan of that synthesizer). The lyrics and melody are simple but lovely, George's lead vocal is impeccable, and the harmonies from Paul and John are beautiful. The bridge, with the words "Sun, sun, sun, here it comes" repeated five times, is gorgeous, but then, so is the entire song.
Because was written by John, but he, Paul and George all sing this one. Their harmonies were rarely better, and a spaced-out synthesizer provides the melody for the song. The song's lyrics are just plain weird, with lines like, "Because the world is round, it turns me on/ Because the world is round." But the harmonies are so perfect that you don't really care about the lyrics.
The famous medley begins with Paul's You Never Give Me Your Money. It starts off as a simple piano ballad, then becomes more up-tempo and rocking, before finally ending with Paul and John repeating, "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, all good children go to heaven." The lyrics are about the financial troubles the Beatles were experiencing at the time: "You never give me your money/ You only give me your funny paper/ And in the middle of negotiations you break down." This is a good way to kick off the medley, and this song can actually stand on its own without the other parts of the medley.
Sun King begins with John ripping off a Harrison song, with the opening line of "Here comes the sun... king." The rest of the song is a bunch of Spanish and Italian words thrown together, and it's all nonsense, but the harmonies sound nice. Lennon later described the song as "garbage," and while I wouldn't go that far, it's not the best part of the album. Next up is Mean Mr. Mustard, which is about a mean old guy and features humourous lyrics like, "Always shouts out something obscene, such a dirty old man, dirty old man." Musically, the song features John on piano, Ringo shaking a tambourine in addition to playing the drums, George on lead guitar, and Paul on fuzz bass (yay!), which just sounds very cool.
This track leads into Polythene Pam, which opens with a fantastic acoustic guitar riff from Lennon. This is another silly song, beginning with the words, "Well you should see Polythene Pam/ She's so good-lookin' but she looks like a man." This is an upbeat, rocking number with energetic shouts of "Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!" It leads right into She Came In Through the Bathroom Window, a blues-style song from Paul. The chorus of "Didn't anybody tell her, didn't anybody see, Sunday's on the phone to Monday, Tuesday's on the phone to me" is very catchy, and this is a fun uptempo song.
The humourous songs come to an end with Paul's gorgeous ballad, Golden Slumbers. McCartney actually lifted the lyrics from a lullaby, but wrote the music himself as he couldn't read music. The melody and lyrics are beautiful, and Paul's vocals are perfect. You couldn't ask for a better minute and a half. This leads right into Carry That Weight. The song features the same piano bit found on "You Never Give Me Your Money," and all four Beatles sing the chorus of "Boy you're gonna carry that weight/ Carry that weight a long time." Another excellent minute and a half.
The End is a phenomenal track featuring Ringo's only drum solo on a Beatles recording. The middle section is fantastic, with George, John and Paul taking turns doing their own guitar solos. The song closes with a string orchestra accompanying the final, poignant words, "And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make." But things don't end there. Paul's Her Majesty was originally supposed to appear between "Mean Mr. Mustard" and "Polythene Pam," but Paul didn't like it there, so it was added to the end of the tape. It's a short (23 seconds) number with just Paul and his acoustic guitar, and it's unnecessary but nice.
Although Abbey Road was the last album the Beatles ever recorded together, it is one of their best. The tensions that were evident on Let It Be and The White Album are absent, and the album presents the group at their unified best. They continued to be innovative and inventive with the genius medley, their harmonies were at their finest, and all four members got a chance to write, sing lead, and do an instrumental solo. The question of which Beatles album is the best is one that has been and will continue to be debated for years, but Abbey Road is undoubtedly a strong contender for the title. If you don't own it, buy it.
Repeat (songs I can never get enough of): Come Together, Something, Maxwell's Silver Hammer, Oh! Darling, Octopus's Garden, I Want You (She's So Heavy), Here Comes the Sun, Because, the medley (and yes, I'm aware that that's the entire tracklisting) Skip (songs I have trouble listening to even once): none
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