A Look Back At Abbey Road

I have met many people who have had difficultly choosing a favorite album or compact disc. It is not that way with me and my favorite album, The Beatles Abbey Road, which was released forty years ago.

It is a musically cohesive, innovative and timeless piece of art, made all the more remarkable that Abbey Road was created by four men under thirty who would soon part ways. Numerous compromises had to be made it order to get the album made, but knowing the limits placed upon them gave each of The Beatles a chance to shine.

John Lennon got to explore his avant-garde side while keeping his rock and roll roots. George Harrison wrote two of his best songs for this album. Ringo Starr was able to write and sing a whimsical song with complete backing vocals by the actual Beatles. And as for Paul McCartney, his assemblage of unfinished song fragments is the musical equivalent of Jesus feeding the five thousand with five loaves of bread and two fish!

I won’t go into Abbey Road track by track. Others do it much better than I can, and I don’t think all the songs on the album are perfect. In my humble opinion, Paul should be singing lead on “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)”, with John singing lead on “Oh! Darling”, and Ringo dropping “Octopus’ Garden” in favor of “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer”. Yet Abbey Road has genuine warmth to it. The best way I can describe it is by loving someone even more because of his or her flaws rather than being repelled by them.

It doesn’t get any better for me than the “Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End” medley that nearly finishes Abbey Road. Paul starts gently by singing about days gone by and is soon joined by the others in chanting a mantra. Paul then contemplates the price paid for their music and the commitment to continue no matter what (even a break-up) may happen next. The foursome follows up with a rollicking jam that gives each Beatle a chance to shine in the spotlight solo, before bringing the group back together once more to end with a cosmic musing!

(And like The Beatles ending Abbey Road out of sorts with the slight “Her Majesty”, let me add that I really like the remastered disc. Paul’s bass playing really jumps out!)