The Beatles – Abbey Road

The Beatles never had it easy when it came to the court of public opinion, with Abbey Road, aside from proving that Paul was dead, certainly being the album that people wanted to hate ... but that was before Let It Be was released, with Nik Cohn of the New York Times saying this:

“There was a time when The Beatles’ lyrics were one of their greatest attractions. Not any more, on Abbey Road you get only marshmallow ... the words are limp-wristed, pompous and fake. The album is an unmitigated disaster, with the badness ranging from mere gentle tedium to cringing embarrassment. On ‘Oh Darling,’ Lennon flounders in an orgy of gulps, howls and retches, flung together at random.” Though someone should have certainly pointed out that it was not Lennon, but McCartney who did the singing, and sang the song for a week straight, so that his voice would be rough and beyond sober, before he committed the number to tape.

There are several things that have always struck me as profound when it came to Beatle songs ... first, you could take almost any track from any album [1965 onward], substitute it onto any other album, and it would work flawlessly. A Hard Day’s Night defines pop music, Revolver is so sharp it can cut like a knife, Sgt. Pepper and Magical Mystery Tour are in a class of their own, never to be equaled, while The White Album is a tour de force of musical styles and presentation, leaving Abbey Road and Rubber Soul to stand as beacons of masterful craftsmanship.

It must be ed that Abbey Road was The Beatles’ swan song, their last record to be recorded as a proper album, with Let It Be being a look back into the past darkly. Most importantly, it’s essential to that Abbey Road is a pre-CD body of work, one where moods and atmospheres were created as album sides, rather than considering the adventure as one song strung after another from beginning to end ... even the cassette tape required a flip, where Side 1 is a straightforward collection of Beatles’s songs, while Side 2 is essentially more conceptual in nature, in effect, showing on Side 1 where The Beatles currently were musically, and on Side 2, where they might have been headed, had they managed to stay together.

Lennon, along with wife Yoko, had certainly explored a more avant guarde musical nature on The White Album, just as George Harrison had explored his Eastern attitudes previously, but it’s here on Abbey Road that these two come to with their new found roads, and manage to capture the essence of their ideas with brilliant success. Even Ringo gets more than one song on this outing, and Paul, Paul pushes his strengths to the limit, developing harmonies and inflections that are unparalleled.

So ... I for one find that Abbey Road is a culmination of the life and times of the 60’s, with The Beatles responsible for its soundtrack. After listening to this album for some 40 years, I find it impossible not to accept Abbey Road as the stopping point for the Fab Four, where they have no where else to go as a band, and while perhaps not as individually intricate as solo artists, that was the only space they could occupy as the world moved into a new decade ... one without out The Beatles holding down the Number One Chart Topping Positions.

An album that simply must be experienced on vinyl ...

Review by Jenell Kesler

My copy does not have a blood stain but does have the pinkish hue. Sleeve spine cat number is listed as PCSO / 088.