1

Abbey Road by The Beatles

Abbey Road was officially the final album the internationally acclaimed English rock

band The Beatles ever released. It was their highest selling album in the United States. The

album was named after Abbey Road, the street the members of the band were crossing on the 8th

of August. The album is a stunning success of artistry. Side one is traditionally structured (i.e.

collection-of-songs layout), whereas side two was dedicated to long medleys. On this album,

George Harrison flourished as a composer, creating two genuine classics—‘Here Comes the

Sun’ and ‘Something’ (MacFarlane 88). John Lennon did not completely stand out on the album,

although his compositions are remarkable: ‘I Want You (She’s So Heavy),’ which blends into a

flurry of white noise; ‘Because,’ which presents several of the greatest symphony the Beatles

ever recorded; and, the groovy ‘Come Together’. Ringo, with his ‘Octopus’s Garden’, carried on

with the aquatic escapade he had begun on ‘Yellow Submarine’ (Perone 32).

However, it is Paul who conquers the album. He presents a satirical performance with

‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer’ on side one. Afterward, he shows off his finest voice quality for

“Oh! Darling” (Perone 32). On side two, Paul also manage the medleys, performing almost all

the lead singings, starting the first medley with ‘You Never Give Me Your Money’, a gloomy

depiction of the Beatles’ current financial and managerial difficulties; this shifts into the

appealing, wistful ‘Sun King’ of John, then by a sequence of pen sketches: ‘Mean Mr. Mustard’,

‘Polythene Pam’, and ‘She Came in through the Bathroom Window’. All the songs were led by

Paul (Womack 68). It is an exceptionally talented creation by musicians performing at the height

of their careers, making it even more difficult to think that these same singers and composers

would not collaborate ever again.

 2

The Beatles may not have been the first popular rock band to own and use the

synthesizers of Robert Moog. Nevertheless, as soon as the Beatles had obtained a Moog

synthesizer, they took complete advantage of it on Abbey Road. Moog’s synthesizer can be heard

obviously on a number of songs and furnishes the album an advanced rock sound, which

enhances the pop, blues, rock, and singer-composer flairs that are also present all over the album

(Holm-Hudson 218). Perhaps, one of the more delicate and successful application of the Moog

synthesizer of the period is in ‘Here Comes the Sun’ by George Harrison, the track that opens

side two of the original album release of Abbey Road (Julien 44).

Although the synthesizer is completely incorporated into the grain, the stress on the

acoustic guitar and lead vocal of Harrison indicates the arising meditative, wistful singer-

composer approach of Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, and so on. Harrison makes use of the

metaphor of the appearance of the sun to tell the listener that regardless of what blackness one

may experience in life, it is okay (Julien 44-45). Although the emotions appear to be totally in

line with the ‘Transcendental Meditation’ that Harrison rehearsed, the straightforwardness of this

message of optimism also evokes the idealistic vision of the ‘Octopus’s Garden’ of Ringo Starr

(Alexander 329).

The greater part of the album’s side two is composed of a mixture of nine brief songs.

Since majority of these songs are quite terse, at times composed of merely a verse or more and a

refrain, it seems that they were pieces of unfinished songs. As stated by George Harrison, the

Beatles “put them in order, played the backing track, and recorded it all in one take, going from

arrangement to arrangement” (Perone 35). Particularly, the subject of odd characters that was

mentioned on ‘Come Together’ and ‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer’ persists on two of the medley’s
 3

tunes. Furthermore, there are sound links from tune to tune that indicate at least the likelihood

that several of the concise songs were thought to be, or in any case were intentionally organized

to be, portion of a medley (Perone 35-36).

Even though John Lennon was broadly cited as claiming that the ‘electronic harpsichord-

like arpeggiations’ that complemented the tune ‘Because’ were driven by listening to Yoko Ono

perform the first movement of ‘Moonlight Sonata’ by Beethoven and afterward requesting her to

perform it in reverse, it is fascinating to mention that that character goes back to the electric

guitar solo of Lennon in the primer and prolonged fade-out of ‘I Want You (She’s So Heavy)’

(Womack & Davis 96). Anyhow, the lead vocal of Lennon, with McCartney and Harrison

chanting in a Beach Boys-influenced melody, communicate affection, friendship, and love.

Amusingly, the song finishes outside of the tonic chord, unsettled. This renders the progress into

the subsequent song of the medley tune in some way predictable (Womack & Davis 96-98).

The succeeding song, ‘You Never Give Me Your Money’ by Paul McCartney, seems as

if it was influenced by the monetary struggle the Beatles was experiencing during that time.

Oddly, the materialistic perspective that appears to be at the core of the lyrics is in conflict with

the idealistic perspectives that Harrison and Starr communicated in ‘Here Comes the Sun’ and

‘Octopus’s Garden’. Nevertheless, to a certain extent, ‘You Never Give Me Your Money’

forestalls the life of McCartney in the initial stages of his solo career, a period wherein he

focused on the more ordinary facets of modern life. The subsequent major part of the song,

which starts with McCartney chanting ‘Out of College’, is particularly compelling and powerful;

yet, the opening of the song is spoiled by several not perfectly in sync multi-tracked harmony

vocal by the writer of the song (Womack & Davis 32-33). The fade-out of the song, with its
 4

mention of the popular phrase “one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, all good children go to

heaven,” (MacFarlane 71) goes back close to the finale of the album, hence furnishing Abbey

Road its sense of possessing a completely predetermined notion album-similar arrangement.

Even though at first glance the song can be understood as recognition of materialism and

worldliness, it can also be interpreted as a manifestation of the sense of misperception that stems

from the need to bring together idealistic visions, the need to acquire profitable employment, and

the difficulty or struggle of everyday work. Interpreted in such a manner and with the recognition

that it comprises some understated explanation of the financial status of the Beatles’ managers,

the tune is most compelling. Part of the brilliance of the medley on side two of the album is the

manner within which the same in-between material is utilized in two fully distinct ways

(MacFarlane 71). Particularly, the shift in ‘Golden Slumbers,’ which originally move from the

bridge to the repetition of the introductory melodic material for the final stanza, is utilized as an

unexpected shift into the subsequent song, ‘Carry that Weight’. This song is the second one on

the album that showcases Ringo Starr as the lead vocal (Perone 48).

The track ‘The End’ is prominent for the instrumental cuts that all the members of the

band show. The song comprises the sole recorded drum solo of the Beatles, which was

performed by Starr. Since the drums on the album were recorded on two independent songs on a

Beatles record, Starr’s drums were allowed to be included, to seep through the whole auditory or

acoustic space of the listener (Womack & Davis 34). Afterward, Lennon, Harrison, and

McCartney exchange electric guitar solos, while they perform the three-way spin thrice. The

song concludes with the lyrics that portray the Zen-similar ambiance of the moment: “And in the

end the love you take is equal to the love you make” (Womack & Davis 34). This stress on the
 5

notion of love emanating from love quite summarizes the meaning of the bulk of the songs that

Harrison, Lennon, and McCartney created for the band and would appear to be a sensible

conclusion to the last album of the Beatles ever made.

Even though their real importance is still not accurately evaluated, it appears obvious that

the creations of the Beatles’ final years will persist to function as a testimony to the artistic and

communicative potentials of recorded sound. Scholar Henry W. Sullivan, in The Beatles with

Lacan: Rock & Roll as Requiem for the Modern Age, argues that (Julien 44):

In all aspects of their creative activity and influence, they sent the message… that another

kind of logic, or way of knowing, was to be sought and, perhaps, encountered. Inasmuch

as these insights still remain to be articulated in a more communicable form, we have not

as yet returned the Beatles as a satisfactory answer to their message.

‘Octopus’s Garden’ of Ringo Starr and ‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer’ of Paul McCartney, two

senseless, attractive, innocent tunes in an ever-present custom of senseless, attractive, innocent

Beatles tunes, complete the first side.

On side two, collecting pieces of material that had heaped up, Martin and McCartney

made a song sequence filled with hopefulness and positivity, and this splendid series of songs

appears to independently distance itself from the negativity that had accrued over the past years.

The melody is moderated with ambiguity and desire, indicative of journey, revealing a kind of

unclear insight; it is melancholic, solemn songs that also sound profound, although it certainly is

not (Womack 73). However, most of all, it simply expresses happiness and merriment, an

outburst of affection expressed through music. And afterward, the ideal ending, concluding with
 6

‘The End’ (MacFarlane 104). It was a perfect applause from a band that only several years prior

had been a group of poor teenagers with more angst than talent.

Conclusions

At the end of the day, Abbey Road established itself as a pool of more remarkable music

that the Beatles ever made. Moreover, the album showed a broad array of techniques, forms, and

powerful vocal and instrumental recitals, and the medley on side two was created in such a

manner that it seems predetermined—an entirety that is bigger and grander than the totality of its

parts. Among other things, the medley demonstrated how talented and skillful McCartney and

Lennon were but also how disjointed their creation could be when they were not collaborating

with each other. The cover art is one of the most popular and memorable of the rock age, and

Abbey Road was the highest selling album of the 1960s (MacFarlane 76). Also, possibly, the

most important explanation why Abbey Road was one of the leading or major albums of the rock

age is that it matured remarkably both in musical and lyrical terms and is still a proof of the

variety and artistry of the Beatles.

Works Cited

Alexander, Jeffrey. ‘The Celebrity-Icon’, Cultural Sociology 4.3 (2010): 323-336. Print.

Holm-Hudson, Kevin. ‘Book Review: ‘Every Sound There Is’: The Beatles’ Revolver and the

Transformation of Rock and Roll’, Psychology of Music 33.2 (2005): 217-220. Print.
 7

Julien, Olivier. Sgt. Pepper and the Beatles: It Was Forty Years Ago Today. England: Ashgate

Publishing, Ltd., 2013. Print.

MacFarlane, Thomas. The Beatles’ Abbey Road Medley: Extended Forms in Popular Music. UK:

Scarecrow Press, 2007. Print.

Womack, Kenneth. The Cambridge Companion to the Beatles. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge

University Press, 2009. Print.

Womack, Kenneth & Todd Davis. Reading the Beatles: Cultural Studies, Literary Criticism, and

the Fab Four. New York: SUNY Press, 2012. Print.

Perone, James. The Album: A Guide to Pop Music’s Most Provocative, Influential, and

Important Creations. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2012. Print.